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The Republican National Committee (RNC) is leading a lawsuit against Virginia, accusing the state of violating state law by allegedly accepting ballots from people who have never resided in the state.

Under federal law, military service members stationed overseas and their spouses are allowed to cast absentee ballots based upon the state of their last residence, but a Virginia statute allows for voters who have never lived in the state to cast a ballot based on Virginia being their parent’s last eligible voting location.

The lawsuit comes just months away from a contentious midterm election cycle as the Republican Party fights to keep control of both chambers of Congress.

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This lawsuit is the fourth filed by the RNC contesting loopholes in state laws that allow both children of military service members and children of former Virginia residents living abroad to vote in elections, even if they have never lived in the state. In addition to Virginia, 27 other states permit “nonresidents” to vote in both state and federal elections based on their parents’ last place of residence.

“The Virginia Constitution clearly states you must show proof of residency in order to vote in Virginia elections, so what we’re trying to do here at the RNC is make sure that Virginia elections are truly for Virginians and close that loophole where people who have never even lived in the state or sometimes even the country so they cannot register to vote in Virginia,” RNC Election Integrity Communications Director Ally Triolo told Fox News Digital.

Roughly 2.8 American citizens over the age of 18 live abroad, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program. It is uncertain how many of them voted who have never lived in the United States, but the RNC said it is actively looking state voter rolls.

The RNC, RITE PAC and conservative grassroots organizer Matthew Hurtt filed for injunctive relief in the Circuit Court for the city of Richmond, Virginia, against the Virginia State Board of Elections and the Virginia Department of Elections Monday.

“People who have never lived in Virginia — or even in the United States — should not be voting in Virginia’s elections,” Republican Party Chairman Gruters said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Virginia officials are ignoring the Virginia Constitution and allowing ineligible voters to cast ballots. The RNC and RITE PAC are taking this action to enforce the law and ensure non-residents are not diluting the votes of Virginians.”

Hurtt, who also serves as the Chairman of the Arlington GOP, referred Fox News Digital to an email he sent to the Arlington GOP committee members, explaining why he joined the lawsuit.

“Through this lawsuit, we are asking the court to declare the relevant statutes unconstitutional and to require election officials to limit voting to individuals who meet Virginia’s residency requirements,” Hurtt wrote. “This effort is about ensuring that Virginia elections are conducted in accordance with the Constitution and that the rules governing voter eligibility are applied consistently and lawfully.”

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The lawsuit named seven elected officials as defendants as well, including Fairfax County, Virginia, Electoral Board General Registrar Eric Spicer. Fairfax, Virginia, GOP chairman Steve Knotts previously praised Spicer for his efforts to strengthen election integrity in the county.

“Defendant Spicer has registered voters who stated on their registration forms: ‘I am a U.S. citizen living outside the country, I have never lived in the United States.’ This practice violates the Virginia Constitution,” the lawsuit stated.

The RNC did not provide an estimate when Fox News Digital asked how many people may have voted this way in Virginia.

Similar lawsuits have been filed by the RNC against Michigan, Arizona and North Carolina over election officials counting ballots from “never residents.” 

During litigation state officials in North Carolina pointed to both the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), a federal law, and a state law Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act (UMOVA) in support of allowing nonresidents to vote. The UMOVA granted a provision allowing for individual born overseas to former North Carolina residents to vote in the state.

But, in April 2025, an appeals court in North Carolina ruled in favor of the RNC, determining that the state’s election board was violating state Constitution by allowing voters who never resided in the state. State officials appealed the decision to North Carolina’s Supreme Court, but the case was dismissed.

“We fought this in North Carolina,” Triolo said. “We had a successful win, and we have two more active cases fighting the same fight in Arizona and Michigan. We are committed at the RNC to stopping any abuse of our elections. We know that voters deserve free, fair, and secure elections. So the RNC is confident with its win that we already had on this issue. We’ll continue to see more wins moving forward.”

Triolo shared with Fox News Digital that the RNC has more than 120 active lawsuits across the country in its fight to close loopholes and strengthen election integrity.

