In A setback for President Clinton, the US House of Representatives has refused to support the NATO air strikes and has insisted he must get Congressional approval before sending in ground troops to Kosovo.
The votes will have no practical effect at this stage, but have dismayed the White House by revealing divisions in Congress at a time when the President wants the nation "to speak with a single voice" as he steps up the conflict over Kosovo.
The resolution to give the blessing of the House to the air strikes was tabled by the Democrats and was meant to have a symbolic significance.
The Senate had overwhelmingly approved a similar resolution several weeks ago.
But when the House Democrats tabled a similar resolution to approve the air strikes, they failed to get a majority this week even though it had the backing of the Republican House Speaker, Mr Dennis Hastert. The result was a 213-213 tie.
Some 26 Democrats voted against the resolution which was opposed by Republicans to express unhappiness at the President's handling of the air strikes.
Earlier, the House voted 249 to 180 to require the President to seek Congressional approval before sending "ground elements" to Kosovo or other parts of Yugoslavia. Democrats who opposed the vote as tying the hands of the President warned that he might have to veto it.
The White House spokesman, Mr Joe Lockhart, said the President would not seek Congressional "approval" for ground troops as this would raise a number of Constitutional questions.
The Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, and the Secretary of Defence, Mr William Cohen, told Congress that the resolution would "unacceptably restrict the President's ability to carry out his responsibilities as commander-in-chief and to conduct foreign policy".
Since the Vietnam War, Congress has been wary of authorising US involvement in military actions abroad while presidents have argued that they have authority under the Constitution to order such actions.
One Democratic Congressman, Mr David Obey, called the House votes "an appalling lack of judgment and an appalling abandonment of the troops in the field. It is a day which this House will profoundly regret."
Meanwhile, the Senate is considering a resolution by Senator John McCain, a Republican, which would go in the opposite direction. The Senator, who is also a Republican presidential candidate, wants to give the President the authority to use "all means necessary" to win the conflict, including ground troops.