With floor votes expected this week in the US House of Representatives, progressive lawmakers are pressing their colleagues to support a pair of War Powers resolutions aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from launching what they describe as an unauthorized and potentially catastrophic war against Venezuela. The effort comes amid escalating US military actions and rhetoric toward the South American nation, including the recent seizure of an oil tanker and renewed threats of expanded military strikes.
Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Chuy García of Illinois, respectively the deputy chair and whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, framed the upcoming votes as a defining constitutional test for lawmakers. “As Trump once again threatens ‘land strikes on Venezuela,’ every US representative will face a simple, up-or-down choice on the House floor this week: Will you stand up for the Constitution and vote to stop Trump’s illegal warmaking or not?” the two lawmakers said in a joint statement. They emphasized that opposition to a regime-change war is not limited to Democrats, adding, “This is not a partisan issue: Three in four Americans oppose a regime-change war to overthrow the Venezuelan government, including two-thirds of Republicans.”
At the center of the push are two resolutions designed to reassert Congress’s exclusive authority to authorize offensive military force. The first measure, H.Con.Res. 61, is led by Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York. It would require Trump to “remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities with any presidentially designated terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere, unless authorized by a declaration of war or a specific congressional authorization for use of military force.” The second, H.Con.Res. 64, was introduced earlier this month by Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and is explicitly aimed at preventing a direct US attack on Venezuela. The resolution states, “Congress hereby directs the president to remove the use of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization for use of military force.” Notably, the measure has bipartisan backing, with Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Don Bacon of Nebraska listed as co-sponsors.
Omar and García warned that Trump’s recent actions and rhetoric are “driving us toward a catastrophic forever war in Venezuela.” In laying out their case, the lawmakers cited a series of developments they say amount to illegal hostilities. “Trump is deploying U.S. personnel to seize Venezuelan oil tankers in international waters. He has launched double-tap airstrikes killing capsized and defenseless individuals. Trump declared a no-fly zone on Venezuelan airspace, deployed F-18 fly-overs in the Gulf of Venezuela, and refused to rule out troop deployments, while threatening to overthrow heads of state across the region,” they said. According to the statement, “These are illegal hostilities that could destabilize the entire region and fuel mass migration. Congress must stop this unconstitutional military campaign by passing these War Powers Resolutions.”
The urgency of the lawmakers’ appeal has been underscored by recent events at sea. Last Wednesday, the US military seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a move that followed weeks of threats by Trump against the Venezuelan government. Bloomberg described the action as a “serious escalation” in tensions between the two countries and reported that the seizure “may make it much harder for Venezuela to export its oil, as other shippers are now likely to be more reluctant to load its cargoes.” A Trump administration official characterized the incident to Bloomberg as a “judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel” that had been docked in Venezuela.
Trump himself highlighted the seizure during a meeting with business leaders at the White House, boasting that the tanker was the “largest one ever seized.” Critics, however, argued that the move went far beyond routine law enforcement and represented a dangerous step toward open conflict. Just Foreign Policy, a progressive think tank and advocacy group, condemned the tanker seizure as an “illegal US move to take control of Venezuela’s natural resources and strangle the economy, which is already struggling under indiscriminate US sanctions.” The group warned that “millions of civilians will be at risk if the economy deteriorates and tensions rise.”
According to the information cited by lawmakers and advocates, the tanker seizure is only one element of a broader pattern of aggressive actions by the Trump administration. Starting in September, the administration began what the source material describes as “a series of murders of people aboard boats in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela and in the Pacific Ocean.” The administration has claimed that those killed in these incidents were drug smugglers and has accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of leading an international drug trafficking organization known as the Cartel de los Soles. However, the same material notes that many experts have said they have seen no evidence that such an organization formally exists.
Trump has further escalated tensions by declaring that Venezuelan airspace was “closed in its entirety,” despite lacking legal authority to enforce such a measure, and by hinting that strikes against alleged drug traffickers on Venezuelan soil could occur in the near future. These statements and actions have heightened concerns among lawmakers that the executive branch is attempting to bypass Congress and expand military operations without authorization.
In their weekend statement, Omar and García stressed that the constitutional stakes extend beyond Venezuela. “Both Democrats and Republicans must send a strong message to the Trump administration: Only Congress can authorize offensive military force, not the president,” they said. By framing the issue in constitutional terms, supporters of the resolutions hope to draw broader backing from lawmakers wary of unchecked executive power, even if they differ on US policy toward Venezuela itself.
The coming House votes will determine whether Congress moves to assert its authority or allows the administration’s actions to continue unchecked. Supporters of the War Powers resolutions argue that failure to act would effectively greenlight a campaign of escalating hostilities that could entrench the United States in another prolonged conflict abroad. As Omar and García warned, the current trajectory risks locking the country into a conflict with profound regional and humanitarian consequences.
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