In a uncommon rebuke to the Trump administration, the Senate on Thursday superior a battle powers decision that might block the president’s use of the U.S. armed forces to have interaction in hostilities inside or towards Venezuela until approved by Congress.
A small group of Senate Republicans joined with all Democrats to narrowly advance the decision by a vote of 52-47. It wanted 51 votes to maneuver ahead.
The laws, if in the end authorised by the Senate, would nonetheless must be authorised by the Home and signed by the president. The invoice didn’t go the Senate with a veto-proof majority and it’s unlikely that Trump would signal it into regulation. With the intention to override a presidential veto, Congress would want the help of two-thirds of the Home and the Senate.
Republican Sens. Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Todd Younger, Susan Collins and Josh Hawley voted with all Democrats in favor of the laws.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Companies Committee, pushed for the decision to obtain a vote instantly after President Donald Trump introduced U.S. forces carried out a large-scale assault in Venezuela, capturing dictator Nicolas Maduro and his spouse, who’re dealing with federal fees together with narcoterrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine. Each Maduro and his spouse entered not responsible pleas earlier this week.
“The place will this go subsequent? Will the President deploy our troops to guard Iranian protesters? To implement the delicate ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To grab Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress People peacefully assembling to protest his insurance policies? Trump has threatened to do all this and extra and sees no want to hunt authorized authorization from individuals’s elected legislature earlier than placing servicemembers in danger,” Kaine mentioned in a press release on Jan. 3.
Kaine added it was “long gone time for Congress to reassert its crucial constitutional function in issues of battle, peace, diplomacy and commerce.”
Sen. Tim Kaine arrives for a closed briefing within the U.S. Capitol Constructing on December 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Heather Diehl/Getty Photographs
The White Home “strongly” opposes the battle powers decision, based on a brand new memo from the Workplace of Administration and Funds obtained by ABC Information on Thursday.
“Maduro’s crimes and different hostile actions have resulted in a predatory incursion into america, the destabilization of the Western Hemisphere, large demise and human struggling, and a considerable and ongoing hazard posed to our Nation,” the memo reads.
The memo acknowledged that if the decision is introduced to the president, “his advisors would advocate that he veto” it.
After the vote, Trump referred to as out the GOP senators who voted for the decision, saying in a social media publish that they “needs to be ashamed” and “by no means be elected to workplace once more.”
“This Vote vastly hampers American Self Protection and Nationwide Safety, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief,” Trump posted.
The Structure vests Congress with the authority to declare battle whereas making the president the commander in chief of the army. Trump’s motion in Venezuela follows a decadeslong sample of presidents often taking army motion with out congressional approval.
The Trump administration described the strike in Venezuela as a regulation enforcement operation facilitated by the army, and Trump has mentioned the U.S. shouldn’t be at battle with Venezuela however the U.S. will “run” the nation for an unspecified time frame.
A few of the Republicans who voted in favor of the decision on Thursday mentioned that whereas they have been supportive of Trump’s preliminary motion towards Maduro, they don’t help transferring ahead with further motion within the nation with out congressional approval.
“With Maduro rightfully captured, the circumstances have now modified. Whereas I help the operation to grab Nicolas Maduro, which was extraordinary in its precision and complexity, I don’t help committing further U.S. forces or coming into into any long-term army involvement in Venezuela or Greenland with out particular congressional authorization,” Collins mentioned in a press release explaining her help for the measure.
Forward of the vote, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso urged senators to reject the decision.
“Let’s be clear about what that decision does and what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t reassert Congress’s powers. It doesn’t make America stronger. It makes America weaker and fewer secure,” Barrasso mentioned in a press release on Wednesday.
“It could weaken the President’s legit, constitutional authority. This physique, america Senate, is being requested whether or not the President of america has the authority to arrest indicted criminals. In fact he does. Democrats wish to weaken the President’s skill to implement the regulation. That’s the improper message to ship to hardened drug traffickers and to dictators,” Barrasso added.
