The Senate delivered a bipartisan attempt to rein in Donald Trump on Thursday, approving a resolution to bar the president from deploying U.S. forces in Venezuela without Congress’s approval.
The legislation passed with a simple majority 52 to 47, with five Republicans breaking ranks to support the measure: Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Todd Young, Josh Hawley and Rand Paul.
The defections were especially striking from Young and Hawley, both of whom have been steadfast allies of Trump.
Paul, joined by Sens. Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, introduced the resolution following Trump’s order to strike the South American country and capture its former president, Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.
The president’s claim that the U.S. was “in charge” of Venezuela has raised concerns from largely Democratic lawmakers as Trump has refused to rule out boots on the ground and issued a series of threats to other countries in recent days.
In a lengthy interview with The New York Times Wednesday evening, Trump indicated the U.S. could be running Venezuela for years, saying, “Only time will tell.” Asked if that meant months, a year or longer, Trump replied, “I would say much longer.”
Collins, who was among the Republicans to vote for it, defended her vote.
“While I support the operation to seize Nicolas Maduro, which was extraordinary in its precision and complexity, I do not support committing additional U.S. forces or entering into any long-term military involvement in Venezuela or Greenland without specific congressional authorization,” Collins said in a statement.
It’s not clear whether the joint resolution would get a vote in the House, much less pass. Even if it does, Trump has the power to veto it.
The legislation finally passed in the Senate on Thursday, one day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth conducted briefings for the Senate and House on the U.S. plan for Venezuela.
Rubio said it would move forward in three phases with the U.S. continuing its blockade as it sells Venezuela’s oil. The administration claims the money will be used to benefit the Venezuelan people. The second phase was about giving American companies access to the Venezuelan markets ,while the third phase would be a transition.
Thursday’s vote was not the first time Kaine introduced the resolution to prevent the president from using military force in Venezuela as the U.S. conducted strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and built up its military force last year, but the previous efforts failed to gain enough Republican support.
Ahead of the vote on Thursday, Kaine indicated that what had changed since the failed votes to block Trump using military force in Venezuela is that some of his colleagues previously said nothing had happened yet and it was premature.
Kaine said maybe the arrest of Maduro might be a law enforcement operation but the use of the military with 150 aircraft from 20 bases followed by the president saying the U.S. was going to run the country, seize the oil and continue the military blockade was a massive development.
“This was not the surgical execution of an arrest warrant. It was much bigger than that before last Saturday, and it’s going to be much bigger than that from now for the next few years if you listen to the administration,” Kaine told reporters ahead of the vote.
Kaine said he would be introducing more war powers resolutions going forward as the Trump administration has made threats to other countries including Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria and Greenland.
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