 "US Senator Tim Kaine (C), Democrat of Virginia, speaks alongside US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (L), Democrat of New York, and US Senator Adam Schiff (R), Democrat of California, during a press conference after a US Senate vote on a War Powers Resolution blocking further US military action in Venezuela at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 8, 2026.- AFP")
In a rare assertion of Congress’s authority over the use of lethal force, the US Senate on Thursday passed a bipartisan measure designed to prevent the Trump administration from carrying out further military operations in Venezuela. The move followed the dramatic raid that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
This was the second time since November that the Senate has moved to check President Donald Trump’s actions on Venezuela but unlike earlier efforts, the measure cleared the chamber.
Five Republican senators crossed party lines to support Democrats in a procedural vote to rein in the president, after lawmakers from both parties objected to the lack of consultation with Congress before Trump ordered the military operation that led to the detention of Maduro and his wife.
Lashing out at a handful of Republican senators for their “stupidity” in voting to limit his military powers, after a secretive raid that captured Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro, President Trump said “Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
Five Republicans voted with Democrats to advance the legislation barring further US hostilities against Venezuela without explicit congressional authorization. A vote on final passage is expected next week.
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View AllThe vote on final passage, expected next week, is now seen as little more than a formality, and would mark one of Congress’s most forceful assertions of its war-making authority in decades.
The effort is seen as largely symbolic however, as the resolution faces a steep climb in the US House and almost no prospect of surviving a likely veto by Trump.
The vote followed a dramatic escalation in US action – including air and naval strikes and the nighttime seizure of Maduro in Caracas – that lawmakers from both parties said went beyond a limited law-enforcement operation and crossed unmistakably into war.
“Less than courageous members of Congress fall all over themselves to avoid taking responsibility, to avoid the momentous vote of declaring war,” said Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who broke with much of his party to co-sponsored the measure.
“But make no mistake, bombing another nation’s capital and removing their leader is an act of war, plain and simple. No provision in the Constitution provides such power to the presidency."
With inputs from agencies