The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Wednesday, June 3, for an Iran War Powers Resolution, in a bipartisan vote of 215-208. Four Republicans and all Democrats voted for it. It directs the President to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran unless Congress specifically authorizes those hostilities through a declaration of war or authorization for use of military force.
In early March, a House War Powers Resolution introduced by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) failed by a vote of 212-219. An April War Powers resolution failed 212-213. In the June 3 vote, Republicans Massie, Tom Barrett (MI), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), and Warren Davidson (OH), supported the measure. Barrett and Fitzpatrick are in swing election districts and likely feared the public’s large and growing opposition to the Iran war as potentially decisive in their races.
The Senate voted down a war powers resolution in early March by a 47-53 margin. The one Republican who voted for it, Sen. Rand Paul (KY), was matched by one Democrat who voted against it, Sen. John Fetterman (PA). Otherwise it was a party line vote (Republicans control the chamber 53-47). Subsequent votes did not change the pattern, until in a procedural vote in late May to bring it to the floor, four Republicans –Sens. Rand Paul, Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Bill Cassiday (LA), joined the Democrats in a 50-47 “yes” outcome. The Republican leadership in the Senate has not currently scheduled a full floor vote, but pressure is building for the Senate to follow the House lead.
President Trump is expected to veto any War Powers resolutions which reach his desk, and neither house of Congress is likely to have the two-thirds vote needed to override a veto. But the vote June 3 is politically significant as a sign Trump is losing his ability to force Congress (via control of the majority Republicans) to toe the line on major foreign policy and domestic spending issues. Recently he had to back down to Senate Republican opposition to his $1.8 billion slush fund to “compensate” political allies he claimed were unfairly prosecuted, and his $1 billion budget demand for “security” for his East Wing ballroom boondoggle.
The important question is whether the House War Powers vote will boost the support for the “End Funding for the Iran War” (H.R. Res. 8707) resolution, introduced in mid-May with 18 co-sponsors, now with 29, all Democrats; and spur resistance to the mammoth $1.5 trillion overall Defense budget, with a Section 224 provision for merging U.S. and Israeli advanced IT, IA, and weapons design programs in something called the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” A first committee vote on the National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) with its Section 224 provisions is due to be taken Thursday June 5. A companion Senate bill, the “United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act,” (S. 554), currently has 32 bipartisan co-sponsors.
A House War Powers resolution mandating withdrawal of any U.S. support for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), may come up for a vote this week, but faces a much more splintered Democratic response due to greater clout on this issue from AIPAC and associated pressure groups, than on the Iran war.
