Congress Squanders Last Chance to Block Venezuela War Before Going on Vacation |
The House voted down a pair of measures to halt strikes on alleged drug boats and on Venezuelan land on Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump announced a blockade on the South American country.
Democrats sponsoring the measures were able to peel off only two Republicans on the first vote and three on the second as the GOP rallied around the White House.
On Tuesday, Trump announced a partial blockade — considered an act of war in international law — against Venezuela after weeks of threatening military action.
“If we intensify hostilities in Venezuela, we have no idea what we’re walking into.”
The votes Wednesday may have been lawmakers’ last chance to push back on Trump before Congress’s end-of-year break. A vote on a bipartisan measure in the Senate blocking land strikes is pending.
The House voted 216-210 against the drug boats measure and 213-211 against the land strikes measure. Both would have required Trump to seek congressional authorization for further attacks.
The lead sponsor of the measure blocking an attack on Venezuela, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said Trump seemed to be rushing headlong into a war without making the case for it.
“Americans do not want another Iraq. If we intensify hostilities in Venezuela, we have no idea what we’re walking into,” McGovern said. “At least George Bush had the decency to come to Congress for approval in 2002. Don’t the American people deserve that respect today?”
Bush in 2002 sought and received a formal authorization for his attack on Iraq. Without taking any similar steps, Trump has massed thousands of American service members in the Caribbean without formal approval.
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