Philly-area House members vote on Trump’s Iran war powers along party lines

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A second push to restrict President Donald Trump’s war in Iran flopped Thursday in the U.S. House.

U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Bucks County, joined other House Republicans in rejecting a war powers resolution — paving the way for the conflict in the Middle East to continue.

In a statement released shortly after the vote, Fitzpatrick categorized the resolution as “irresponsibly drafted and dangerously overbroad.”

“The resolution is written so broadly that it would require the immediate termination of ‘all hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government,’ language that could encompass not only direct military engagement, but also long-standing counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and cyber operations targeting the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

Democrats in the Greater Philadelphia region have mostly been outspoken against the military operation. U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery County, Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Delaware County, Chrissy Houlahan, D-Chester County, Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, and Brendan Boyle, D-Philadelphia, voted in favor of limiting Trump’s war in Iran.

The resolution, introduced by U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., failed 212-219, mostly along party lines. Just two Republicans supported it. Four Democrats opposed it. The vote comes just a day after a similar measure failed in the U.S. Senate. Both U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., voted against reining in the war in Iran.

The joint U.S.-Israeli attacks killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a string of other government officials and numerous civilians. Iranian officials say the bombing of an Iranian elementary school killed at least 175 people, many of them school girls.

As of Thursday evening, six U.S. troops have died from retaliatory Iranian strikes, all of whom have since been identified.

“We remember and honor our fallen — those six that we will soon welcome at Dover who gave everything for their country and this mission. We remember them,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at Thursday’s press conference. “But we remember them by rededicating ourselves even more fervently to this mission.”