- - Vance casts tiebreaking vote to kill Venezuela war powers resolution

ALLISON PECORINJanuary 15, 2026 at 5:13 AM

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Vance casts tiebreaking vote to kill Venezuela war powers resolution

Vice President JD Vance cast the deciding vote Wednesday to effectively kill a Venezuelan war powers resolution after the Senate deadlocked on the measure.

Vance broke a 50-50 tie on a vote that stops the Senate from further considering the resolution and senators will not take further votes on the resolution..

Republicans Sens. Josh Hawley and Todd Young, who previously supported the resolution, flipped on Wednesday.

Hawley, Young and three other Republicans -- Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul -- voted with Democrats last week to buck President Donald Trump and advance Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine's resolution which would block the use of U.S. armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress.

In remarks on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch said that the war powers resolution was a debate about "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."

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Republicans "abdicated their responsibility" in killing the resolution.

"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 during a news conference after the vote.

He said Republicans "rubber stamp everything" that Trump tells them to .

"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 said.

Sen. Tim Kaine, who sponsored the resolution, said it was "disappointing that my colleagues let the president sort of beat them into submission."

Kaine lamented that the vote would block a public debate on the administration's actions in Venezuela.

"If they were that righteous about the justness of this cause or the validity of their legal rationale they wouldn't be afraid of a public debate. But they're afraid of that," Kaine said.

Kaine said it was, ultimately, still positive that new commitments were secured from the administration as a result of the effort. But he also said it gives him a "strong incentive" to file additional war powers resolutions.

Trump called out the GOP senators who voted to advance the resolution by name in a post on social media after last week's vote and engaged with them over the phone.

Hawley told reporters Wednesday before the vote that after a series of communications with the White House he would join the majority of Republicans and vote against the resolution. Hawley said he reviewed a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that eased his concerns about troops being deployed for a ground operation in Venezuela.

In a copy of that letter obtained by ABC News, Rubio told Risch that "there are currently no U.S. Armed Forced 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 reads.

Section 4a is the language that requires the administration to notify Congress within 48 hours of any U.S. military action.

"The secretary also told me directly that the administration will not put ground troops into Venezuela," Hawley said. "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."

Murkowski, in a statement after the vote, said she continued to support the resolution because she believes it is important for Congress to continue to exercise its authority as a coequal branch of government. She said Congress must be a part of critical decisions about military involvement.

"While the administration argues that the Venezuelan regime is now complying and that hostilities are no longer imminent, no meaningful end state has been articulated, and U.S. forces and assets remain fully postured in the region. That posture, and operations leading up to it, demonstrate the very kind of continued military involvement the War Powers Resolution was designed to address," Murkowski said.

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Source: “AOL Breaking”