Four House Republicans voted with Democrats Wednesday to pass a war powers resolution aimed at forcing President Trump to end military action against Iran.
The measure cleared the House in a 215-208 vote – two weeks after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pulled a planned vote on the resolution after it appeared Republicans would not be able to defeat it.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Tom Barrett (R-Mich.) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) joined every Democrat in backing the measure to end the three-month-long war.
Smoke rising from buildings in Tehran during Operation Epic Fury on March 1, 2026. The House on Wednesday approved a war power resolution that would halt the war in Iran. AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Washington. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The resolution will now head to the Senate, which advanced its own war powers resolution last month when a handful of GOP senators broke ranks with the president.
“The passage of my War Powers Resolution is a significant bipartisan rebuke of President Trump’s illegal and costly war in Iran, and the first step toward ending it once and for all,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the sponsor of the measure, said in a statement.
“Trump’s war has failed to accomplish the Trump Administration’s stated goals with respect to Iran,” Meeks continued. “If anything, it has pushed a diplomatic resolution of Iran’s nuclear program further away.”
The congressman called the bipartisan support for his resolution a “turning point.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaking at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on June 3, 2026. Michael Brochstein/ZUMA / SplashNews.com
“More and more Republicans are listening to their constituents who do not want another open-ended war in the Middle East,” he said. “Now the Senate must take up this measure and make clear to the President that enough is enough: if he won’t clean up his own mess, Congress will.”
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Wednesday’s vote marks the fourth time the House has tried to curb the US war against Iran, and the first time the House was able to pass the measure.
While Congress has the authority under the Constitution to declare war, the president also has power as the commander-in-chief to engage in military action, creating a legal dispute over which branch of government has ultimate say in matters of war and peace.
A jet making a landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on May 26, 2026 as the US enforces a blockade on Iran. US NAVY/NAVCENT PUBLIC AFFAIRS/AFP via Getty Images
Under the war powers act – a Vietnam War era law that the White House insists is unconstitutional – the president has a 60-day window to seek approval from Congress for military action.
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The Trump administration contends that because a cease-fire has been declared in the current conflict in Iran, the hostilities have ceased.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned lawmakers Wednesday that Iran might be less willing to reach an agreement with the Trump administration on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending its nuclear ambitions if the resolution were to pass.
Tehran would think that the administration’s “hands are going to be tied” if Congress approved a war powers resolution, Rubio said in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Rubio added that Iran would think ”we won’t be able to do anything to them, so why make a deal?”
With Post wires