House Republicans refuted a unified Democratic caucus in defeating a resolution on Thursday evening directing the removal of United States Armed Forces in Venezuela.
The new resolution comes only eight days after a similar bill was defeated in the Senate with a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance. Thursday’s resolution was defeated in a split 215-215 vote, despite support for the Democratic effort by Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Republican Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon.
Massie, a libertarian-leaning Republican, is facing a GOP primary challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump while Bacon, a moderate, is retiring after the midterms.
“The U.S. is not at war with Venezuela. I know you all predicted that there’s going to be some forever protracted war, but we were never at war with Venezuela,” Republican Florida Rep. Brian Mast, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on the lower chamber’s floor Thursday. “There are no boots on the ground. Democrats are asking us to vote on a resolution about a situation that literally does not exist. We do not have anybody there in Venezuela fighting. There are no tanks on the ground in Caracas. There are no snipers in the tree line. Doesn’t exist. Again, we are not at war.”
“It’s really important that we reassert our authority over war and military actions, and I think it’s important that there are Republicans that understand why that’s so important, and that this is a bipartisan effort, even though we haven’t quite gotten there in the Senate yet,” Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday. “I just think it’s critically important, this is an authority that the founders gave to Congress, and we need to stand up for it.”
The previous Senate war powers resolution initially saw success in a vote bringing the legislation to the floor of the upper chamber with the support of five Republicans on Jan. 8 — Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Todd Young of Indiana, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. However, six days later, following lobbying and primary threats from Trump, Hawley and Young flipped their votes and rejoined the Republicans in tabling the resolution — pointing to the lack of troops in Venezuela and assurances from the White House that it would seek Congressional approval for future action.
“You know what happened in the Senate? They had a vote. First, five Republicans joined Democrats. But in his general style, two of them were very threatened by the president and had to reverse their vote the next week,” New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the lead Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said on the House floor Thursday. “We need to have the vote here and see if the courage that the five first showed — and the three that continued to show — whether my colleagues on the other side are going to have the courage to stand up.”
Thursday’s war powers resolution is one of a series of similar resolutions brought before Congress since October 2025, first in response to the president’s striking alleged narco-running boats around Venezuela, and now addressing the Jan. 3 capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and related questions of long-term involvement in the country.
“I think hostilities were present, when you look at the bombing of the boats, the strikes,” Jayapal told the DCNF on Thursday. “We put our troops in danger. That’s the authority that Congress gave us, was to think about what the action is and then what the consequences are. And I think the consequences of this could be really horrific in terms of sovereignty of other nations. And so I think it needs a debate. It needs authorization — that’s what the Founders intended.”
“Make no mistake about it, we are not at war with Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro is a murderer, an autocrat, a narco-terrorist, a thug who has oppressed his own people, stolen elections, and turned a once prosperous and free country into a desperate nation that millions have fled,” Republican Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford said on Thursday. “None of the actions taken by the Trump administration to execute an arrest warrant on a criminal constitute war.”
“Additionally, Secretary Rubio confirmed again to Congress on January 14th that there are currently no U.S. troops in Venezuela and that the introduction of U.S. armed forces into future hostilities will be undertaken consistent with notifications of the War Powers Resolution, if required,” Crawford added.
Trump has indicated that U.S. involvement in the South American country could last for years in an effort to rebuild and capitalize on Venezuelan oil assets — the largest reserves in the world — which Trump says the U.S. will control the sale of “indefinitely.”
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