“The RNC is fighting tooth and nail to protect the ballot box. This is one of our key priorities here, which is ensuring that our elections are fair, they’re free, they’re transparent, they are secure,” Triolo said.

The Virginia Department of Elections declined to comment.

Senate Republicans are meeting with President Donald Trump Friday to crystallize a plan to fund immigration operations that would cut out Democrats altogether.

Congressional Republicans are turning to the party-line budget reconciliation process to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for years to come in a move that can’t be blocked by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Republicans have a short timetable to get the job done given that Trump has set a deadline for the bill to be on his desk by June 1.

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Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said he and Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are meeting with Trump on Friday to prepare the framework of the package.

“We’re going to have to go it alone because Democrats aren’t interested in funding national security at a time of increased concerns around the world,” Barrasso said.

Republicans will first have to produce a budget resolution to provide guardrails for the forthcoming package. Barrasso said Senate Republicans plan to do it in a “targeted way, focused and get it done fast.”

A key hurdle in the process, however, is getting both House and Senate Republicans aligned on a plan. Senate Republicans want to keep a reconciliation package as narrow as possible, while some in the House are eyeing funding the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in one massive bill.

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Graham said recently that he envisions two reconciliation bills in 2026, one targeting ICE and CBP and another serving as a vehicle for several GOP priorities, including portions of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act and provisions to tackle fraud.

“Reconciliation has limits, but we’re going to make a down payment on the SAVE Act in reconciliation in the fall,” Graham said Monday on a South Carolina radio show, “Straight Talk with Bill Frady.”

But a key House GOP voice won’t be there.

A source told Fox News Digital House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, Graham’s counterpart in the process, will not attend the White House meeting Friday.

Barrasso said there would likely be discussions on a “number of topics” for reconciliation, but the end goal for Senate Republicans remains funding ICE and CBP.

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“What I’m telling you today is we’re moving ahead in spite of incredible obstruction by the Democrats,” Barrasso said. “We’re focusing immigration and funding, immigration custom enforcement and border patrol, with Republican votes alone using reconciliation.”

Senate Democrats aren’t backing down from their shutdown position. Their demand for reforms to immigration operations, like requiring judicial warrants to search people’s homes and unmasking DHS agents in exchange for funding ICE and CBP has led the ongoing shutdown to stretch beyond 50 days.

Despite being cut out of the funding process altogether under Republicans’ reconciliation plan, Democrats still view their position as a winning strategy.

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., argued that, as with the creation of the 2025 “big, beautiful bill,” Republicans will likely look for areas to cut spending to fund ICE and CBP, a move that could come back to bite them in the midterm elections.

Kim told Fox News Digital Republicans bypassing Democrats to fund immigration operations does not make their shutdown posture “moot.”  

“We’re trying to make sure we’re standing up for the voice of the American people. If Republicans want to go around the American people, then they will answer to voters in November,” Kim said.

“And the Democrats, we will find our way back into gavels and power, and we will do what we can at that point to do what the American people wanted from the start, which is to focus on their concerns and not have this, you know, army of masked ICE agents without identification, without judicial warrants, terrorizing our neighborhoods.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash online after admitting that his campaign pledge to make city buses free is hitting funding roadblocks.

Conservatives were quick to react to a Politico interview where the mayor acknowledged that one of his most hotly discussed campaign promises wouldn’t be fulfilled this year as his administration works to gain support from lawmakers in Albany.

“It won’t ever happen. It was a high-profile promise that won’t ever happen. It wasn’t really meant to,” wrote conservative media host Jason Rantz on X.

“Turns out socialist slogans don’t survive contact with reality,” National Republican Congressional Committee Press Secretary Mike Marinella posted on X.

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“Hahahahahahahahahaha. You got played, NYC,” wrote Amy Curtis, a conservative writer, on X.

“Mamdani lied about free buses — and basically everything else in his campaign,” wrote Tim Young, a media fellow at The Heritage Foundation, on X. “And the idiots of New York fell for it,” he added.

“Socialism is like a toxic ex: big promises upfront, disappointment later,” conservative media outlet Prager U posted on X. “Just ask New York about those free buses.”

