House again passes a resolution seeking to halt military action in Iran as the conflict escalates

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday narrowly passed a resolution to halt U.S. military action in Iran, sending a warning to President Donald Trump for the second time as the war has escalated and the future of the conflict is increasingly uncertain.

The 214-208 vote requiring congressional approval for the war came just before the Senate narrowly rejected a similar resolution, 47-49. Though the votes forced by Democrats are largely symbolic, they are meant as a signal to the Republican president that his support on Capitol Hill is chipping away as the war drags on and lawmakers in both parties have questioned his administration’s endgame.

The war has had “no clear mission, no strategy, no end goal,” said Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat who led the resolution on the House floor.

The House resolution passed after a handful of Republicans voted with Democrats to end the war. But the vast majority of Republicans in both chambers voted to back the war and cede congressional war powers to Trump.

Joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes launched the war in late February. A tenuous ceasefire deal was reached in April, but Trump declared the ceasefire was “over” earlier this month.

Trump has insisted that continued U.S. attacks against Iran do not mean a return to war or long-term action. After the first House vote to halt the war in early June, he posted on social media that it was “unpatriotic” and “meaningless.”

A statement of administration policy issued by the White House on Thursday noted that the resolutions don't have the force of law and encouraged lawmakers to vote against them.

“The President has the Constitutional authority to defend the United States and our citizens from the danger posed by the Iranian regime,” the policy statement said. “This requires the ability to act decisively to ensure it never obtains a nuclear weapon.”

Continued American airstrikes are occurring even as diplomatic efforts show little public sign of progress and officials on both sides have dug in on the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy that remains largely closed. The unpopular war threatens further worldwide economic disruption and is sending fuel prices up ahead of midterm U.S. elections this fall.

“We are in this new escalatory phase where Americans have been killed, and Americans are experiencing the rising costs — I think it’s important that people be held accountable,” said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who led the Senate effort on Thursday. “And this is a very unpopular war.”

As the House debated the resolution Wednesday evening, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., read out names of 18 service members killed since the war began.

“To belittle this mission is to belittle and demean the very service these members gave their life for,” Mast said. “Their sacrifice was not meaningless. This operation is bringing reckoning for the hundreds of times Iran has attacked and killed people of the United States of America.”

The top Democrat on the panel, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, said that presidents are supposed to make the case to Congress.

The service members who died made the ultimate sacrifice for “an illegal unauthorized war that the American people don’t want,” Meeks said.

Democrats said they would continue to force Republicans to vote on the issue.

“If Donald Trump won’t listen to the people and end this war then Congress must,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Republicans on both sides of the Capitol know that voting against the war can have a political cost, even as many of them have privately questioned the Trump administration’s handling of the conflict.

In his post after the June House vote, Trump called the four Republicans who voted with Democrats “GRANDSTANDERS!” and said they should be “ashamed of themselves.”

“They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories,” he said.

When the Senate passed a war powers resolution on Iran for the first time in June, Trump called the four Republicans who voted for it “losers" and then reprimanded them at a Senate GOP luncheon that he attended the next day.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of the Republicans who had voted with Democrats, said afterward that he had clashed with Trump over the issue. He said he told Trump directly that he needed to give more details to the public about the conflict.

“This was supposed to last four weeks. It’s lasted four months,” said Cassidy, who had just lost reelection in a primary after Trump endorsed one of his opponents. “Our original objectives have not been achieved.”

Trump argued back, Cassidy later told reporters, and he told the president that he wouldn’t change his vote until he got a briefing. The White House later relented, giving Cassidy a one-on-one meeting, and the Louisiana Republican changed his vote in a late-night do-over vote before the Senate left for a two-week recess.

Cassidy voted against the resolution again on Thursday.

Most Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling the situation with Iran, according to recent polling. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted in July found that few Americans think the war in Iran has been worth fighting, and most aren’t confident that the U.S. military action in Iran and negotiations to end the war will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Only about two-thirds of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the situation in Iran, according to the poll. Most Republicans, about 6 in 10, think the war has been worth fighting and are confident that the military action and ensuing negotiations will prevent Iran from development nuclear weapons, but a sizable share — about one-third — are unconvinced.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said that if Congress can't force Trump to seek congressional authorization then lawmakers should block war funding. The House on Wednesday adopted a Republican-only $95 billion budget proposal, including money for the Iran war, but its future is uncertain in the Senate.

“He wants to break the law, fine, let him break the law, but we control the appropriations process, and that’s what we need to use,” Kaine said.

Associated Press writers Steven Sloan and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.

From left, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, talk to reporters just after the House narrowly passed a resolution to halt U.S. military action in Iran, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters following a weekly policy luncheon at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

From left, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, talk to reporters just after the House narrowly passed a resolution to halt U.S. military action in Iran, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., leaves without taking any questions from reporters after finishing a series of votes on President Donald Trump's priorities, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Friends and family of Minnesota Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman said the man sentenced Thursday to two life terms plus 40 years after pleading guilty to her murder failed to eliminate her spirit and her legacy, but caused enduring fear and fury as he changed their lives forever.

Fellow lawmakers and survivors of the shooting spoke Thursday at the sentencing hearing for Vance Boelter, the man who pleaded guilty last month to federal charges related to the killing of former House Speaker Hortman and her husband Mark, as well as critically wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

Boelter, 59, agreed to plead guilty in June, almost a year after the Minneapolis-area attacks, so federal prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. Mark Hortman's father and siblings voiced anger that he could not be sentenced to death.

U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim said it was “the longest sentence I have imposed after hearing thousands of cases over the years, but I do believe it is deserved.”

