WASHINGTON, September 20 — The Republican-led House voted 220-204 late Tuesday to adopt a war powers resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s ability to continue military action against Iran without congressional approval, the third such House vote this summer. A few more Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure. None of the resolutions have reached the president’s desk, where Trump would almost certainly veto the measure.
The resolution was pushed forward by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a Marine veteran of the Iraq War. “Remember when Donald Trump said that this war would last just a few weeks?” Moulton said.
He said it is time for Congress to “actually ask tough questions, as the Constitution directs us to do, rather than be subservient to another warmongering administration.” Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned which military resources Democrats would want to remove from the region where he said Iran remains a threat.
Mast said Trump is against “forever wars, and that is what he is ending” — the decades of hostilities from Iran — adding: “They are a continuous ongoing threat to the United States. Enough is enough.”
The Last Vote Before the Campaign
The action is likely the last House vote on the Iran war ahead of the midterm elections, where the conflict overseas is playing a substantial role in political campaigns. The war that Trump launched Feb. 28 has dragged on for nearly seven months, with on-again, off-again deadly missile strikes being exchanged and causing havoc in the region.
Lawmakers are heading home at the end of the week to campaign nearly full-time, with less than 50 days to go before the elections that will determine control of Congress as Democrats try to wrest power from Republicans.
The Cost of the Conflict
Voters are confronting high prices, particularly for gas at the pumps, as the conflict disrupts the flow of oil resources through the vital Strait of Hormuz. The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the war has cost more than $38 billion as of Aug. 1, and is projected to be costing between $2 billion and $3 billion monthly, depending on the intensity of the fighting. The budget office projected inflation will be 0.5 percentage points higher as a result of the conflict.
The vote was reported Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, by the Associated Press, with Lisa Mascaro as AP Congressional Correspondent. What to watch next is whether the Senate takes up a companion measure before lawmakers leave Washington, and whether the war’s cost and the Strait of Hormuz remain central to campaigns in the final stretch before the midterms.
