House to vote on Iran war powers resolution in a test of Trump's
strategy
[March 05, 2026]
By LISA MASCARO, STEPHEN GROVES and MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is preparing to vote Thursday on a war
powers resolution to halt President Donald Trump's attack on Iran, a
sign of unease in Congress over the rapidly widening conflict that is
reordering U.S. priorities at home and abroad.
It's the second vote in as many days, after the Senate defeated a
similar measure along party lines. Lawmakers are confronting the sudden
reality of representing the American people in wartime and all that
entails — with lives lost, dollars spent and alliances tested by a
president's unilateral decision to go to war with Iran.
The tally in the House is expected to be tight, but the outcome will
provide an early snapshot of the political support, or opposition, to
the U.S.-Israel military operation and Trump's rationale for bypassing
Congress, which alone has the power to declare war.
“Donald Trump is not a king, and if he believes the war with Iran is in
our national interest, then he must come to Congress and make the case,"
said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs
Committee.
Meeks said in his nearly three decades in Congress, the hardest votes he
has taken have been deciding whether to send U.S. troops to war.
The roll calls are a clarifying moment for the president and the parties
just days into the overseas conflict that has quickly carried echoes of
the long U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many veterans of those wars
have since run for office and now serve in Congress.
Republicans largely back Trump, and most Democrats oppose the war
Trump’s Republican Party, which narrowly controls the House and Senate,
largely sees the conflict with Iran not as the start of a new war, but
the end of a regime that for decades has long menaced the West. The
operation has killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which
some view as an opportunity for regime change, though others warn of a
chaotic power vacuum.
Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, the GOP chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, publicly thanked Trump for taking action against
Iran, saying the president is using his own constitutional authority to
defend the U.S. against the “imminent threat” the country posed.
Mast, an Army veteran who worked as a bomb disposal expert in
Afghanistan, said the war powers resolution was effectively asking “that
the president do nothing.”
For Democrats, Trump's war with Iran, influenced by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is a war of choice that is testing the
balance of powers in the U.S. Constitution.
“The framers weren’t fooling around,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.,
arguing that the Constitution is clear that only Congress can decide
matters of war.
He said whether lawmakers support or oppose the Trump administration's
military action, they should have the debate. “It’s up to us, we’ve got
to vote on it.”
While views in Congress are largely falling along party lines, there are
crossover coalitions. Both the House and Senate resolutions were
bipartisan, and are drawing bipartisan support and opposition. The House
is also voting on a separate resolution affirming that Iran is the
largest state sponsor of terrorism.
The war powers resolution, if signed into law, would immediately halt
Trump's ability to conduct the war unless Congress approved the military
action. The president would likely veto the measure.
As an alternative, a small group of Democrats has proposed a separate
war powers resolution that would allow the president to continue the war
for 30 days before he must seek congressional approval. It is not
expected to come yet for a vote.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., gestures as he and the GOP
leadership talk about the war against Iran, during a news conference
at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/J.
Scott Applewhite)
Trump officials provide shifting rationale for war
After launching a surprise attack against Iran on Saturday, Trump has
scrambled to win support for a conflict that Americans of all political
persuasions were already wary of entering. Trump administration
officials spent hours behind closed doors on Capitol Hill this week
trying to reassure lawmakers that they have the situation under control.
Six U.S. military members were killed over the weekend in a drone strike
in Kuwait, and Trump has said more Americans could die. Thousands of
Americans abroad have scrambled for flights, many lighting up the phone
lines at congressional offices as they sought help trying to flee the
Middle East.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the war could extend eight
weeks, twice as long as the president himself first estimated. Trump has
left open the possibility of sending U.S. troops into what, so far, has
largely been bombing campaign by air. Hundreds of people in the region
have died.
The administration said the goal is to destroy Iran's ballistic missiles
that it believes are shielding its nuclear program. It has also said
Israel was ready to act against Iran, and American bases would face
retaliation if the U.S. did not strike first. On Wednesday, the U.S.
said it torpedoed an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka.
"This administration can't even give us a straight answer of as to why
we launched this preemptive war," said Rep. Thomas Massie, the
Republican from Kentucky who is often an outlier in his party.
Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who had teamed up to release the
Jeffrey Epstein files, also forced the war powers resolution to the
floor, pushing past objections from House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Johnson has warned that it would be “dangerous” to limit the president's
authority while the U.S. military is already in conflict.
Senators sit in their desks for solemn vote
In the Senate, Republican leaders have successfully, though narrowly,
defeated a series of war powers resolutions pertaining to several other
conflicts during Trump's second term. This one, however, was different.
Underscoring the gravity of the moment Wednesday, Democratic senators
filled the chamber and sat at their desks as the voting got underway.
“Today every senator — every single one — will pick a side," Senate
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote. “Do you stand with
the American people who are exhausted with forever wars in the Middle
East or stand with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth as they bumble us
headfirst into another war?”
Sen. John Barrasso, second in Senate Republican leadership, said
“Democrats would rather obstruct Donald Trump than obliterate Iran’s
national nuclear program."
The legislation failed on a 47-53 tally mostly along party lines, with
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in favor and Democratic Sen. John
Fetterman of Pennsylvania against.
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