The Senate on Wednesday blocked a bipartisan measure that aimed to prevent President Donald Trump from taking further military action in Venezuela, after two Republicans withdrew their support under pressure from the administration.
Republicans succeeded in a last-minute push to halt debate on the resolution, arguing that the administration’s military action in the South American country had concluded and that the bill was thus irrelevant. That procedural effort succeeded by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie.
Three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) — joined all Democrats in voting to continue consideration of the resolution.
The vote comes a week after five Republicans helped advance the largely symbolic resolution following this month’s stunning military raid to apprehend Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Trump lashed out after the earlier vote, attacking the GOP lawmakers in a social media post and personally calling some of them as he sought to tank the measure, according to their public comments.
One, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), had publicly wavered this week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured him in a phone call that the administration did not intend to deploy U.S. troops to Venezuela. Rubio has come under intense criticism from Democrats, who have accused him of misleading Congress about the administration’s intentions with respect to Venezuela.
“He addressed my concerns really directly in terms of occupying forces, further military hostilities with ground troops,” Hawley said of Rubio, while addressing reporters. “He said point blank: We don’t want to do that.”
Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana), who cast the other decisive vote against the measure, said in a statement that he had received a “commitment that if President Trump were to determine American forces are needed in major military operations in Venezuela, the Administration will come to Congress in advance to ask for an authorization of force.”
Speaking with reporters after the vote, Young declined to define “major military operations.”
Rubio also agreed to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the coming weeks to discuss Venezuela, Young said in his statement.
Trump had previously said he was unafraid to use the military “as it pertains to oil,” amid the administration’s push to secure the country’s vast petroleum reserves. Trump had also threatened a “second wave” of attacks if Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, did not accede to U.S. demands for access to the country’s oil — though he said later that further strikes would not be necessary.
In early November, as Trump made repeated threats to carry out an attack on Venezuela, Rubio sought to reassure members of Congress that, despite the president’s public assertions, no such operation was imminent. The United States, Rubio told lawmakers then, lacked legal authority to invade the South American country and said that doing so would carry major risks, according to people who attended his classified briefing.
This week, Sen. James E. Risch (Idaho), Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to the White House asking for confirmation that “U.S. military personnel are no longer involved in hostilities in Venezuela,” according to Jan. 13 correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post.
Rubio responded to Risch, saying there were “currently no U.S. Armed Forces in Venezuela” and that the administration would notify Congress if further operations occurred, consistent with the War Powers Act, which requires notification within 48 hours. The administration did not notify Congress ahead of the Maduro raid, according to multiple lawmakers.
The administration has framed the attack in Caracas as a law enforcement operation designed to enforce a U.S. warrant against the Venezuelan leader Maduro and his wife, who are under indictment on drug and weapons charges. On Tuesday night, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel published a previously secret memo attempting to justify the raid by arguing that the president is not constrained by international law and that the operation did not rise to the level of war.
The publicly released memo is heavily redacted, but lawmakers had the chance to review the full, classified version this week.
Many Democrats have cast doubt on the administration’s legal defense and questioned any private assurances from officials like Rubio in light of his past statements to lawmakers on the matter. Rubio has denied that he lied to lawmakers, arguing instead that the operation did not amount to an invasion.
“It doesn’t to my point of view put much of a constraint on the executive,” said Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), one of the sponsors of the resolution, in a news conference following the vote.
In the months before the Maduro raid, some Republicans had signaled that directly attacking Venezuelan territory without congressional authorization was a red line for them, even as they continued to support the administration’s deadly campaign against alleged drug traffickers in the waters off Latin America. Republicans in the House and the Senate previously rejected four other war powers resolutions seeking to block the boat strikes or direct military action against Venezuela.
Democrats have vowed to continue forcing votes on the use of military force as Trump threatens further attacks, including against Iran, Cuba and Greenland, part of Denmark, a NATO ally.
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