The resolution faces long odds of becoming law — it would need to pass the Republican-controlled House and receive Trump’s signature — but the bipartisan margin represented a notable shift from a similar November vote that failed, when only two Republicans crossed party lines, and reflected unease among some Republican senators over Trump’s publicly stated ambitions to direct Venezuela’s government and oil resources for years to come.
WASHINGTON — The Senate advanced a war powers resolution 52-47 on Thursday, with five Republicans joining Democrats to require congressional approval before President Donald Trump can conduct further military attacks against Venezuela.
The vote ensures a final-passage debate next week. It came days after U.S. forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a surprise overnight raid, and as Trump’s administration has said it seeks to control Venezuela’s oil resources and government.
“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,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Five Republicans cross party lines
The five Republicans who voted with Democrats were Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Todd Young of Indiana.
Hawley framed his vote as a check on potential future troop deployments.
“To me, this is all about going forward,” Hawley said. “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.”
Young said he supported the operation that captured Maduro but was troubled by Trump’s stated ambitions. Trump told The New York Times that U.S. oversight in Venezuela could last for years.
“It is unclear if that means that an American military presence will be required to stabilize the country,” Young said, adding that he believed most of his constituents were not prepared to send U.S. troops to that mission.
A similar resolution in November narrowly failed to reach a majority; Paul and Murkowski were the only Republicans to vote for it at that time.
Trump responds
Trump reacted on social media, saying the five Republicans “should never be elected to office again” and that the vote “greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security.” He also criticized the resolution as “impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, sided with Trump.
“I think the president has demonstrated at least already a very strong commitment to peace through strength, especially in this hemisphere,” Thune said. “I think Venezuela got that message loudly and clearly.”
Republican leaders said they had no advance notification of the raid that captured Maduro early Saturday morning, but most expressed satisfaction with the operation after top administration officials provided classified briefings this week.
Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who forced the vote on the resolution, said classified briefings combined with Trump’s reported comments about years of U.S. oversight in Venezuela prompted some lawmakers to conclude “this is too big to let a president do it without Congress.”
War Powers Act background
The War Powers Act, passed in 1973 in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and over the veto of Republican President Richard Nixon, has never succeeded in directly forcing a president to halt military action. The law requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying forces and to end military action within 60 to 90 days without authorization — limits that presidents of both parties have routinely stretched. Congress has not formally declared war since World War II.
The administration has used an evolving set of legal justifications for its monthslong campaign in Central and South America, from destroying alleged drug boats under counterterrorism authorizations to seizing Maduro in what it described as a law enforcement operation to bring him to trial in the United States.
Graham and Greenland
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he would be comfortable with Trump taking over other countries without congressional approval, including Greenland.
“The commander in chief is the commander in chief. They can use military force,” Graham said.
The White House has said the “military is always an option” regarding a potential American takeover of Greenland. Most Republicans have balked at that prospect, though; Greenland is a territory of Denmark, a NATO ally, which has drawn a more cautious response from Republican senators than the Venezuela situation did.
On Thursday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi met with Danish Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, Greenland’s U.S. and Canada representative Jacob Isbosethsen, and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
“There’s 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,” Wicker said. “That’s their prerogative and their right.”
Isbosethsen told reporters: “Greenland is not for sale.”
Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego said he expected to soon introduce a resolution to block Trump from taking military action against Greenland. House Democrats were introducing a similar war powers resolution on Venezuela on Thursday.