{"id":657417,"date":"2026-05-22T00:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657417\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T00:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:09:13","slug":"house-republicans-call-off-vote-on-iran-war-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657417\/","title":{"rendered":"House Republicans call off vote on Iran war resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Republicans struggled Thursday to find the votes to dismiss legislation that would compel President Donald Trump<\/a> to withdraw from the war with Iran<\/a>, delaying planned votes on the matter into June.<\/p>\n

The House had scheduled a vote on a war powers resolution, brought by Democrats, that would rein in Trump\u2019s military campaign. But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders declined to hold a vote on it. It was the latest sign of the slipping support in Congress for a war that Trump launched more than two months ago without congressional approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the votes without question and they knew it, and as a result they\u2019re playing a political game,\u201d said Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, who sponsored the bill.<\/p>\n

Republicans in the Senate are also working to ensure they have the votes to dismiss another war powers resolution that advanced to a final vote<\/a> earlier this week, when four GOP senators supported the resolution and three others were absent from the vote.<\/p>\n

The actions by congressional leaders showed Republicans are struggling to maintain political backing for Trump\u2019s handling of the war. Rank-and-file Republicans are increasingly willing to defy the president over the conflict.<\/p>\n

House Republican Leader Steve Scalise told reporters that the vote was delayed to give lawmakers who were absent a chance to vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson did not answer questions from reporters as he exited the House chamber.<\/p>\n

Frustration with Iran war grows on Capitol Hill<\/p>\n

On Capitol Hill, patience with the war has worn thin as the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> disrupts global shipping and elevates gas prices<\/a> in the U.S. Another House war powers resolution nearly passed last week, falling on a tie vote as three Republicans voted in favor.<\/p>\n

Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had the votes \u201clocked in\u201d this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are beginning to finally listen to the American people who don\u2019t support the war in Iran, and I think there\u2019s a growing number of Republicans who see how devastating the war has been for our country,\u201d said Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state.<\/p>\n

The lone Democrat who voted against the war powers resolution last week, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, has said he will vote in favor of the legislation next time.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and other caucus leaders said Republicans were \u201ccowardly\u201d to pull the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as we prepare to recognize our nation\u2019s fallen heroes on Memorial Day, House Republicans refuse to show up and be accountable to the brave service members that have been recklessly put in harm\u2019s way,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

Republicans have been broadly supportive of Trump\u2019s efforts to destroy Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities, but some are now saying the president\u2019s legal timeline to wage a war without congressional approval has expired. Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, presidents have 60 days to engage in a military conflict before Congress must either declare war or authorize the use of military force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re past 60 days so it\u2019s got to be brought to us to vote on. We\u2019re following the law,\u201d said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, adding that he plans to vote for the war powers resolution.<\/p>\n

The dispute over war powers<\/p>\n

The White House argues that the requirements<\/a> of the War Powers Resolution no longer apply because of the ceasefire with Iran. At the same time, Trump has said<\/a> he was just an hour away from ordering another strike on Iran earlier this week, but held off because Gulf allies said they were engaged in negotiations to end the war.<\/p>\n

Still, Trump said on social media that military leaders should \u201cbe prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment\u2019s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.\u201d Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and then backed off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican who has so far voted against the war powers resolutions, expressed frustration with the Trump administration\u2019s stance, especially from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current status quo, Pete Hegseth demonstrates how incompetent he is,\u201d Tillis told reporters, adding that he would be willing to vote for an authorization for use of military force.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Democratic senators rallied outside the Capitol Wednesday alongside VoteVets, a left-leaning veterans\u2019 advocacy group. They placed signs on the Capitol lawn noting that the nationwide average price of gasoline had risen to $4.53.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who served in the Iraq War with the Air National Guard, argued that the Iran war has amounted to a strategic blunder for Trump. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrump started a war, and he\u2019s made things worse than before,\u201d Duckworth said, pointing to Iran\u2019s new leadership and the country\u2019s willingness to put a chokehold on commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders praised Trump for taking what they said was bold action to directly confront Iran, a nation that has been a U.S. adversary for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an American. I don\u2019t believe in getting hit and walking away and pretending as though it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d said Rep. Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

For Congress, the growing momentum to pass a war powers resolution could eventually lead to a legal showdown over who has the final authority over military conflicts. <\/p>\n

The legislation before the House is a concurrent resolution that lawmakers said would take effect without Trump\u2019s signature if it passed both chambers of Congress.<\/p>\n

But Trump has also argued that the 1973 law \u2014 passed by Congress during the Vietnam War era in an attempt to take back its power over foreign conflicts \u2014 is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Republicans struggled Thursday to find the votes to dismiss legislation that would compel President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,152131,61140,12,793,12481,801,228242,113339,2077,13410,1576,3,1572,111,178817,84191,9287,8638,3438,21,19,22,20,25,24,8647,800],"class_list":["post-657417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-brian-fitzpatrick","tag-brian-mast","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-hakeem-jeffries","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-jared-golden","tag-legislation","tag-mike-johnson","tag-military-and-defense","tag-news","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-steve-scalise","tag-tammy-duckworth","tag-thom-tillis","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-voting","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}