House Republicans joined Democrats to narrowly pass a resolution on Thursday to halt U.S. military action in Iran, rejecting a conflict that President Donald Trump started in February.
The vote forced to the floor by Democrats to require congressional approval for the war passed 214-208 and comes as lawmakers clash over military spending and as four U.S. service member were killed in strikes on Jordan over the weekend.
The Senate is also expected to consider a similar resolution on Thursday. The resolutions, with similar ones previously voted on in June, are largely symbolic but could serve as a signal to Trump of the Iran war's increasing unpopularity.
Republicans argue ending war 'demeans' killed soldiers
Republican Reps. Tom Barrett, of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick ,of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson, of Ohio, and Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, joined Dems to narrowly pass the resolution.
The vast majority of the GOP still stood by the president, and some argued that ending the war would "demean" the service members killed.
As the House debated on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida, read the names of 18 service members killed since the war began.
“To belittle this mission is to belittle and demean the very service these members gave their life for,” he argued. “Their sacrifice was not meaningless. This operation is bringing reckoning for the hundreds of times Iran has attacked and killed people of the United States of America.”
The top Democrat on the panel, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, said that the president is supposed make the case for the war to Congress.
The service members who died made the ultimate sacrifice for “an illegal unauthorized war that the American people don’t want,” Meeks said.
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