US Senate Republicans blocked a resolution on Thursday that would have prevented President Donald Trump from attacking Venezuela without congressional authorisation, a day after administration officials told lawmakers that Washington is not currently planning strikes on Venezuelan territory.
The Senate voted 51 to 49, largely along party lines, against a measure that would have brought the war powers resolution up for a vote.
Only two of Trump’s fellow Republicans joined Democrats in backing the measure, in a show of the party’s support for Trump’s military buildup in the southern Caribbean after two months of deadly strikes against boats off Venezuela.
The Trump administration says that, since early September, US forces have launched at least 16 strikes against such vessels in the Pacific and southern Caribbean, killing more than 65 people.
The prolonged campaign has heightened concern that Trump will launch an attack on Venezuela itself, which prompted the introduction of the bipartisan resolution. Its lead sponsors were Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia and Adam Schiff of California, and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Trump has dangled the possibility of land attacks on Venezuela for weeks, saying at one point that he had authorised the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations in the country.
He later denied he was considering strikes inside Venezuela, even as Washington continued to build up a large military presence in the Caribbean with fighter jets, warships and thousands of troops.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth briefed congressional leaders and the Republican chairs and top Democrats on national security committees on the issue on Wednesday.
"Based on that briefing, I think the administration does not want to go to war with Venezuela," Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, told the Atlantic Council.
A senior administration official said attacks against land targets would be justified on national security grounds.
The administration has said those targeted were "narco-terrorists" transporting drugs that endangered Americans.
The US Constitution requires any president to obtain Congress’ approval before launching a prolonged military operation.
Opposing the resolution, Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump had the authority he needed, as commander-in-chief. "I wish my colleagues would join me today in congratulating the president for what he has done," he said.
It was only the latest attempt to rein in Trump’s war powers. The Senate blocked a resolution last month, by a vote of 51-48, that sought to stop the boat strikes. That vote was also mostly along party lines with the same two Republicans — Paul and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — backing the measure.
Kaine and Schiff told reporters on Thursday they would consider options for trying another resolution after the vote.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Steve Holland; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk, Rosalba O'Brien, Leslie Adler and Edmund Klamann)