An MH-60S Sea Hawk prepares for takeoff during night-time flight operations aboard amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, April 3, 2026. (U.S. Marine Corps )
WASHINGTON — House Republicans narrowly fended off a Democratic-led effort Thursday to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, voting down a measure that would have required President Donald Trump to seek authorization from Congress for continuing the war.
The move to take up the measure failed in a 214-213 vote. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote in favor of the war powers resolution, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to vote against it and Republican Warren Davidson of Ohio voted present.
The vote came a day after Senate Republicans, voting largely along party lines, rejected a similar measure for the fourth time since the war in Iran began.
Now stretching into a second month, the conflict has killed 13 American service members and injured hundreds more, resulted in the deaths of thousands of Iranian civilians and largely shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane for oil and gas.
Republicans argued Thursday that it has also neutered Iran’s ability to threaten the U.S., destroying its navy and many of its missile systems, removing its longtime authoritarian leader and setting back its nuclear ambitions.
“Why do you hate U.S. success so much?” Rep. Keith Self of Texas, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and an Army veteran, asked Democrats on the House floor.
Democrats countered that the U.S. was in fact strategically losing. Iran is now being led by a younger, more vicious regime and has taken firm control of global energy markets, said Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
He argued that it was time for Congress to assert its constitutional authority to declare war and hold a debate on the Iran conflict to give the more than 50,000 service members deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Epic Fury a sense of mission and meaning.
“We should support our troops, but our troops deserve a strategy,” Himes said. “They deserve a sense of mission. They deserve to know that the people’s house debated their life or their death.”
The Republican-led Congress has so far refused to hold that discussion, despite repeated and increasingly frequent efforts by Democrats and a few Republicans to open such a debate through votes on war powers resolutions.
Federal law allows the president to deploy armed forces into hostilities without congressional approval for 60 days, with a potential 30-day extension. The Trump administration will reach the deadline for either requesting the extension or pulling out troops on May 1.
Most Republicans remain publicly supportive of the war in Iran and have praised Trump for taking action against an adversary that they say has threatened the U.S. and attacked American service members in the Middle East for years.
Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, on Thursday accused Democrats of hypocrisy for allowing former President Joe Biden to engage in lengthy military operations against Iran proxies in Yemen without calling for congressional authorization. He derided the constant filing of war powers resolutions for the Iran conflict as political theater.
“When Joe Biden was responding to merchant marine vessels being attacked, it was okay. No war power needed. Went on for about a year,” Mast said. “President Trump responds — war power, war power, war power, war power.”
Democrats have maintained that the magnitude of the Iran war, the shifting objectives and lengthening duration necessitate input from Congress.
“We’re standing at the edge of a cliff, and Congress must act before the president pushes off,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs panel. “Every day we delay, we inch closer to a conflict with no exit ramp.”