By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution on Wednesday to block President Donald Trump from continuing the war against Iran, reflecting growing concern among members of his party about the three-month-old conflict.
The House voted 215 to 208, as four Republicans voted with Democrats in favor of the war powers resolution. It was the latest setback for Trump in Congress despite his party's slim majorities in both the House and Senate.
The vote is largely symbolic. Any resolution would also have to pass the Senate to become effective, and garner the two-thirds majorities in both chambers to overcome an almost certain Trump veto.
The vote, nonetheless, reflects unease among some Republicans over Trump’s handling of the conflict and marks a rare bipartisan effort to curb presidential war powers. The war has entered a fourth month with no end in sight and after three previous war powers resolutions had failed in the House by increasingly slim margins.
The Senate advanced a separate, but similar resolution last month in a procedural vote, after seven previous attempts had failed.
The four House Republicans who voted for the war powers resolution were Representatives Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
No Democrats voted against it, although seven House members did not vote.
RECENT PUSHBACK AGAINST TRUMP
Trump recently has faced some opposition in Congress, after months in which very few Republicans pushed back against any of his policy initiatives.
In a separate vote on Wednesday, the House voted to advance a bid for a floor vote on providing security aid to Ukraine and imposing new sanctions on Russia. The measure came up for a vote after a petition reached a 218-signature threshold last month to move ahead.
Six Republicans and one independent who normally votes with Republicans voted in favor.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday that the administration was abandoning a fund to pay his political allies who said they had been the subject of government abuse, after some Republicans came out against it.
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday also criticized Trump's pick of loyalist Bill Pulte - a mortgage regulator with no national security experience - to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Don Durfee)
