Washington, Jan 8 (.) The US Senate moved on Thursday toward limiting President Donald Trump’s ability to strike Venezuela with five Republicans joining all Democrats in support of the measure.
After two previous unsuccessful attempts, the Senate voted 52 to 47 to advance a war powers resolution, days after the US captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in a surprise nighttime raid.
The five GOP senators who voted in favor include Todd Young of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Missouri.
The resolution on the War Powers Act aims to block President Trump from using military force against Venezuela, a proposal that if enacted would unravel the administration’s plan to take control of Venezuela’s oil exports.
A vote to pass the resolution itself is expected next week.
The Senate is likely to vote to proceed to resolution on Monday and spend the rest of week debating it. The resolution still needs to pass the House — where a similar measure failed in a close vote last month — and it faces a certain veto from Trump.
There likely aren’t enough votes in either chamber to override Trump, something that requires a two-thirds majority. Even so, Senate passage of the resolution to block further use of military force “within or against Venezuela” without authorization from Congress is a major symbolic victory for lawmakers alarmed over Trump’s threats to project power throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Senators in both parties are alarmed Trump will deploy “boots on the ground” in Venezuela, something the president didn’t rule out during a press conference Saturday after the overnight raid to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas.
President Trump ripped the five Senate Republicans who voted to limit his actions in Venezuela.
“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,” he wrote on Truth Social Thursday, adding that GOP Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Todd Young (Ind.) “should never be elected to office again.”
“This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief,” he continued.
“In any event, and despite their ‘stupidity,’ the War Powers Act is Unconstitutional, totally violating Article II of the Constitution, as all Presidents, and their Departments of Justice, have determined before me. Nevertheless, a more important Senate Vote will be taking place next week on this very subject,” he added.
A final vote on the measure is expected next week.
After the Senate voted to move forward on the Venezuela war powers resolution, a group of House Democrats led by Rep. Jim McGovern introduced their own resolution that would ban US military action in Venezuela without Congressional approval.
The legislation mirrors the resolution that the House voted on in December that failed narrowly by a vote of 211-213, with three Republicans voting in favor.
Democrats are hopeful now, however, that they can get Republican support to pass the resolution following the US operation to capture Nicolas Maduro.
A vote in the House on this measure is expected to occur by the end of January.
President Trump has told the NYT that he thinks the US could be overseeing things in Venezuela for “much longer” than a year in the wake of the US attack on the South American nation.
He told The New York Times on Wednesday that “only time will tell” how long Washington will maintain direct oversight of the country. Asked if that could last three months, six months, a year or longer, he responded that, “I would say much longer.”
Trump also said he expects the US to be taking Venezuelan oil for years.
“We will rebuild (Venezuela) in a very profitable way,” Trump said. “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need.”
He added that the remaining leaders of Venezuela are “giving us everything that we feel is necessary” even though they had all been loyal to Maduro.
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