{"id":114710,"date":"2026-05-15T04:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/114710\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:33:13","slug":"voters-need-iran-answers-says-gottheimer-as-his-resolution-sinks-nj-spotlight-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/114710\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters need Iran answers, says Gottheimer, as his resolution sinks| NJ Spotlight News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>Credit: (NJ Spotlight News)Rep. Josh Gottheimer in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>WASHINGTON \u2014 The House deadlocked over an effort led by New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer to halt U.S. military operations against Iran, the latest legislative push to check the Trump administration\u2019s legal authority to wage war against the Middle Eastern nation.<\/p>\n

The nonbinding measure (H. Con. Res. 75), which does not have the force of law and the president does not sign into effect, stalled in the House 212-212. Tie votes fail.<\/p>\n

As the presiding lawmaker gaveled the vote to a close, Democrats briefly shouted to hold open the vote for a few moments. \u201cMister Speaker!\u201d some said, shooting up their arms in protest. \u201cOne more!\u201d<\/p>\n

Had the resolution passed the House, it is unlikely that leaders in the Senate, where Republicans wield a 53-47 majority, would have brought it up for a vote.<\/p>\n

\u2018In the dark\u2019<\/p>\n

During floor debate, Gottheimer said he brought the resolution to the floor to prod the administration to state clearly the U.S. military objectives in Iran and brief Congress on the ongoing war, which started Feb. 28 on the president\u2019s order. \u201cI support the administration crushing the Iranian regime,\u201d Gottheimer said. \u201cBut that said, you cannot leave the United States Congress any longer \u2014 you can\u2019t leave the American people \u2014 in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Across the New Jersey delegation, Republicans voted against the resolution and Democrats for it. Rep. Tom Kean (R-7th), missing from Washington for weeks as a result of an undisclosed health condition, did not vote.<\/p>\n

Since U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran more than two months ago, the war has upended the region and beyond, leaving thousands dead, driving up fossil fuel prices and snarling global trade routes, including the vital Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Congress has repeatedly voted down resolutions, in the House and Senate, to force the Iran war to a close.<\/p>\n

The war has cost U.S. taxpayers $29 billion so far, Pentagon officials told members of Congress this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see the real figures,\u201d Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st), a member of the House committee that oversees the Pentagon, said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. He remains skeptical of the sum\u2019s accuracy, he said. \u201cAny war is expensive, through the pocketbooks of the people paying for the equipment, certainly serious to those who put their lives in jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Military capacity<\/p>\n

Iran continues to threaten commercial vessels in the strait and its military is far from beaten, Admiral Brad Cooper, who oversees troops in the region, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Trump had declared on Truth Social that Iran\u2019s \u201cair defense, Air Force, Navy, and leaders have been destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranian capability to stop commerce has been dramatically depleted through the strait, but their voice is very loud,\u201d Cooper told senators. \u201cAnd those threats are clearly heard by the merchant industry and insurance industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper said: \u201cThey are a very large country, and they retain some military capability.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Only Congress, not the executive branch, has the power to declare war. A formal war declaration has not been made since the 1940s, though some administrations have requested other types of military authorizations for previous conflicts.<\/p>\n

Gottheimer invoked the War Powers Act of 1973 in his floor time, as senators \u2014 largely Democrats, including New Jerseyans Cory Booker and Andy Kim \u2014 have done during debate over the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem we have right now,\u201d Booker said on the Senate floor last month during a similar Iran war resolution, \u201cis the inaction of this body.\u201d The Senate voted down that resolution 46-51.<\/p>\n

Speaking before the House vote, Gottheimer demanded that Trump brief Congress and the public about his objectives for the Iran war.<\/p>\n

After 60 days of conflict, the War Powers Act requires the president to come to Congress for a war declaration or a more narrowly tailored \u201cauthorization for the use of military force,\u201d or AUMF.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the president has done neither,\u201d Gottheimer said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to bring this resolution to the floor.\u201d The public is curious, Gottheimer said. \u201cPeople have lots of questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

That 60-day deadline has come and gone.<\/p>\n

Other presidents made their cases to Congress for wars, Gottheimer said. The George H.W. Bush administration briefed Congress about war plans in Kuwait in the 1990s. The George W. Bush administration briefed Congress for months before ordering the military into combat in Iraq in 2003.<\/p>\n

Nuclear state<\/p>\n

Gottheimer, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, bemoaned what he described as a void of information on the war \u2014 \u201cno formal briefings, no formal hearings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The White House has maintained its primary objective is to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Republicans on Capitol Hill described the ongoing war as a window to snuff out a potential Iranian nuclear state, which in late 2025 and early 2026 led a brutal crackdown against dissent, killing thousands of its own citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an historic opportunity,\u201d said Rick Crawford, an Arkansas Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. \u201cThey are out of options. This resolution will hinder efforts to bring the threat of a possible [nuclear] weapon to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with NJ Spotlight News, Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th) said he supported the Trump administration\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cThey can\u2019t get a nuclear weapon, period,\u201d Smith said. Asked why Trump ordered attacks this year if the U.S. military \u201ctotally obliterated\u201d the Iranian nuclear program last year with airstrikes, Smith, citing classified intelligence, said the attacks last year did not destroy everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt obliterated a whole layer of nuclear capability \u2014 a whole big layer of it,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut they still have enough for 11 bombs. They\u2019ve said that, they\u2019ve bragged about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th) was in Congress when the U.S. invaded Iraq and sees some parallels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m against the Iran war,\u201d Pallone said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News before the vote. \u201cI felt that at the time when he went to war that Iran was ripe for a diplomatic solution, and I don\u2019t think he tried hard enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou should always look at war as a last resort because you are putting troops in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: (NJ Spotlight News)Rep. Josh Gottheimer in 2024. WASHINGTON \u2014 The House deadlocked over an effort led by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4073,34,196,39615,39616,39617,4671,15562],"class_list":{"0":"post-114710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-admiral-brad-cooper","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iran-war","11":"tag-rep-donald-norcross","12":"tag-rep-frank-pallone","13":"tag-rep-josh-gottheimer","14":"tag-senate-armed-services-committee","15":"tag-u-s-congress"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116576728158723887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}