Politics
House Republicans Defied Trump on Iran on Wednesday and Ukraine on Thursday
By Mike Harper · June 5, 2026
In any single week of the Trump second term, either vote would have been remarkable. In the same week, they define a moment.
On Wednesday, the House voted 215-208 to invoke the War Powers Act and order Trump to end US military action against Iran within 30 days. Four Republicans broke with their party to make it happen. On Thursday, the House voted 226-195 to pass the Ukraine Support Act — authorizing $8 billion in military financing loans to Ukraine and imposing sweeping new sanctions on Russia’s energy and financial sectors. Eighteen Republicans joined almost every Democrat to pass it.
The Ukraine vote was made possible by a discharge petition — a rarely successful procedural tool that allows a majority of House members to force a bill to the floor over leadership’s objections, bypassing the Speaker entirely. The petition was filed in July 2025 by Representative Gregory Meeks of New York. It needed 218 signatures. The 218th came in May from Representative Kevin Kiley of California. Speaker Johnson had blocked the bill from coming to the floor. The petition made him irrelevant.
Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland framed the vote in terms that echoed the Cold War.
“This is a moment to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, not tomorrow, but today, tonight. This is a moment to stand with those who are fighting on the front lines for democracy, sovereignty and international law.”
The Ukraine Support Act delivers more than $1 billion in security and reconstruction funding alongside the $8 billion in military financing loans, and authorizes $300 million annually in 2026 and 2027 to train and equip Ukraine’s forces. The Russia sanctions package targets oil and gas exports, expands restrictions on sanctioned entities, and extends pressure to foreign banks and governments that help Moscow evade existing measures.
The lone Democrat to vote against the Ukraine bill was Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — the same week that Vice President Vance announced from the White House briefing room that the DOJ is investigating Omar for immigration fraud. The simultaneous story of the week’s most visible Democratic dissident being the lone Democrat to oppose the most bipartisan foreign policy vote of the Trump era was not lost on political observers.
The path forward for both measures is difficult. The Iran war powers resolution must pass the Senate, where it has come within one vote of passing before. The Ukraine bill needs 60 Senate votes to advance — a threshold that Senate Majority Leader Thune has not committed to scheduling. And both bills ultimately require Trump’s signature, which he has shown no inclination to provide.
What the two votes establish, regardless of what happens next, is that a meaningful bloc of House Republicans has concluded that the costs of unconditional support for Trump’s foreign policy now exceed the costs of defying him. That conclusion did not exist two years ago.