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A resolution to rein in the U.S.’s war on Iran failed the House by one vote on Thursday, with only one Democrat voting against the legislation.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks’s (D-New York) war powers resolution failed 214 to 213, in a largely party line vote. Conservative Democrat Rep. Jared Golden (Maine) was the only Democrat to join most Republicans in voting no on the effort.
One Republican, outspoken Donald Trump critic Rep. Thomas Massie (Kentucky), voted yes, while one Republican, Rep. Warren Davidson (Ohio), voted present.
“We are standing at the edge of a cliff, and Congress must act before this president pushes us off. Every day we delay, we inch closer to a conflict with no exit ramp,” said Meeks in debate on the floor ahead of the vote, noting that the temporary ceasefire agreement ends next Wednesday.
The resolution garnered more support than House lawmakers’ last attempt to pass a war powers resolution on the Iran war. That legislation, introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) and Massie, failed 212 to 219 in a vote on March 5, shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched the war. Three Democrats who voted against that resolution flipped their votes to “yes” in Thursday’s vote.
In a statement explaining his vote, Golden cited the temporary ceasefire slated to expire in less than a week.
“The purported aim of this and other War Powers resolutions is to stop the hostilities,” Golden said, per Axios.
“Thankfully, the United States and Iran are currently in a ceasefire, and we are negotiating over critical questions of national security and international order,” he went on, adding that a war powers resolution “would weaken our hand,” ignoring that war powers resolutions like Meeks’s specify that U.S. troops must be withdrawn only if Congress doesn’t then pass legislation authorizing the war.
Golden, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, announced in November that he was retiring from Congress after years of obstructing his own party’s priorities in the House. He cited “increasing incivility and plain nastiness” in American politics — though was also facing a primary challenge from Maine State Auditor Matt Dunlap, who leans further to Golden’s left.
The House vote comes a day after a similar war powers resolution failed to advance in the Senate, 47 to 52. Sen. John Fetterman (Pennsylvania), one of the staunchest advocates for Israel in Congress, cast the sole “no” vote from the Democratic caucus.
It also comes, however, amid a potential sea change for Democrats. Resolutions to bar the sale of weapons and bulldozers to Israel introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) gained a record number of votes in the Senate on Wednesday night. The resolutions still fell short of passing, but the resolution to bar the sale of bulldozers to Israel got 40 votes, representing 80 percent of the Democratic caucus at a time when full-throated support of Israel is becoming a liability for lawmakers.
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