Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks alongside Republican Convention Chair Consultant Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., throughout a press convention on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2026.
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Home Republicans blocked a decision in a tie vote on Thursday to restrict the chief’s battle powers in Venezuela, an in depth name for President Trump and a GOP convention that has largely steered away from rebuking him.
The decision failed by a vote of 215 to 215, falling in need of the easy majority wanted for passage. It directed the U.S. to take away any army presence from Venezuela, which might have required the president to hunt congressional approval to order such motion.
Rep. Brian Mast, the Home Overseas Affairs Committee chairman, stated the U.S. army accomplished its Venezuela mission with “Operation Absolute Resolve,” the Jan. 3 U.S. invasion and seize of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse.
“‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ was a regulation enforcement motion to convey Nicolás Maduro, an indicted narco-terrorist with a $50 million bounty to justice,” Mast, R-Fla., stated on the Home flooring, echoing a well-recognized GOP chorus. “And President Trump completed the job.”
Finally, the battle powers decision led by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., drew help from all Democrats and two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Don Bacon, R-Neb. Supporters argued Congress ought to have a say earlier than the U.S. sends extra army forces into Venezuela.
“I assume the very best we are able to get from the present majority right here is that there is by no means a superb time for Congress to say its battle powers. It is both too quickly or it is too late,” McGovern argued. “Nicely, I do not suppose it is too late as a result of we’re nonetheless coping with the implications of this unauthorized, illegal army strike.”
Trump’s escalation of army motion focusing on Venezuela has drawn widespread bipartisan unease in Congress, with some Republicans expressing their issues behind closed doorways. Many have complained they had been caught without warning, the administration has not shared sufficient details about the mission and the plan forward stays murky.
Massie, nonetheless, shouldn’t be one among them.
“Our loyalty should be to the Structure and to not any occasion,” Massie argued on the Home flooring forward of the vote. “If our nation needs battle then Congress should vote on it. We’re the voice of the individuals.”