Others, however, defended the effort, pointing to the complexities of funding major transit changes and praising the administration for continuing negotiations.

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Mamdani’s office said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the mayor remains committed to the plan, adding that his administration is working with state officials to make fare-free buses a reality before the end of his term.

“Mayor Mamdani is committed to delivering fast and free buses by the time he leaves office, full stop,” a spokesperson said, noting ongoing discussions with N.Y. Governor Kathy Hochul’s office.

“In the meantime, the Mamdani administration will continue to work with our partners at the state and local level to make commutes faster and our transit system more affordable for all New Yorkers.”

Mamdani never explicitly pledged to fulfill the campaign platform in the first year but said he intended to accomplish the goal by the end of his first four-year term.

“Making buses fast and free, the fast thing we’re already getting started on,” Mamdani said in January. “And what I’ve said is that by the time I’m finished being mayor, they’re going to be free. What we have to deliver, however, in this very year, required by law, but also required just by being a good mayor, a balanced budget for this fiscal year [and for] the next fiscal year.”

As an assembly member, Mamdani launched a free bus pilot program in Queens that he has touted as highly successful citing increased ridership by more than 30% and showing a nearly 40% drop in assaults on bus operators.

Still, Mamdani’s critics argue that the cost of free busses is fiscally risky and logistically flawed for the behemoth New York City system and warn it would likely to degrade the very service it aims to improve.

The debate comes as Mamdani advances a broader affordability agenda built on campaign promises such as city-owned grocery stores and rent freezes, proposals that have rattled Wall Street and drawn sharp criticism.

The clash underscores a widening divide between progressive ambitions for the city and the financial sector that has long powered its economy.

An ordained Christian minister running for U.S. Congress in Iowa penned an opinion piece sharing how the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — carried out by radical Islamic terrorists — made her more “aware” of the “rising anti-Muslim bigotry and its harm.”

Sarah Trone Garriott is one of three Democratic candidates vying for the battleground seat held by Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa.

Garriott, an Iowa state legislator and Lutheran minister, wrote the opinion piece for the Iowa Capital Dispatch in response to the “hateful messages” she received after she shared a prayer with Arabic words written by a Muslim woman on the statehouse floor in February 2021.

“They said horrible stereotypical things about my Muslim neighbors — Sharia law, hating freedom, violent religion,” Garriott wrote. “There were others who made comments about the United States being a Judeo-Christian country and therefore Muslim prayers were not welcome. There were some attacks against me, as a Christian leader I was leading people astray, that I didn’t know what I was doing.”

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She said the pushback “convinced” her there is a greater need for “religious diversity.”

Garriott revealed that she began her master’s degree in theological studies at Harvard University a day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“On that religiously diverse campus, I was more aware of the rising anti-Muslim bigotry and its harm,” Garriott wrote. “I am kind a biblical literalist, and when Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, I took that to heart. I worked with my Muslim classmates to organize a meal to bring the community together during Ramadan.”

Meanwhile, Nunn had “a different response” to the 9/11 terrorist attacks by joining the Air Force, according to Nunn’s spokesperson, Mark Matava. During his service, he “flew more than a hundred combat missions to defend America.”

“Sarah Trone Garriott has called Christianity ‘threatening,’ mocked parents for protecting their daughters, and accused Christian schools of being ‘white enclaves,’” Matava said. “Now we learn that her response to the deadliest attack on American soil was to lecture Americans about bigotry without so much as mentioning the nearly 3,000 people who were killed on 9/11. Her contempt for Iowa and America is on full display.”

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Iowa GOP spokesperson Jade Cichy also criticized Garriott for not mentioning the thousands of American victims killed on 9/11.

“Radical woke warrior Sarah Trone Garriott’s main concern after the September 11th terror attacks was ‘anti-Muslim bigotry,’ and she made no mention of the thousands of innocent Americans who lost their lives that day,” Cichy said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This stunning display of tone-deaf political pandering is just the latest example showing Trone Garriott is out of touch with Iowa values.”

Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft said she is “insulting Iowa values” by pandering to “coastal elite Democrat Party bosses.”

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“Sarah Trone Garriott should be ashamed for wagging her finger at America for not being woke enough about 9/11 and completely ignoring the more than 2,000 patriots tragically killed that day,” Kraft said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Iowa GOP spokesperson Jade Cichy called Garriott’s “tone-deaf political pandering.”

Fox News Digital reported last month on a 2023 speech given by Garriott in which she criticized Christian displays at political rallies, calling it one of several “pretty uncomfortable ways that faith and political power have collided.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Garriott for comment.

First lady Melania Trump delivered a brief statement Thursday afternoon at the White House, coming out swinging at those who have linked her to Jeffrey Epstein, calling them “devoid of ethical standards.”

The remarks lasted roughly three minutes and did not include questions from the press.

“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” she said. “I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.”

A White House official told Fox News ahead of the event that the appearance would be a “statement” rather than a formal announcement.

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Trump clarified the history between herself, her husband, President Donald Trump, and Epstein, during her remarks.

“I [have] never been friends with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time. Since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach,” she said.

The first lady called on Congress to act on Epstein’s circle, saying ‘each and every woman’ should have her moment to share testimony.

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“I call on Congress to provide the women who have been victimized by Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors,” she said. “Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony. Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the Congressional Record.”

This is a developing story, check back later for updates.

Democrats are united in their opposition to President Donald Trump and his unprecedented second-term agenda. But as the Democratic National Committee (DNC) huddles in New Orleans for their spring meeting, the party is once again coping with deep internal divisions over Israel’s military actions and a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group’s recent meddling in Democratic Party primaries.

The DNC’s Resolutions Committee debated and held test votes on Thursday on resolutions recognizing a Palestinian state, putting limits on military aid to Israel, and taking aim at what one resolution calls the “growing influence” of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is best known by its acronym AIPAC, and other so-called dark money groups.

Two resolutions on placing conditions on military aid to Israel and recognizing a Palestinian state were referred to the DNC’s Middle East Working Group. The resolution calling out AIPAC was defeated after the Resolutions Committee passed a broader resolution targeting all dark money groups. The nonbinding resolutions were among more than 100 on a range of issues that are being considered.

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The resolutions were the latest face-off between DNC leaders who support Israel and a growing base of progressives who give Israel a thumbs down. One DNC committee member, speaking anonymously, called the resolutions “problematic” for the party.

The potential for divisive dialogue and verbal explosions over these issues comes eight months after similar showdowns at the DNC’s 2025 summer meeting in Minneapolis.

This year’s spring meeting also comes as a Pew Research national survey released this week showed that 80% of Democrats and independents who lean towards the party hold unfavorable views of Israel, up nearly 30 points since 2022. An NBC News poll conducted earlier this year indicated that 57% of Democrats held a negative view of Israel, up from 35% after Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people in a sneak attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

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But negative opinions have surged since Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza over the past two and a half years has resulted in more than 72,000 people being killed, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory. And Israel joined the U.S. in attacking Iran in a nearly month-and-a-half long war which polls suggest is unpopular with most Americans.

“Israel’s behavior has turned Americans against it,” longtime DNC member James Zogby — the president of the Arab American Institute and a critic of Israel, said in a social media post this week. “It seems that Americans don’t like folks using our money & weapons to commit genocide & steal Palestinian land.”

The resolution criticizing AIPAC and other corporate-aligned spending in Democratic primaries was authored by Allison Minnerly, a DNC member from Florida who at last year’s summer meeting grabbed a spotlight as she unsuccessfully pushed for a resolution urging an arms embargo on Israel.

DEMOCRATS FACE-OFF OVER ISRAEL AT KEY PARTY MEETING

After Minnerly’s resolution was defeated, DNC Chair Ken Martin pulled his own resolution, which called for “unrestricted” aid to Gaza and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Martin then the Middle East Working Group, which will meet for a fourth time at the spring meeting.

Some Democrats blame the party’s support for Israel for their 2024 election setbacks, when they lost control of the White House and Senate and fell short in winning back the House majority.

