Congress won't halt Iran war after another measure to curb Trump fails

WASHINGTON – Congress has officially opted not to immediately halt U.S. involvement in the rapidly escalating Iran war after a pair of back-to-back votes went down unsuccessfully in the Senate and House of Representatives.

A House vote on March 5 over a war powers resolution failed mostly on party lines. Republicans nearly uniformly batted it down, with the help of a few Democrats. It came after a similar doomed vote the prior day in the Senate.

The blocked measures would've immediately halted American hostilities against Iran. Most Republicans in both legislative chambers held together in opposition to them, standing by President Donald Trump's decision to attack the country and launch a regional war that has killed more than 1,000 people, primarily Iranians and at least half a dozen Americans, in just days.

Though the resolutions failed, Democrats still claimed victory for pushing Republicans to go on the record with their support of the president's intervention in Iran. Doing so, Democrats have argued, will force the GOP – amid a midterm election year – to fully politically own the unpredictable consequences of the chaos in the Middle East.

"This vote on Iran is not a procedural vote. It is a profoundly moral vote," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, one of the bipartisan sponsors of the war powers resolution, on the House floor. "It is a vote to direct our resources toward healing our own people, toward health care that saves lives, jobs that restore dignity, housing that shelters families, instead of raining destruction on other nations."

Two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio, voted with Democrats to immediately halt American hostilities against Iran. Four Democrats bucked their party, guaranteeing the resolution would fail. They were Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Greg Landsman of Ohio and Juan Vargas of California.

Some Democrats urged their colleagues to instead support a separate, more tempered war powers measure that will come up for a vote at a later date. That alternative would give President Trump the rest of March to either make the case to Congress for continued military action in Iran, or to draw down the operation, according to Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a fiercely pro-Israel New Jersey Democrat.

"Iran is actively firing drones and ballistic missiles at U.S. troops, our embassies, allies, and is targeting civilians across the region," Gottheimer said on social media. He argued the alternative resolution would "uphold Congress’s constitutional authority – while also ensuring the U.S. can defend our troops, embassies, and allies from Iranian aggression."

The House on March 5 also overwhelmingly reaffirmed that Iran "remains the largest state sponsor of terrorism." The bipartisanship nature of that vote demonstrated just how complex the politics of the Iran war are – especially with American troops already in harm's way.

Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.