House Republicans narrowly defeat war powers resolution to check Trump’s military actions in Venezuela

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday rejected a Democratic-backed resolution that would have blocked President Donald Trump from sending U.S. military forces to Venezuela after a tied vote on the legislation failed to get the majority needed to pass.

The tied vote was the latest sign of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s tenuous control over the majority, as well as some growing backlash in the GOP-controlled Congress against Trump’s hemispheric assaults. A Senate vote on a similar resolution was also tied up last week until Vice President J.D. Vance was able to break the deadlock.

He watches: Senate Republicans defeat the war powers resolution in Venezuela, and yield to Trump’s pressure

To scuttle the resolution on Thursday, Republican leaders had to hold the vote open for more than 20 minutes while Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt, who had been out of Washington all week campaigning for a Senate seat in Texas, rushed to Capitol Hill to cast the deciding vote.

On the House floor, Democrats responded with cries that Republican leaders were violating the House’s procedural rules. Two Republicans — Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — voted with all Democrats in favor of the legislation.

The War Powers Resolution would have directed Trump to withdraw US forces from Venezuela. The Trump administration told senators last week that there were no US troops on the ground in the South American country, and committed to seeking congressional approval before launching major military operations there.

But Democrats said the decision was necessary after the US raid to arrest Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and since Trump announced plans to control the country’s oil industry for years to come.

Response to Trump’s foreign policy

Thursday’s vote was the latest test in Congress of how much freedom Republicans will grant to a president who campaigned on extracting the United States from foreign entanglements but who is increasingly resorting to military options to impose his will in the Western Hemisphere. So far, almost all Republicans have refused to impose checks on Trump through a vote on war powers.

Representative Brian Mast, Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, accused Democrats of putting the war powers resolution to a vote out of “spite” of Trump.

“It’s about the fact that you don’t want President Trump to arrest Maduro, and you will condemn him no matter what he does, even though he brought Maduro to justice in perhaps the most successful law enforcement operation in history,” Mast added.

However, Democrats have strongly emphasized that Congress needs to assert its role in determining when the president can use his wartime powers. They were able to force a series of votes in both the House and Senate, where Trump, in recent months, has intensified his campaign against Maduro and set his sights on other conflicts abroad.

“Donald Trump is turning the United States into a regional bully with fewer allies and more enemies,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during debate on the House floor. “This doesn’t make America great again. It makes us isolated and weak.”

Last week, Senate Republicans were only able to narrowly reject a war powers resolution in Venezuela after the Trump administration persuaded two Republicans to reverse their previous support. As part of this effort, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has committed to delivering a briefing next week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

However, Trump’s insistence that the United States will own Greenland over the objections of NATO ally Denmark has alarmed some Republicans on Capitol Hill. They have voiced some of the most vocal objections to almost anything the president has done since taking office.

Trump this week backed away from military and tariff threats against European allies when he announced that his administration was working with NATO on a “framework for a future agreement” on Arctic security.

But Bacon still expressed frustration with Trump’s aggressive foreign policy and voted for the War Powers Resolution even though it applied only to Venezuela.

“I’m tired of all the threats,” he added.

Trump’s recent military actions — and threats to do more — have reignited a decades-long debate in Congress over the War Powers Act, a law passed in the early 1970s by lawmakers looking to restore their authority over military actions.

Discuss the powers of war

The War Powers Resolution was passed in the Vietnam War era as the United States sent troops into conflicts throughout Asia. It attempted to force presidents to work with Congress to deploy troops if there had not already been a formal declaration of war.

Under the legislation, lawmakers could also force a vote on legislation directing the president to withdraw U.S. troops from hostilities.

Presidents have long tested the limits of those standards, and Democrats say Trump in his second term has pushed those limits further than ever before.

The Trump administration left Congress in the dark before the surprise raid to arrest Maduro. It also used a sophisticated set of legal justifications to blow up alleged drug boats and seize sanctioned oil tankers near Venezuela.

Democrats wonder who will benefit from Venezuelan oil licenses

While the Trump administration oversees the sale of Venezuelan oil around the world, Senate Democrats are also questioning who benefits from the contracts.

In one of the first deals, the United States granted Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil brokerage, a license worth approximately $250 million. John Addison, a senior partner at Vitol, gave nearly $6 million to Trump-aligned political action committees during the presidential election, according to donation records compiled by OpenSecrets.

“Congress and the American people deserve full transparency regarding any financial commitments, promises, deals, or other arrangements related to Venezuela that could favor donors to the President’s campaign and the political process,” 13 Democratic senators wrote to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Thursday in a letter led by Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

The White House said it was protecting the South American country’s oil for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the United States.