Days After Rebuking Trump on Venezuela, Senate May Back Down From War Powers Fight

A week after the Senate rebuffed President Trump’s military action in Venezuela, the fate of a rare war powers resolution remains in doubt, as a handful of Republicans face pressure to walk it back. Senators will have to make a choice on Wednesday when the chamber considers final votes on the resolution to block Trump’s ability to use military force again in Venezuela without Congressional approval.

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When the Senate voted on Jan. 8 to move forward with the resolution, that procedural vote passed 52-47, with five Republicans joining all Senate Democrats. It was a clear rebuke of Trump’s action in Venezuela, which he authorized without giving advance notice to the members of the Senate Armed Services committee. In the intervening days, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have worked the phones to try to convince some of those Republicans to back off the resolution when it comes up for a final vote.

By late Tuesday, the question of whether the Senate would follow through on the resolution was in doubt. Even if the legislation passes the Senate, it is unlikely to become law, as it would still need to be approved by the Republican-controlled House and signed by President Trump.

“Our founders gave Congress the power to declare war,” Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, tells TIME. “This is our means of effectuating that power.” He declined to speculate on Tuesday whether the resolution still had enough votes to pass.

Read more: What’s Happening With the U.S. and Venezuela, Explained

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia led the charge on the resolution this month, after Trump announced on Jan. 3 that U.S. special operations forces had completed a large-scale raid on Caracas to capture Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro. The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, and Kaine said the resolution would show Congress taking back its inherent authority from the President.

The five Republicans who voted to move the resolution forward—Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana—had all expressed concerns that Trump’s capture of Maduro could lead to Trump committing more American troops in Venezuela. They all said Congress needed to reassert its authority. Trump was furious about the pushback from within his party, writing on Truth Social that all five GOP Senators “should never be elected to office again.” He called the resolution “unconstitutional” and said it “greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief.”

While Senators including Collins have said an angry call from Trump has not changed her support for the resolution, there are signs that the Administration’s outreach may have made some headway with Hawley. The Missouri Republican suggested to reporters at the Capitol on Monday that Rubio had addressed his concerns directly about the prospect of ground troops being deployed inside Venezuela. Hawley recalled Rubio telling him, “We don’t want to do that.”

In advance of a possible final vote on Wednesday, Republican leaders are insisting the resolution isn’t necessary because the Maduro raid was the extent of military actions planned for Venezuela. “We don’t have troops in Venezuela. There is no kinetic action. There is no operation. There are no boots on the ground,” Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday. “I think it is very fair for Republicans to question why we should be having this conversation when we are trying to do appropriations bills.”

Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma agreed Congress should have a role if the U.S. is committing American forces overseas, but said a war powers resolution over Venezuela at this moment is not the place for it. “We’re not at war with Venezuela,” Lankford told TIME. “Why is Congress demanding its rights back, if we’re not in hostilities with Venezuela?”

Lankford suggested he was open to voting for a war powers resolution in the future. “Especially when you are dealing with issues of war, this is not just about a President,” he said. “This is people in my state, if we’re there, their lives would be on the line, their families are affected by it. So it’s much broader than a Presidential conversation or loyalty. It’s a life or death issue for a lot of people.”

Few senators have pushed back on Trump in recent days more forcefully than Republican Tom Tillis of North Carolina, who vowed to block Trump’s nominees to the Federal Reserve over the Trump Justice Department’s investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and blasted Trump’s demands to annex Greenland. Yet Tillis told TIME on Tuesday that as long as there are no U.S. troops actively fighting inside Venezuela, he won’t be voting for the war powers resolution. He described the Jan. 3 raid as “a successful military mission” and stressed that Venezuela “doesn’t have any U.S. boots on the ground.”

“If that posture changes, my posture on war powers may change. But not now,” Tillis said. “I’m moving on. I’m glad the President executed the mission. It went well. I’m also glad the service members are recovering.”

Since the Senate advanced the war powers resolution last week, Trump has posted online a meme showing him as “Acting President of Venezuela” and told the New York Times the U.S. actions in Venezuela will last “years.”
Schiff says that kind of behavior helps rally support for the war powers resolution, as both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate remain concerned that Trump could unilaterally commit U.S. forces long-term to Venezuela. “The more the President talks about being ‘acting president of Venezuela’ and a multi-year commitment, the more support our work is likely to have,” he said.