A bipartisan Senate vote moves forward a resolution requiring congressional approval for future U.S. military action in Venezuela, with five Republicans breaking from the president.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Senate narrowly advanced a bipartisan war powers resolution Thursday that would block President Donald Trump from launching future military action in Venezuela without explicit congressional authorization, as five Republican senators broke ranks with the president to support the measure.
Lawmakers voted 52–47 to advance the resolution to the Senate floor, clearing the 50-vote threshold needed to proceed. The five Republicans who joined Democrats were Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Todd Young of Indiana, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Every Democratic senator voted in favor of limiting the president’s authority.
A final vote on passage is expected next week. It remains unclear whether House Republican leadership would allow the measure to be considered if it clears the Senate.
The White House urged senators to reject the resolution, citing what it described as ongoing national security threats posed by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to a message circulated to lawmakers and reported publicly. The administration said Trump would veto the measure if it reaches his desk.
Hawley, a close Trump ally, rejected the notion that his vote represented a break with the president. He said the resolution was about future accountability rather than opposing past actions. “On a going forward basis … that if the president should determine that he needs to put troops on the ground of Venezuela, I think then that Congress would have to be on the hook for that,” Hawley told reporters after the vote.
The Missouri senator has previously expressed skepticism about regime change in Venezuela, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation in November that he did not believe such an approach was where the administration was headed.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who has at times supported Trump’s foreign policy positions, joined fellow Democrats in backing the resolution. Fetterman has publicly praised the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Republican leadership and many GOP lawmakers opposed the resolution, arguing it was unnecessary and politically motivated. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said critics were reflexively opposing Trump, regardless of past positions on removing Maduro. He told the DCNF that he did not view the War Powers Act as an appropriate or necessary tool in this case.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky echoed that view, arguing that Trump’s actions fell within constitutional authority. “You don’t have to agree with a president’s approach to national security policy to acknowledge his compliance with the law & his constitutional authority for the use of force … which makes the invocation of the War Powers Act such a tired and blunt instrument,” McConnell wrote on social media ahead of the vote.
Supporters of the resolution countered that Congress must retain its constitutional role in authorizing war. Paul said reclassifying military action as law enforcement to bypass Congress was unacceptable. “I think it’s a crazy notion to say we’re going to call something that looks like war, not war,” he said. “I think it’s a clear violation of the Constitution.”
Collins said she supported the resolution because of concerns about Trump’s stated intentions in Venezuela. She pointed to the president’s recent remarks that the United States could be running the country for years, comments Trump made in an interview that were reported earlier. “I believe invoking the War Powers Act at this moment is necessary, given the President’s comments about the possibility of ‘boots on the ground’ and a sustained engagement ‘running’ Venezuela,” Collins said in a statement.
Public opinion on U.S. military action in Venezuela remains divided. A CBS News survey published Wednesday found that 52 percent of Americans disapprove of the military operation to remove Maduro, according to the poll.
The Senate previously rejected a similar bipartisan effort in November to limit Trump’s authority over military action in Venezuela. In that vote, Paul and Murkowski were the only Republicans to side with Democrats.
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