Vice President JD Vance had to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate on Wednesday night to kill a Venezuela War Powers Resolution that sought to prevent another US attack on the country without congressional authorization.
The Senate was deadlocked at 50-50 on a point of order vote to strip the War Powers Resolution of its privileged status to block a final vote. President Trump and his top officials put significant pressure on five Republicans who voted to advance the legislation last week, and two of the GOP senators — Josh Hawley (MO) and Todd Young (IN) — flipped and voted against the bill.
Republican Senators Rand Paul (KY), Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Susan Collins (ME) maintained their support for the bill and joined Democrats in voting in favor despite the pressure from the Trump administration.
Hawley said last week that he voted to advance the bill because of concerns that Trump might send troops to Venezuela. “With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it,” wrote on X.
Before the vote on Wednesday, Hawley said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured him that the administration would consult Congress if the “security situation” regarding Venezuela changes. “Secretary Rubio has said directly to me: ‘There are absolutely no plans or intentions of occupying Venezuela. But if something crazy should happen, they will follow the Constitution and statutes in working through this with Congress,” Hawley said.
However, back in November, Rubio and other Trump administration officials assured Congress that they didn’t plan to directly attack Venezuela in an effort to kill another War Powers Resolution. The Washington Post reported at the time that Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth “provided a classified briefing for select members of Congress where they indicated the administration is not currently preparing to target Venezuela directly and didn’t have a proper legal argument for doing so.” About two months later, the US bombed Caracas and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