Fox News reached out to the DNC and AIPAC for comment.

Talk of invoking the 25th Amendment is reemerging among House Democrats after more than a year of dismissing speculation they would seek to remove Trump from power for a third time.

Rather than quash the discussion, House Democratic leadership appears to be encouraging it.

On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., scheduled a Friday briefing on the 25th Amendment for his caucus to be hosted by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and House Judiciary Committee Democrats.

The announcement came after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran, with administration officials hailing the success of Operation Epic Fury. Jeffries torched Trump’s threats issued earlier this week to wipe out Iran’s “civilization” and unleash “hell” on Tehran.

DEMOCRATS THREATEN TO GRIND SENATE TO A HALT TO FORCE PUBLIC IRAN HEARINGS

“Shockingly, Donald Trump threatened to escalate his war of choice in a profane Easter Sunday rant and to eradicate an entire civilization,” Jeffries wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter Wednesday. “We will continue to unleash maximum pressure on Republicans to put patriotic duty over party loyalty and join Democrats in stopping the madness.”

Jeffries has notably stopped short of calling for Trump’s removal from power. Instead, he has pushed a resolution seeking to block the president’s war powers in Iran, which was blocked by House Republicans on Thursday.

However, his willingness to entertain the discussion comes after dozens of his members called for Trump’s impeachment or the invocation of the 25th Amendment following the president’s escalating warnings against Iran if its leadership did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his self-imposed deadline.

“It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrote on social media. “This maniac should be removed from office.”

“He’s out of control and his cabinet and those around him must be loyal to the constitution and invoke the 25th amendment,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said. “He must be removed.”

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Taking that approach is a much higher bar than impeachment and has never been used to involuntarily remove a sitting president. To be successful, Democrats would have to obtain buy-in from Republicans and the advisors closest to the president.

Specifically, the vice president and a majority of the cabinet would have to agree that Trump is unfit for office. In the event Trump were to contest their assessment, two-thirds of the House and Senate would have to vote in support of that judgment.

Some Democrats have publicly admitted the 25th Amendment is likely to be a futile option, even if they agree that Trump should step aside.

“I’m getting a lot of traffic about the 25th Amendment after Trump’s mad rants,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. said on social media Tuesday. “The president is facing serious mental decline; I’m with you on that.”

“But unfortunately, invoking the 25th is not realistic right now, given his oddball Cabinet of sycophants and eccentrics, and Republican ‘spines of foam,’” he continued. “We’re going to have to buckle down and win this the old-fashioned way.”

Democrats previously embraced the 25th Amendment to remove Trump in 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi steered a resolution calling for Congress to act through the lower chamber, but the cabinet balked at the demand. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat who is seeking election to a third term, is again calling for the ouster of President Donald Trump via the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“President Trump threatened to wipe out an entire civilization. Let’s be honest: There is something genuinely wrong with this man, and the 25th Amendment must be invoked before it’s too late,” Pritzker declared in a video posted to X on Wednesday.

“For the sake of our national security, Donald Trump needs to go now,” he added.

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Pritzker previously called for use of the 25th Amendment earlier this week after Trump issued a controversial Tuesday Truth Social post in which he threatened that an entire “civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

“This is not foreign policy, it’s a deranged mad man threatening to wipe out an entire country. It’s past time. The 25th Amendment must be invoked,” the governor asserted in a post on X.

Later that day, Pritzker pointed out that he had also urged use of the 25th Amendment months ago.

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“I’ve been saying it for months: Donald Trump needs to go,” Pritzker wrote in a post on X that featured a video clip of him calling for the use of the 25th Amendment last year.

In part of that 2025 video clip, the governor said of Trump, “There is something genuinely wrong with this man, and the 25th Amendment ought to be invoked.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday.

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Trump ultimately announced a ceasefire on Tuesday evening, agreeing to stop any attacks for two weeks. But that has not stopped some Democrats, like Pritzker, from advocating for the president to be booted from office.

