WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate advanced a resolution Thursday that would limit President Donald Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks against Venezuela, setting up a vote next week on final passage.
Democrats and five Republicans backed the measure on a 52-47 vote. Lawmakers said it has virtually no chance of becoming law because Trump would have to sign it if it passed the Republican-controlled House, but they described it as a significant gesture of unease among some Republicans.
The step comes after the U.S. military seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid over the weekend. The Trump administration is seeking to control Venezuela’s oil resources and its government, and the war powers resolution would require congressional approval for any further attacks on the South American country.
“To me, this is all about going forward,” said Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the five Republicans who supported the measure. “If the president should determine, ‘You know what? I need to put troops on the ground of Venezuela,’ I think that would require Congress to weigh in.”
The other Republicans who backed the resolution were Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Todd Young of Indiana. Trump reacted to their votes by saying on social media that they “should never be elected to office again” and that the vote “greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the vote was more than procedure. “This wasn’t just a procedural vote. It’s a clear rejection of the idea that one person can unilaterally send American sons and daughters into harm’s way without Congress, without debate,” he said.
Support for the resolution also followed a series of earlier efforts by Democrats that failed to pass similar measures in recent months as Trump escalated his campaign against Venezuela. Senate lawmakers said the latest vote gives Congress an opportunity to assert its role after the raid.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who forced the vote, said he believes many Republicans were caught off guard by the outcome. He said Trump’s comments to The New York Times suggesting U.S. oversight in Venezuela could last for years, along with details revealed in classified briefings, prompted some lawmakers to conclude that “this is too big to let a president do it without Congress.”
Republican leaders said they had no advance notification of the raid early Saturday to seize Maduro but mostly expressed satisfaction this week after top administration officials provided classified briefings on the operation. Kaine and others pointed to how the administration has used different legal rationales for its monthslong campaign in Central and South America, including actions justified under authorities for the global fight against terrorism and steps taken under a law-enforcement framing.
Republican leaders have backed Trump, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune saying he thinks the president has shown a “very strong commitment to peace through strength, especially in this hemisphere.” “I think Venezuela got that message loudly and clearly,” he said.
A similar resolution in November narrowly failed to gain the majority needed, when only Paul and Murkowski voted for it. Young, in a statement, backed the operation to capture Maduro but said he was concerned by Trump’s remarks that his administration now “runs” Venezuela, including what that would mean for any U.S. role in stabilizing the country.
Young said it was unclear whether “runs” Venezuela means an American military presence would be required to stabilize the country, adding that he believed most of his constituents were not prepared to send U.S. troops to that mission. House Democrats were introducing a similar resolution Thursday.
The vote also revived attention on the rarely enforced War Powers Act, passed in 1973 after the Vietnam War over the veto of Republican President Richard Nixon. The law requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying forces and to end military action within 60 to 90 days absent authorization. Presidents of both parties have argued that the act infringes on their authority, and presidents have routinely stretched the limits.
Trump criticized the Senate vote as “impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief.” Democrats said the limits are being pushed further than ever, while some Republicans contend congressional approval is unnecessary altogether.
That dispute could also surface in debates about Greenland. Sen. Lindsey Graham said he would be comfortable with Trump taking over other countries without congressional approval, including Greenland, saying, “The commander in chief is the commander in chief. They can use military force.”
The White House has said the “military is always an option” when it comes to a potential American takeover of Greenland. Democrats said they want to act first, with Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego saying he expected to introduce a resolution “to block Trump from invading Greenland.”
Greenland belongs to a NATO ally, Denmark, which produced a different response from some Republican senators than the Venezuela situation. On Thursday, Sen. Roger Wicker met with Danish ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, along with Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Jacob Isbosethsen, head of Greenland’s representation to the U.S. and Canada.
Wicker later said there was “no willingness on their part to negotiate for the purchase or the change in title to their land which they’ve had for so long,” and added: “That’s their prerogative and their right.” Isbosethsen told reporters, “Greenland is not for sale.”