The House vote was 227 to 186.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the main sponsor and longtime critic of congressional abdication of its constitutional war powers, drafted the measure in January after the president’s order to launch a drone strike that killed top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and several leaders of Iraqi militias in Baghdad.
“Only Congress has the right to declare war,” Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during Wednesday’s floor debate, declaring that Congress has become “servants” to the executive branch the last 15 years.
Supporters of the resolution acknowledged that they knew it would not become law but felt that the bipartisan, bicameral vote might influence the administration’s thinking if they want to strike again.
“I think it’s to make it very clear that there is no congressional support for any continuing escalations in Iran,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said.
The vote came as the U.S. military said at least two Americans and one other coalition member were killed in a rocket attack on a base in Iraq on Wednesday night, potentially spiking tensions with Iran about two months after the drone strike killed Soleimani.
Navy Capt. Bill Urban said about 18 Katyusha rockets hit the base, and that five of the wounded were evacuated in serious condition. U.S. officials have attributed the use of such rockets in attacks to Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
Ahead of Wednesday’s debate, White House officials reiterated Trump’s intent to veto the legislation on policy grounds and the argument that the measure “fails to account for present reality.”
“It was drafted many weeks ago with the intent of preventing an escalation between the United States and Iran. Despite the predictions of many people, however, no such escalation occurred,” the statement of administration policy said.
Senior Republicans pointed to the mounting health crisis from the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting that the House’s legislative focus should be on the emerging proposal to halt the expected economic slide following the plunge in financial markets this week.
Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas), the ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that his hometown of Austin canceled the annual South by Southwest festival this month.
“Yet we are talking about this resolution today,” McCaul said during debate, noting that his conversations at home last weekend did not involve presidential war powers. “They were asking me their No. 1 concern right now is, my god, is my child going to get coronavirus?”
But Democrats countered that their highest power and duty was to debate global security, noting the Founding Fathers placed war declarations as business for only Congress.
“It’s past time that Congress reassert our congressional authority on matters of war and peace,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).
Lee, the lone vote opposing the 2001 war resolution authorizing force in Afghanistan, noted that no true debate has been held since the 2002 authorization for the use of military force in Iraq.
“Congress has been missing in action,” Lee said.
Presidents of both parties, including George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump, have said they have the right to order military action as a matter of self-defense when they see threats they define as “imminent.” But some lawmakers say the executive branch has expanded its war powers to the detriment of Congress, particularly when it invokes congressional authorizations passed in 2001 and 2002 to support action in conflicts never envisioned at that time.
Efforts in Congress to repeal the old authorizations or write new ones have failed, amid the divide between lawmakers who want to bring troops home and those who want to provide fresh authorization for current campaigns.
The debate over Iran has also been fueled by many lawmakers’ frustration at what they see as a lack of candor from administration officials about what prompted the strike on Soleimani. Officials have offered shifting explanations of the basis for the strike, including that Soleimani posed an imminent threat to U.S. personnel in the Middle East and that it was retaliation for an attack on a U.S. base in Iraq that killed a U.S. contractor.
In mid-January, the House passed a similar but nonbinding Iran war-powers resolution by a vote of 224 to 194.
Just three Republicans joined almost all Democrats to support that measure — one of whom, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), is a close ally of Trump’s and a leading voice in his party for reasserting Congress’s war powers and ending endless wars.
Gaetz, one of the top Trump defenders during the House impeachment process, was not selected to join a small group of House Republicans who served as his communications defense team during the Senate trial.
Gaetz, however, remained in good enough graces to travel with Trump recently in Florida — until he learned Monday, while on board Air Force One, that he came in contact with someone who contracted coronavirus. He was not on hand for Wednesday’s vote as part of a self-quarantine.