EXCLUSIVE: A top Republican moved Thursday to block asylum claims from foreigners who return to their home countries, introducing legislation after family members of deceased Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani were found to be living in Los Angeles.

Soleimani’s niece, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, and her daughter were arrested by ICE last weekend, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio highlighted Afshar’s “outspoken support [for] the Iranian regime” and DHS reporting that her 2019 asylum claim was fraudulent, due in part to several trips back to the country she purported to flee.

Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., who is also running for the GOP nomination for governor of the Badger State, echoed DHS’ characterization of Afshar’s asylum claim as fraudulent in introducing the SAFER Act, or the “Stopping Asylum Fraudsters Enforcement and Removal Act.”

Tiffany said the bill ensures the federal asylum system is reserved only for foreigners with legitimate claims of persecution.

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The secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general would be prohibited from granting asylum to anyone who returns to their home country, while also being empowered to terminate asylum status and denaturalize asylees who voluntarily return while living in the U.S.

“If someone claims they are fleeing danger and seeking asylum in the U.S., they should not be turning around and vacationing in the very country they said they had to escape,” Tiffany told Fox News Digital.

“Those who are truly fleeing danger don’t book round-trip tickets back to it.”

Afshar was granted asylum in 2019 during the first Trump administration and was later given a green card by the Biden administration, despite returning to Iran at least four times in the interim.

Under the bill, an asylee could legally return to their home country without risk of federal consequences only if the State Department certifies that a legitimate transfer of power has occurred and the original threat prompting that person’s asylum claim has been resolved.

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In the case that a migrant or asylee has no nationality, their claim will be analyzed based on their most recent “habitual residence.”

“The SAFER Act stops asylum fraudsters from exploiting the system and ensures they are removed from the United States,” Tiffany said.

Earlier this month, the State Department terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of a former senior Iranian official, and her husband.

Both are no longer in the U.S. and are barred from reentry.

Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.

House Republicans shot down an attempt by Democratic lawmakers Thursday to curb President Donald Trump’s war powers amid a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. 

A group of House Democrats, led by Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., sought to pass a war powers resolution by unanimous consent during a pro forma session Thursday morning. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who presided during the pro forma, gaveled out of session before recognizing the Maryland Democrat on the floor.

The war powers measure, supported by House Democratic leadership, would have ended the Iran conflict and blocked Trump from taking further military action absent congressional approval.

“Congress needs to consider this. The time has come. The time has come,” Ivey said after Smith adjourned the session.

WATCH: CAPITOL HILL DEBATE ERUPTS OVER WHETHER TRUMP’S IRAN STRIKES AMOUNT TO ‘WAR’

The floor battle comes as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has demanded that House GOP leadership immediately reconvene the chamber and vote to check Trump’s war powers in Iran. The House is currently in a two-week recess and is not expected to formally reconvene until the week of April 13.

“A two-week ceasefire is woefully insufficient. Accordingly, we have demanded that the House come back into session immediately in order to vote on our resolution to permanently end the war in the Middle East,” Jeffries wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter Wednesday. 

Jeffries’ demand followed Trump’s announcement of a temporary ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday evening, with administration officials hailing Operation Epic Fury as an unequivocal success.

Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to head to Islamabad for in-person talks hosted by Pakistani mediators. It is unclear whether Iranian officials, who are insistent upon a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, will attend.

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Democrats in both chambers have repeatedly attempted to curb Trump’s military authority in Iran since the conflict began in late February, but have been thwarted by GOP opposition. Trump could still veto a war powers resolution if a bipartisan measure passes Congress.

House Democrats are likely to force another vote on reining in Trump’s war powers as early as next week.

Several House Republicans who previously voted against a war powers resolution, including Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., have signaled openness to supporting the measure if it comes to the floor again. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, have previously crossed party lines to support blocking Trump from using military force in Iran absent congressional authorization.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that Democrats in the upper chamber would force a vote on a fourth war powers resolution as soon as next week.

The top Democrat also argued that Operation Epic Fury was “one of the very worst military and foreign policy actions that the United States has ever taken,” at a news conference in New York City on Wednesday.