Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives abruptly cancelled a scheduled vote on a resolution to end the war with Iran just two days after a similar measure passed the Senate, exposing deepening cracks in GOP unity over President Donald Trump’s nearly three month old military campaign. The vote, set for Thursday afternoon before lawmakers departed for the Memorial Day weekend, was shelved after Democrats claimed they had secured enough support, including from several Republicans, to pass the measure. “Without a doubt we had the votes and they knew it,” said Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accusing GOP leadership of deliberately delaying the vote until early June.
The procedural maneuver marks the latest chapter in a constitutional standoff that has intensified as the conflict drags on without a clear endgame. The House had already blocked three similar war powers resolutions since February, with Republicans voting almost unanimously to back Trump and the war against Iran. But with American and Israeli strikes continuing since 28 February and the 60 day War Powers Act deadline long expired, support among some Republicans has begun to waver. The most recent House vote on the issue ended in a tie, and this time there were indications that a handful of GOP members, including Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio, who had backed prior resolutions, would cross the aisle. In the Senate, four Republican senators joined nearly all Democrats on Tuesday to pass a procedural resolution limiting presidential war powers, a rare rebuke of Trump from within his own party. The shift reflects growing unease on Capitol Hill over a conflict that has killed 13 American service members, disrupted global energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, and fueled inflationary pressures that are now forcing the Federal Reserve to consider rate hikes.
Democrats and a small but vocal group of Republicans argue that Trump must seek formal congressional authorization for the use of military force, citing the Constitution’s grant of war declaring powers to Congress. They warn that the president may have dragged the country into a prolonged conflict without a coherent strategy, with Meeks declaring on the House floor that “Donald Trump is not a king” and that the open ended engagement is “precisely what the War Powers Resolution was designed to restrain.” The White House and Republican leadership counter that Trump is acting within his authority as commander in chief to protect the United States from imminent threats. Speaker Mike Johnson has insisted that Congress should not “get in front of the administration in the midst of these very sensitive negotiations,” while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has claimed the 60 day War Powers clock is paused because of the ceasefire. That legal argument was flatly rejected by Senator Tim Kaine, who warned it would “pose a really important legal question for the administration.” With the House vote now postponed and the Senate having rejected seven separate war powers resolutions in recent weeks, the immediate path to constraining Trump’s authority appears blocked. Yet the very fact that Republican leaders felt compelled to cancel the vote suggests the president’s grip on his party’s foreign policy consensus is loosening, even if it has not yet broken.
