Smoke is seen over buildings after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, January 3, 2026. (Photo by Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives failed Thursday to support a resolution to limit President Donald Trump’s military operations abroad after the U.S. intervened to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Decision from Thursday tied to 215-215. If passed, it would have “directed the President to withdraw the armed forces of the United States from Venezuela unless expressly authorized by a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization for the use of military force.”
Republicans Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Don Bacon of Nebraska voted in favor, as did all Democrats present. The vote was adjourned for about an hour so that Texas Republican Wesley Hunt could arrive and vote against the resolution.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were arrested by the U.S. military earlier this month to face narcoterrorism and conspiracy charges in New York City that were originally filed in 2020. The couple pleaded not guilty.
The January 3rd: Military operation in Venezuela was carried out without congressional authorization or notification.
Before the military operation in Venezuela, the Trump administration conducted a months-long bombing campaign against diminutive boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The US strikes killed more than 115 people who Trump officials claimed without evidence were smuggling drugs into the US
Both chambers have now tried to curb Trump’s military actions in Latin America through a war powers resolution, but were unable to secure enough votes.
The Senate initially succeeded in a procedural vote on a war powers resolution earlier this month, but the measure was ultimately implemented failed after two Republicans Those who supported the measure voted against it.
Congress passed a war powers resolution in 1973 to limit the president’s authority to wage wars abroad after the Nixon administration secretly bombed Vietnam and Cambodia. Killing hundreds of thousands of people. Then-President Richard Nixon vetoed the resolution, but Congress overrode the veto.
