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A majority of House Republicans banded together on Thursday to defeat a bipartisan war powers resolution that could have restricted President Donald Trump from taking future military action in Venezuela.
The House GOP managed to defeat the measure with its razor-thin majority in a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and the White House.
The resolution failed in a 215-215 vote, falling short of securing a majority needed to succeed. Only two Republicans, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., voted in favor of the package.
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Speaker Johnson held the vote for over 20 minutes, buying Republicans time to vote against the resolution. Eventually one Republican latecomer, Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Tx., arrived at the chamber, breaking the stalemate and dooming the measure.
“Close the vote!” Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., yelled as Republicans struggled to solidify their opposition. “This is serious s—!”
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
The resolution directs Trump to remove troops deployed to Venezuela and mirrors a similar effort in the Senate aimed at restricting the administration from taking future military action in the country.
Administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, say there are currently no U.S. armed forces in Venezuela, although Trump has ordered a naval blockade off the country’s coast.
The White House sharply rebuked the legislation when asked by Fox News Digital on Thursday.
“It’s a shame that these members of Congress want to usurp the authority of the commander in chief to take vital actions to strengthen our national security and stop drugs and criminals from entering our homeland,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he expected Republicans would stick together to defeat the resolution.
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“I don’t think we will have any breaks on that,” Johnson told Fox News Digital that morning.
“We are the last great superpower, and we have to allow the president the authority to use what is his under the Constitution,” Johnson said, referring to Trump’s role as commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces. “I don’t think we need to get in the way of that.”
The McGovern-Massie resolution comes after Trump ordered the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month in what the administration has framed as a narrowly tailored law enforcement operation.
The White House contends that the U.S. has simply detained an alleged criminal. Maduro and his wife were indicted in a New York court for allegedly facilitating drug trafficking in the U.S.
“The entire Trump administration coordinated to execute the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, who headed a major narco-trafficking foreign terrorist organization and was a fugitive of American justice,” Kelly said.
Democrats like McGovern have pushed back on the GOP’s portrayal, raising concerns that the U.S. may carry out more military operations in Venezuela.
But the bipartisan House duo’s resolution was slightly different from a similar piece of legislation by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., also dealing with Trump’s power in Venezuela.
The House version would require the Trump administration to remove any U.S. forces in the region, despite officials telling lawmakers that there were no boots on the ground in the country following the surprise strikes and capture of Maduro.
The likelihood that Massie and McGovern’s resolution would survive in the Senate is made more difficult given that lawmakers in the upper chamber already killed Kaine’s push to require congressional authorization for any future military activities in the region.
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Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., flipped their votes to kill the resolution after assurances and guarantees from administration officials, most notably Rubio, that there were no boots on the ground in the country.
Still, Rubio is set to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week to lay out the administration’s plan in the region. His appearance also comes amid uncertainty about Trump’s plans with Greenland.
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Rubio already teased that plan after one of several classified briefings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. For now, the administration is considering a three-pronged plan in the region focused on stabilization, recovery and transition.
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