In a uncommon rebuke to the Trump administration, the Senate on Thursday superior a battle powers decision that will block the president’s use of the U.S. armed forces to interact in hostilities inside or in opposition to Venezuela except 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 finally accepted by the Senate, would nonetheless should be accepted by the Home and signed by the president. The invoice didn’t cross the Senate with a veto-proof majority and it’s unlikely that Trump would signal it into regulation. To be able to override a presidential veto, Congress would wish 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 Providers Committee, pushed for the decision to obtain a vote instantly after President Donald Trump introduced U.S. forces carried out a large-scale attack in Venezuela, capturing dictator Nicolas Maduro and his spouse, who’re dealing with federal expenses together with narcoterrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine. Each Maduro and his spouse entered not guilty 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 stated in an announcement on Jan. 3.
Kaine added it was “long gone time for Congress to reassert its important 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, in accordance with 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 the US, the destabilization of the Western Hemisphere, huge loss of life and human struggling, and a considerable and ongoing hazard posed to our Nation,” the memo reads.
The memo said that if the decision is offered to the president, “his advisors would suggest 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 “must be ashamed” and “by no means be elected to workplace once more.”
“This Vote enormously 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 sometimes 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 stated the U.S. isn’t 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 stated that whereas they had been supportive of Trump’s preliminary motion in opposition to Maduro, they don’t help transferring ahead with extra 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 extra U.S. forces or coming into into any long-term army involvement in Venezuela or Greenland with out particular congressional authorization,” Collins stated in an announcement 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 protected,” Barrasso stated in an announcement on Wednesday.
“It might weaken the President’s legit, constitutional authority. This physique, the US Senate, is being requested whether or not the President of the US has the authority to arrest indicted criminals. In fact he does. Democrats wish to weaken the President’s capacity to implement the regulation. That’s the unsuitable message to ship to hardened drug traffickers and to dictators,” Barrasso added.
