The US Senate on Thursday advanced a resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s military actions in Venezuela, marking a rare bipartisan pushback following concerns over the secretive capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
The Democratic-led measure, which would prohibit further US hostilities without explicit congressional authorization, cleared a key procedural hurdle with the support of five Republicans. A final passage vote expected next week is widely viewed as a formality and would represent one of Congress’s strongest assertions of its war-making authority in decades, though the effort faces long odds in the House and an almost certain presidential veto.
The vote followed a sharp escalation in US operations, including air and naval strikes and the nighttime seizure of Maduro in Caracas—actions lawmakers from both parties said crossed the line from a limited law-enforcement mission into open warfare. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican co-sponsor, said bombing a foreign capital and removing its leader constituted an act of war that the Constitution does not authorize the presidency to undertake alone. Trump, meanwhile, said in a Thursday interview that the United States could administer Venezuela and access its oil reserves for years, telling The New York Times that “only time will tell” how long Washington would seek direct oversight of the country.
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