The House has its say on Iran

President Donald Trump may have spoken about Iran on Wednesday, but on Thursday, it was the House’s turn.

The lower chamber passed a War Powers Resolution by a vote of 224-194, which would limit the President’s ability to use military action against Iran without congressional approval.

The resolution didn’t pass on a party-line vote, either. Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz, Thomas Massie and Francis Rooney crossed party lines to vote in favor while Democratic Reps. Max Rose, Ben McAdams, Anthony Brindisi, Joe Cunningham, Elaine Luria, Josh Gottheimer, Kendra Horn and Stephanie Murphy voted against the resolution.

(Check out CNN’s latest reporting on the fast-moving situation in Iran).

The resolution, sponsored by Michigan Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, called on the President “to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran” unless Congress declares war or enacts “specific statutory authorization” for the use of armed forces.

Even though Trump appeared to take his foot off the gas with Iran on Wednesday, the House still moved forward with its vote to rebuke him.

While the Democratic-controlled House had enough votes to clear its Iran war powers resolution (even with defectors), it would be an uphill climb for the resolution to pass in the Republican-led Senate.

On Wednesday, two Senate Republicans said they’d support the measure, based on their issues with the administration’s evidence to get involved with Iran in the first place: Mike Lee and Rand Paul. But two more votes are still needed for the resolution to pass the Senate.

The Point: This was the first of two big battles on the Hill this week (the other is impeachment), but this one we didn’t exactly see coming.