OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
8:00 AM – Thursday, January 15, 2026
Vice President JD Vance cast the deciding vote against a Venezuelan war powers resolution that would have prevented President Donald Trump from taking further military action against the country without giving advance notice to Congress.
The Senate had been deadlocked on Wednesday before Vance broke the 50-50 roll call tie.
Five Republicans — Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — voted with Democrats for Senator Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) proposed measure, before Hawley and Young flipped on Wednesday to oppose the bill that would limit Trump’s power.
In a statement a week before the vote, Collins wrote, “While I support the operation to seize Nicolas Maduro, which was extraordinary in its precision and complexity, I do not support committing additional U.S. forces or entering into any long-term military involvement in Venezuela … without specific congressional authorization.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) remarked on the Senate floor ahead of the vote that the measure was “trying to stop something that is not happening.”
“Even this institution cannot stop something that isn’t happening, and that’s exactly what the resolution directs the president to do,” he said. “Currently there are no U.S. forces engaged in hostilities in Venezuela.”
Trump indeed has called off a “second wave” of strikes on Venezuela after the success of the first attack that led to President Nicolás Maduro and his wife’s capture. A letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Risch, reviewed by ABC News, confirmed that there are no U.S. Armed Forces in Venezuela.
“Should there be any new military operations that introduce U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities, they will be undertaken consistent with the Constitution of the United States and we will transmit written notifications consistent with section 4(a) of the War PowersResolution,” the letter vowed.
Section 4(a) requires the administration to notify Congress within 48 hours of U.S. military action.
“The secretary also told me directly that the administration will not put ground troops into Venezuela,” Hawley reported. “They do not seek to occupy Venezuela, but his commitment to abide by the War Powers notification procedures and also the Constitution is directly responsive to my concerns, so I’m inclined to take yes for an answer.”
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Senate Republicans “abdicated their responsibility” in killing the resolution, however.
“The bottom line is … Senate Republicans continually fall in line behind Donald Trump no matter how reckless, no matter how unconstitutional, no matter the potential cost of American lives,” Schumer said at a news conference after the vote.
“What has happened tonight is a road map to another endless war because this Senate, under Republican leadership, failed to assert its legitimate and needed authority,” Schumer continued.
Kaine, who sponsored the resolution, said that it was “disappointing that my colleagues let the president sort of beat them into submission.”
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