The U.S. House of Representatives shot down two resolutions that would have forced President Donald Trump to get congressional approval before launching strikes against Venezuela and drug smuggling boats.
Republican lawmakers barely beat back the attempts, rejecting the measures with final votes at 213–211 and 216–210, respectively. This comes just one day after Trump escalated the pressure on President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, calling his regime a terrorist organization and ordering a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers going to and from the country.
Earlier this year, Trump also directed a naval strike carrier group into the Caribbean near Venezuela.
The votes Wednesday were mostly along party lines. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie, Kentucky, and Don Bacon, Nebraska, joined Democrats in backing the proposal to end airstrikes on drug smuggling boats. In the measure to bar an attack against Venezuela without congressional approval, Massie and Bacon were joined by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in voting with Democrats in backing the proposal.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) introduced the resolution to end boat strikes in the Caribbean or Pacific, citing the 1973 War Powers Act. Meeks argued the strikes must end without specific congressional authorization or a declaration of war.
The United States has carried out at least two dozen strikes on drug smuggling boats since September, killing at least 95.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass) introduced a similar measure to bar military action against Venezuela without first going to Congress, which was rejected Wednesday.
“Maduro is a thug and a tyrant, and I’m appalled by his government’s countless human rights abuses. But America cannot afford to engage in another doomed-to-fail attempt at regime change,” McGovern said in a statement.
At the vote, Republicans accused their opposition of turning their backs on Americans, citing thousands of Americans dying as a result of drug trafficking each year. Democrats said they wish to preserve Congress’s power and authority in forcing the president to seek approval before conducting military strikes.
Earlier this week, Trump signed an executive order designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
Among one of the president’s first executive orders he signed upon taking office Jan. 20 was designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, reading in part to ensure “the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States.”
