The Senate has advanced a war powers resolution seeking to curb President Donald Trump’s military aggression against Venezuela, days after the Trump administration abducted the country’s president and announced its intent to “run” Venezuela and its oil reserves indefinitely.
Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Virginia) resolution passed a key hurdle on Thursday, advancing in a 52 to 47 vote. It seeks to assert Congress’s power over the military’s aggression against Venezuela, which entered a new stage on Saturday, and bar Trump from further hostilities unless explicitly authorized by Congress.
All Democrats and five Republicans voted for resolution to advance: Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Josh Hawley (Missouri), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rand Paul (Kentucky), and Todd Young (Indiana).
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) also voted to advance the legislation, despite previous statements that he was opposed to a war powers resolution on Venezuela and his previous “no” vote on a similar resolution in October.
Republicans who voted to advance the resolution said that they voted “yes” because they oppose further escalations like a ground invasion, even if they do support the illegal abduction of Maduro.
“With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it. That’s why I voted yes on this morning’s Senate resolution,” said Hawley in a post on X.
Two previous attempts to pass a war powers resolution on hostilities against Venezuela in the Senate failed.
The advancement allows the resolution to come to a vote next week. It only needs a simple majority to pass. From there, it will go to the House, where its fate is unclear — with a handful of Republicans vocally opposed to the administration’s Venezuela operations.
Even if it clears that hurdle, however, the resolution is almost certain to be vetoed by Trump, who took to Truth Social on Thursday to rail against the Republicans in the Senate who voted for its advancement.
Naming the Republicans, Trump said they “should never be elected to office again,” and complained that lawmakers sought to curb his power.
Still, the vote could show growing dissent within Congress regarding Trump’s ever-expanding operation against Venezuela, which legal experts have said is illegal at every step of escalation taken by the administration. The Trump administration has repeatedly snubbed Congress during the operation, and on Saturday, kept lawmakers in the dark even as Trump kept oil companies informed as the military carried out its attack.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the administration said that it plans to control sales of Venezuelan oil indefinitely. The imperialist intervention, experts have warned, echo some of the darkest days of U.S. operations in Latin America.Venezuela’s interior minister said on Wednesday that the U.S.’s bombardment of Caracas killed at least 100 people.
Trump is silencing political dissent. We appeal for your support.
Progressive nonprofits are the latest target caught in Trump’s crosshairs. With the aim of eliminating political opposition, Trump and his sycophants are working to curb government funding, constrain private foundations, and even cut tax-exempt status from organizations he dislikes.
We’re concerned, because Truthout is not immune to such bad-faith attacks.
We can only resist Trump’s attacks by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. At Truthout, we have you.
Truthout has launched a fundraiser to raise $41,000 in the next 7 days. Please take a meaningful action in the fight against authoritarianism: make a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout. If you have the means, please dig deep.