In court Thursday, Sen. Hoffman said he and his family are constantly reminded of the extraordinary violence of that night, even in the mundane details of day-to-day life. He said they don't receive mail at home anymore, they have installed solid steel doors for protection, and they have changed how they do everyday tasks because of their injuries.

“The defendant looked me in the eyes and pulled the trigger. The defendant looked at my wife and chose to do the same,” Hoffman said. “My wife and I now live with injuries. We live with our bodies remembering the gunfire.”

Yvette Hoffman said she has been too traumatized to work since the attack in their home, and that she sees a therapist weekly.

“I will never forget looking down and watching my blood slowly stream down that white washing machine as I felt myself sinking to the floor,” she said, barely holding back tears. “We always have an escape plan now. This isn’t how people should live.”

Boelter admitted he spent months identifying and stalking his targets, before driving to their homes disguised as a police officer with the intention of killing them. The killings sparked the largest police search in state history.

Democratic State Rep. Kristin Bahner was one of two other legislators whose homes Boelter visited that night, but she and her family were on vacation. Bahner said the shootings had left her shaken.

“I could not fathom why I was spared and (Hortman) was not,” she said. “You failed because I carry her with me. In my mind and in my heart, she guides me.”

Mark Hortman's parents and siblings spoke of their anger Thursday, both at the man who killed him and of the justice system.

“It will not offer me peace of mind that he will have room and board provided for the rest of his life, paid for by my tax dollars,” said Lisa Hortman Bean, Mark's sister.

Melissa Hortman's mother and father and the Hortman's children changed the tone of the statements when they spoke Thursday, remembering them as attentive, loving parents and grandparents and people who had a positive impact on thousands of lives.

Sophie Hortman, their daughter, described in vivid detail having to say goodbye to Gilbert, the golden retriever, also shot by Boelter but who was still alive when they arrived at the veterinary hospital. She talked about the bedtime routine her mother had with Gilbert, who failed his service dog test because he was too friendly, and the care and love she gave him.

“I miss my mom. I miss my dad. I miss my best friends. And I miss believing in the goodness of humanity. I hope that one day these aches feel less sharp. And I know just like the love I feel for my parents, the pain will never go away,” she said through tears.

Colin Hortman talked about his parents not being at his recent wedding, about not dancing with his mother who he had hoped would make his wedding cake. He described the horror of the house, and the panic attacks and crying that have persisted in the year since their murders.

“My days are filled with gray, and the blood that was spilled is the last thing I see before I go to sleep and the first thing I see when I wake,” he said. “There is no sentence that weighs 15 gunshots, a murdered dog and the rest of my life.”

“It is impossible to realize the damage that has been done not only to our family, but to our society,” said Melissa's father Harold Haluptzok, who repeatedly referred to her as his “little girl.”

“I wish the perpetrator would have sat down and talked to Melissa about his political positions. ... if only he did that before he decided to kill them,” Haluptzok added.

Federal defender Manny Atwal spoke only briefly after the victim impact statements Thursday, saying Boelter showed remorse for his actions by pleading guilty and accepting the life sentences.

Boelter remained silent and sat extremely still for most of the hearing, showing little emotion or reaction to the anguish expressed by the survivors and family members.

“To every person I have caused loss, pain, heartache, confusion, sadness, shame, or loneliness, I am truly sorry,” Boelter said.

Boelter went to Hortman's home, wearing a tactical uniform and mask, about 3:30 a.m. on June 14, 2025. He rang the doorbell while shouting he was a police officer doing a welfare check, according to court documents.

Mark Hortman answered the door. Boelter gave him a fake name and badge number before requesting he summon Melissa Hortman to the door as well. He shot Mark Hortman multiple times before pushing into the house and shooting the lawmaker as she fled upstairs. Melissa and Mark Hortman were killed.

Boelter had already visited the Hoffmans' home that night, shooting and critically injuring the senator and his wife, according to police and court documents. Court documents said Boelter also went to two other lawmakers' houses that night, including Bahner's, but was scared away by a police officer in one instance, and no one was home at the other address.

Boelter also faces state charges, including two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, impersonating a police officer and animal cruelty. Hoffman and his family filed a personal injury lawsuit against Boelter in April.

This story has been corrected to show Boelter apologized for causing loss, pain, heartache, confusion, sadness, shame, or loneliness, not for causing emotions.

Lauer reported from Philadelphia.

Colin Hortman (left), son of Mark and Melissa Hortman, walks into the lobby of the Diana E. Murphy United States Courthouse before a sentencing hearing for Vance Boelter in Minneapolis, on Thursday, July 23, 2026. (Alex Kormann/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)

Members of the Hortman family come down the escalator into the lobby of the Diana E. Murphy United States Courthouse before a sentencing hearing for Vance Boelter in Minneapolis, on Thursday, July 23, 2026. (Alex Kormann/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)

FILE - Members of law enforcement agencies investigate near a vehicle suspected to belong to shooting suspect, Vance Boelter, June 15, 2025, in Belle Plaine, Minn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

FILE - Bullet holes mark the front door of the house of Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife who were shot earlier in the day on June 14, 2025, in Champlin, Minn. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, File)

FILE - Armed FBI agents search for an active shooter, sweeping a neighborhood adjacent to the home of Minnesota DFL State Representative Melissa Hortman, in Brooklyn Park, Minn., June 14, 2025. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP, File)

FILE - Pictures of Mark and Melissa Hortman are set up inside the sanctuary at the Basilica of St. Mary's during funeral services for Mark and Melissa Hortman in Minneapolis, Saturday, June 28, 2025. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - This photo made available by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office shows Vance Luther Boelter, the man charged with killing the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and her husband, and wounding a state senator and his wife, as he was arrested on June 15, 2025. (Ramsey County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)