Republicans Fail Attempt in House to Restrict Trump’s Powers Regarding Venezuela

SadaNews - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly failed late Thursday to Friday to pass a resolution that would have prohibited President Donald Trump from taking further military action in Venezuela without congressional authorization, just days after a similar measure failed in the Senate.

The House voted 215 to 215, which is a tie that effectively defeated the resolution "directing the president to remove U.S. armed forces from Venezuela unless their presence is explicitly authorized under a declaration of war or a specific legal authorization for the use of military force."

The vote largely fell along party lines in the sharply divided chamber, where Republicans, to whom Trump belongs, hold a majority of 218 to 213. All Republicans except for two voted against the resolution, while all Democrats voted in favor.

The close vote reflected anxieties in Congress, including among a number of Republicans, regarding Trump's foreign policy. There is growing support for the principle that Congress, not the president, should have the power to send U.S. troops to war, as stipulated in the U.S. Constitution.

Opponents of the resolution argued that it was unnecessary because the United States currently does not have troops on the ground in Venezuela.

Supporters of the resolution say they want to prevent Trump from dragging the United States into another "endless war" after decades of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

U.S. forces attacked Caracas on January 3rd and arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. A large fleet of U.S. ships has been blockading Venezuela and has been firing for months at boats allegedly carrying drugs in the southern Caribbean and Pacific Ocean.

The Trump administration asserts that the operation to arrest Maduro was a very limited judicial process to bring him to trial in the U.S. on drug-related charges and not a military operation.