Washington — After two previous unsuccessful attempts, the Senate moved Thursday toward limiting President Trump’s ability to strike Venezuela as the U.S. leader continues to take unilateral action against the South American country.
The Senate voted 52 to 47 to advance a war powers resolution, days after the U.S. captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a nighttime raid that came not only as a surprise to the former president, but also to Congress.
Five Republicans joined all Democrats in support of the measure. The GOP senators voting in favor include, Todd Young of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Missouri.
Mr. Trump had long teased land strikes against Venezuela amid a monthslong military campaign against alleged drug-smuggling boats at sea that has killed more than 100 people. Mr. Trump has not ruled out additional military action. He has said that the U.S. will “run” the country for the time being and control its oil sales after Saturday’s strikes, which were carried out as part of a daring operation to capture Maduro and bring him to the U.S. to face charges.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, introduced his latest resolution in early December, after the revelation that the U.S. killed two people who survived the initial blast of a Sept. 2 strike in the Caribbean Sea.
Kaine’s measure would require “the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress.”
“The indication from the administration [is] that this is not a few days or a few weeks, it’s likely a few years of U.S. occupation and involvement in this country,” Kaine said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “This is not an arrest warrant. This is far bigger than that.”
Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, held briefings for top lawmakers on Tuesday on last weekend’s actions in the region. They held similar briefings for all members of Congress on Wednesday.
Democrats left those briefings dissatisfied with the answers they received about what comes next.
The boat strikes and Maduro’s seizure and removal to the U.S. have alarmed legal experts and lawmakers, with some accusing the Trump administration of committing war crimes, lying about its intentions for regime change and leading the U.S. into a war without congressional authorization.
“I think bombing a capital and removing the head of state is by all definitions, war,” Paul, the lone Republican cosponsor of the resolution, said Tuesday.
Members of the Trump administration, including the president, have muddied the legal arguments by claiming that the operation to capture Maduro was a “law enforcement” operation that didn’t require sign-off from Congress. Mr. Trump and other officials also say the U.S. is now in charge of Venezuela.
Many Republicans have defended the Trump administration’s failure to seek approval from Congress, arguing the actions are well within the president’s constitutional authority and limited in scope.
“This is not a regime change. This is demand for change of behavior by a regime,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said after Monday’s classified briefing. “We don’t expect troops on the ground.”
Johnson added Wednesday, “The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. There’s no dispute about that, of course, but we are not in a war in Venezuela.”
Speaking on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho called the resolution “nonsense,” and said “the effect of this is to slap the president of the United States in the face.”
“That is the only effect that this vote can have. It can have no practical effect, because it’s trying to stop something that isn’t going on,” Risch added.
Boat strikes scrutinized
In the weeks before Maduro’s capture, Mr. Trump dialed up his pressure campaign, seizing two sanctioned tankers that were carrying oil from Venezuela. On Wednesday, the U.S. carried out operations to seize two more vessels linked to Venezuela.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has voted against the war powers resolutions, suggested that if the U.S. can seize a giant oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, it could also seize smaller boats allegedly carrying drugs.
“I would take note, if we can take a big ship like this, we may be able to take a few boats, too, without blowing them out of the water,” he told reporters last month. “But that’s a decision they have to make on the ground, I guess, based on the threat level.”
Paul, who has been a fierce critic of the strikes and has decried the lack of due process, shared a letter he received from the U.S. Coast Guard that said dozens of suspected drug smuggling vessels interdicted by the military branch possessed no illegal drugs. In total, 212 interdictions occurred between Sept. 1, 2024, and Oct. 7, 2025, according to the letter. Of those, 41 boats had “no illicit contraband on board when interdicted,” according to the Coast Guard.
The letter also provided details on interceptions in the Caribbean Sea.
“Of the 212 total vessels interdicted during this period, 69 vessels were interdicted in the Caribbean Sea by Coast Guard surface assets, operating under Coast Guard law enforcement authority,” the letter continued. “Of these 69 interdictions, 14 had no illicit contraband on board when interdicted; 11 of those 14 vessels without contraband did not appear to commit any federal criminal offense. Of the 69 Caribbean interdictions, 14 vessels were indicted off the coast of Venezuela. Three of the 14 vessels interdicted near Venezuela had no illicit contraband on board when interdicted, but one of the three violated other U.S. federal criminal statutes.”
To justify the strikes, the Trump administration has said the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels it has designated as terrorist organizations. The drugs smuggled by these cartels kill tens of thousands of Americans each year and constitute an “armed attack” against U.S. citizens, according to the White House.
But the opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel justifying the strikes remains classified. Lawmakers critical of the military action argue the rationale in the opinion is inadequate for the situation and have demanded that it be made public.
In December, Mr. Trump signed an executive order designating fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction,” perhaps seeking to bolster the justification for military action around Venezuela.
Fentanyl was not mentioned in the indictment against Maduro.
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