Senate takes first vote to limit military action in Venezuela

By Andrew Rice
The Center Square

The U.S. Senate took a bipartisan step on Thursday to pass a resolution limiting President Donald Trump from the use of further military force in Venezuela.

An initial vote passed 52-47. A final vote is expected next week.

Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Todd Young, R-Ind., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., joined Democrats in asserting Congressional war powers authority.

The resolution would end further military operations involving Venezuela without approval from Congress. Last week, the United States conducted Operation Absolute Resolve to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

The Venezuelan president is now on trial in New York.

While several Republicans joined Democrats in the vote, other members of the GOP voiced their frustration. U.S. Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, said the resolution is attempting to stop military action in Venezuela that is no longer occurring.

“The United States conducted a limited operation that removed an indicted narco-terrorist – Nicolas Maduro – from Venezuela and brought him to the United States to face justice for his crimes,” Risch said on the Senate floor Thursday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump’s pursuits in Venezuela are an “endless war” and said the president should focus on affordability instead of foreign affairs.

“We must send Donald Trump a clear message on behalf of the American people, no more endless wars,” Schumer said.

Risch further criticized the resolution and said it does not attempt to solve problems that are occurring in Venezuela.

“The purpose of this resolution is to slap the President in the face. It will do nothing that it proposed,” Risch said. “Efforts to do because it can’t stop something that isn’t going on right now.”

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who called up the resolution to a vote, clarified that the resolution is not seeking to challenge Maduro’s arrest.

“Under the War Powers resolution, I’m not even sure that the execution of an arrest warrant, even if accompanied by military escort, would rise to the level of hostilities that would allow such a challenge, and I certainly wouldn’t be calling it up for a vote on the floor,” Kaine said.

However, Kaine argued, the Trump administration’s strikes against suspected drug boats and bombing in Venezuela during Maduro’s capture amount to an issue the Senate must challenge.

“This is not an attack on the arrest warrant, but it is merely a statement that going forward, U.S. troops should not be used in hostilities in Venezuela without a vote of Congress, as the Constitution requires,” Kaine said.

“Mr. President, before you send our sons and daughters to war, come to Congress, that is a vote that no one has ever regretted, and no one will ever regret,” Kaine added.