The Senate will vote next week on a bipartisan war powers resolution aimed at preventing President Trump from continuing military operations against Venezuela. This vote is of paramount importance following the U.S. offensive against the South American country and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro early Saturday morning.
The resolution, which would prevent the administration from launching new hostilities against Venezuela, has priority status, meaning that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) cannot block its passage.
The resolution is sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York), Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), and Senator Adam Schiff (D-California).
The resolution requires only a simple majority to pass in the Senate.
“It is time for Congress to reaffirm its central constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy, and trade,” Tim Kaine said in a statement. “My bipartisan resolution, which stipulates that a war against Venezuela cannot be waged without clear authorization from Congress, will be brought to a vote next week.”
The senator added, “We are celebrating the 250th anniversary of American democracy, and we cannot allow it to fall back into the tyranny against which our founders fought.”
Schiff warned that Trump’s actions against Maduro threaten to plunge the region into chaos.
“Trump’s actions, carried out without congressional approval or public support, are plunging half the globe into chaos, and he has reneged on his promise to end wars instead of starting them,” the Democratic senator from California said in a statement.
He urged Congress to reaffirm its authority to authorize or prohibit the use of force.
“We must speak for the American people, who strongly oppose being drawn into new wars,” Schiff said.
The Senate is expected to pass the war powers resolution next week, with the anticipated support of all Democrats and Paul, a conservative with libertarian leanings.
The bill needs three more Republican votes to reach the 51 required for passage.
It is expected to be supported by moderate Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), as well as populist conservative Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), a longtime critic of U.S. military interventions abroad.
Senate Majority Leader Thomas Thune welcomed Maduro’s arrest, calling it “an important first step toward bringing him to justice for the drug-related crimes he is accused of in the United States.”
He wrote on the social media platform X: “I am grateful to the brave men and women of our armed forces who carried out this necessary action.”
A resolution introduced last month in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) seeking to prevent Trump’s use of military force against Venezuela was defeated.
The House of Representatives rejected by a vote of 213 to 211 McGovern’s proposal, which would have compelled the president to withdraw all U.S. forces from any conflict with or against Venezuela without congressional authorization.
The House also rejected by a vote of 216 to 210 a resolution introduced by Representative Gregory Meeks (D-New York), the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which would have demanded the withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from any conflict with “any terrorist organization designated by the president in the Western Hemisphere,” except with congressional authorization.
Meeks’s resolution sought to end military strikes against Venezuelan vessels suspected of trafficking drugs to the United States.
Any resolution concerning war powers passed by the Senate must be approved by the House of Representatives and signed by President Trump to become law.
The president would have to use his veto power against any resolution restricting his authority as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and neither chamber has a sufficient majority to override such a measure.