President Donald Trump with Sen. John Thune and First Lady Melania Trump on January 8, 2025 (Office of Senator John Thune/Wikimedia Commons)
The U.S. Senate has advanced a resolution that would require President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval for any further military action or additional U.S. troops in Venezuela — “a rare and notable rebuke of the president,” according to Axios, and a rare assertion of the Senate’s constitutional war powers.
“Big setback for the White House as 5 GOP Senators join all Democrats in voting to start debate on a war powers resolution re: Venezuela,” congressional reporter Jamie Dupree noted.
NBC News reported that the vote is “the first test of whether Republican lawmakers will publicly oppose Trump’s actions against the country after the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro.”
PBS News noted that the resolution sets up “a test” for President Trump’s “expanding ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.” The Trump administration has said it would veto it should it come to his desk.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), the bill’s sponsor, said on Wednesday that the vote is about “whether the United States should engage in military action against Venezuela on a presidential say-so without a vote of Congress.”
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) voted to advance the legislation, and said: “I believe invoking the War Powers Act at this moment is necessary, given the President’s comments about the possibility of ‘boots on the ground’ and a sustained engagement ‘running’ Venezuela, with which I do not agree.”
NYU Professor of Law Ryan Goodman called the vote “Absolutely historic.”
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