U.S. Rep Jim McGovern has joined two other members of Congress in introducing a bipartisan resolution that would block the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump from engaging in “hostilities within or against” Venezuela, as military operations continue to escalate in the region.
The move comes after Trump vowed to close all airspace above Venezuela and following numerous airstrikes conducted by the U.S. military on boats in the Caribbean Sea, which the administration has claimed contain drug traffickers from the South American country.
The resolution evokes the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which states that the president of the United States cannot use military force without congressional approval. The six-line resolution simply states that, “Congress hereby directs the President to remove the use of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization for use of military force.”
In a statement announcing the resolution, McGovern criticized Trump for escalating conflict with a foreign country despite running on an isolationist “America First” platform. He also pointed out that despite the administration’s claim to be targeting drug trafficking, Trump had also recently pardoned former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison in the United States for his role in a drug trafficking operation.
“Donald Trump claimed he would put America first — instead he’s trying to drag us into an illegal war in Venezuela,” said McGovern in the statement. “Whatever this is about, it has nothing to do with stopping drugs.”
McGovern submitted the resolution along with fellow Democrat Joaquin Castro of Texas and Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Massie has emerged as one of the most vocal dissenters of several of Trump’s policies from within his own party, disagreeing on matters such as foreign policy and the release of files pertaining to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Constitution does not permit the executive branch to unilaterally commit an act of war against a sovereign nation that hasn’t attacked the United States,” said Massie in a statement. “Congress has the sole power to declare war against Venezuela. Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution.”
The country of Venezuela has seen economic and political collapse under the rule of President Nicolás Maduro, who has held power in the country since 2013, with many opposition leaders in the country considering his government illegitimate. The Trump administration has designated both Maduro and Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan crime organization with operations in the United States, as terrorists. The country has also seen an exodus of millions of Venezuelans as a result of the crises.
Two similar resolutions previously introduced in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate fell short of approval, with the most recent one introduced last month blocked by a 51-to-49 vote.
But criticism within Congress against military actions in Venezuela has become more pronounced since then, including from Republicans, following reports that survivors of a boat strike were attacked a second time and killed by U.S. military under the command of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in September. In an interview during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth said he “did not personally see survivors” after the first strike and blamed “the fog of war” for the second strike.
Some lawmakers and legal experts say the second strike would have violated the laws of armed conflict.
“These are serious charges, and that’s the reason we’re going to have special oversight,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Somebody made a horrible decision. Somebody needs to be held accountable,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who in January held out support for Hegseth until only moments before casting a crucial vote for his confirmation.
The scrutiny surrounding Hegseth’s brash leadership style is surfacing what has been long-building discontent in Congress over Trump’s choice to helm the U.S. military. And it’s posing a potentially existential moment for Hegseth as the congressional committees overseeing the military launch an investigation amid mounting calls from Democratic senators for his resignation.
Since working to become defense secretary, Hegseth has vowed to bring a “warrior culture” to the U.S. government’s most powerful and expensive department, from rebranding it as the Department of War to essentially discarding the rules that govern how soldiers conduct themselves when lives are on the line.
Hegseth on Tuesday chided those second-guessing his actions as being part of the problem. Yet the approach to the operation was in line with the direction of the military under Hegseth, a former infantry officer with the Army National Guard, part of the post-Sept. 11 generation, who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and earned Bronze Stars.
During a speech in September, he told an unusual gathering of top military brass whom he had summoned from all corners of the globe to the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia that they should not “fight with stupid rules of engagement.”
“We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country,” he said. “No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.”
Vice President JD Vance, who cast a rare tiebreaking vote to confirm Hegseth, has vigorously defended him in the attack. And Sen. Eric Schmitt, another close ally to Trump, dismissed criticism of Hegseth as “nonsense” and part of an effort to undermine Trump’s focus on Central and South America.
“He’s not part of the Washington elite,” said Schmitt, R-Mo. “He’s not a think tanker that people thought Trump was going to pick. … And so, for that reason and others, they just, they don’t like him.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York called Hegseth a “national embarrassment,” adding the defense secretary’s social media post of the cartoon turtle is “something no serious leader would ever think of doing.”
Schumer repeated his insistence Wednesday that Hegseth “release the full, unedited tapes” of what happened.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.