The House of Representatives voted late Tuesday to direct President Trump to end hostilities with Iran, as seven Republicans broke with the White House to call for a stop to the conflict without congressional approval.
The 220-204 vote was the third time the House has approved a so-called war powers resolution since June. Neither of the prior two reached Trump’s desk for an almost-certain veto.
“Remember when Donald Trump said that this war would last just a few weeks?” asked Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a Marine veteran of the Iraq War who pushed the resolution along with 14 of his fellow Democrats and demanded the legislature “actually ask tough questions, as the Constitution directs us to do, rather than be subservient to another warmongering administration.”
The seven Republicans who supported the resolution were Tom Barrett of Michigan; Warren Davidson of Ohio; Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania; Nancy Mace of South Carolina; Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who introduced a resolution to impeach War Secretary Pete Hegseth hours earlier; and Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, both of Iowa.
Eight other GOP legislators were absent from Tuesday’s vote, likely the last congressional action related to the Iran war before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Tuesday that the Iran war has cost more than $38 billion, as of Aug. 1, and is projected to cost between $2 billion and $3 billion monthly, depending on the fighting’s intensity.
The CBO projected inflation will be 0.5 percentage points higher than expected heading into 2027 due to the war.
Meanwhile, Americans are struggling with high prices — including record-high costs of diesel fuel—as the conflict has disrupted the flow of global oil supplies.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters earlier Tuesday that he believes the Iran war is entering a “new phase” as US allies step up to help stabilize the Middle East. When that happens, he said, “you’re going to see, as the president said, anytime gas prices will go down again, the cost of groceries will as well.”
Johnson said Trump expects the shift after the election, but added: “I’d love it to happen today.”
The speaker echoed comments by Vice President JD Vance in an interview with The Post Monday, in which he agreed with Trump that the war would conclude “right after” the midterms following months of tit-for-tat strikes between Washington and Tehran.
“I certainly understand there’s some impatience from the American people,” Vance said, “but fundamentally what’s happening right now is that the United States is not engaged in aggressive operations. We’re just not. But what is happening is that the Iranians are occasionally shooting at commercial shipping, usually not successfully.”
The VP added that he believes the war has two stages, the first of which was “done.”
“The first phase was, destroy the nuclear program, destroy their conventional military, destroy their ability to project power in a way that they were able to even a couple of years ago,” Vance said. “And then the second phase of this is, ensure that they’re not able to rebuild and try to maintain as much global stability in the wake of that.”
While the Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, it also gives the president authority as the commander in chief to engage in some military actions.
The War Powers Act of 1973 requires congressional approval for sustained military actions after 60 or 90 days.
The Trump administration has argued that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional and that the 60 to 90-day clock was reset after a brief cease-fire was declared in April and lasted through early July.
