Sen. Adam Schiff of California, left, and Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, both Democrats, talk to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — A vote to stop President Donald Trump’s deadly strikes on alleged drug-running boats off the coast of Venezuela failed Thursday in the U.S. Senate, nearly mirroring the outcome of a similar war powers vote last month. 

Senate Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky again joined Democrats in a 49-51 vote, just shy of the simple majority needed to advance legislation aimed at halting Trump’s escalating campaign on what his administration describes as “narco-terrorists.”

The joint resolution, brought to the floor by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., directs the “removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress.”

Paul and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., initially cosponsored the bill, and a dozen more Democratic senators and one independent signed on. 

Schiff’s similar measure failed 48-51 in early October.

Kaine forced Thursday’s vote under the War Powers Resolution, a Vietnam War-era statute that gives Congress a check on the president’s use of the military abroad. 

The death toll from U.S. military strikes has risen to 67 since September, according to CNN. Notably, the Trump administration is relocating the country’s most advanced aircraft carrier from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, joining other Navy resources currently amassed there. 

On Oct. 16, Trump publicly confirmed a New York Times report that he had authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela and told reporters he was “looking at land” for possible further strikes.  

Kaine, Schiff push for war powers vote

“All of this together with the increased pace of strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific suggest that we are on the verge of something that should not happen without a debate and vote in Congress before the American people,” Kaine said on the floor before the vote. 

Kaine and Schiff told reporters Thursday they viewed the White House Office of Legal Counsel opinion authorizing the fatal strike in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean near Venezuela. 

The document, which senators are allowed to read in a classified setting, “makes no effort to claim that there’s a legal rationale for invading a sovereign nation, no effort to claim that it’s about Venezuela, or could be used with respect to Venezuela or any country,” Kaine said.

Schiff characterized the opinion as “broad enough to authorize just about anything.”

Kaine urged Senate Republicans, who received a brief and review of the document earlier this week, to introduce and debate legislation authorizing the administration to continue its military force in the region.

“Anybody in Congress who thinks we ought to be bombing ships in the Caribbean and Pacific, introduce an AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force) and have a debate and vote on it,” Kaine said, adding “but don’t just abdicate this power.” 

Hegseth posts video

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted a grainy video online Tuesday of a vessel in flames after a strike, and said the United States targeted the boat in the Eastern Pacific that had been operated by “a Designated Terrorist Organization.” 

“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. The strike was conducted in international waters in the Eastern Pacific.”

“No U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, and two male narco-terrorists — who were aboard the vessel — were killed,” Hegseth wrote on social media.

It’s unlawful for the U.S. military to intentionally kill civilians who are not actively taking part in hostilities against the U.S. 

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, defended the administration’s “decisive actions to protect thousands of Americans from lethal narcotics.” 

“Some Democrat members and members of the media claim that President Trump does not have authority to conduct these strikes. I’ll tell you right now, that is plain wrong,” said Risch, chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Risch said he and fellow Senate Republicans have sat through “hours of briefings and analysis by government legal departments and attorneys” regarding the strikes.

Schiff and Kaine told reporters their access to information and briefings has been more limited.

Paul criticizes Trump moves

On the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Paul compared the strikes and buildup in the Caribbean to the U.S. military’s “misguided” intervention in the Middle East.

“We owe it to our service members to only send them into harm’s way when vital American interests are at stake. Who is in charge of Venezuela does not constitute such an interest,” Paul said, alleging the strikes are about regime change in the South American nation ruled by dictator Nicolás Maduro.

  “We overthrew Sadam Hussein thinking Iraq would be transformed into this great Jeffersonian democracy. Instead what occurred was an insurgency that led to some of the most brutal sectarian violence in living memory,” Paul said.

Congress passed the War Powers Resolution in 1973 after the Nixon administration secretly bombed Vietnam and Cambodia, killing hundreds of thousands of people. 

The U.S. Capitol, pictured on Oct. 8, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate failed to advance Wednesday night a resolution designed to curb the president’s power regarding military actions abroad after the Trump administration ordered four strikes on boats in the Caribbean. 

The resolution failed to advance 48-51. Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Tim Kaine of Virginia forced a procedural vote on the measure, which would have blocked the Trump administration from engaging in hostilities abroad without congressional approval. 

Two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined nearly all Democrats voting in favor. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote against advancing the measure.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 is a tool for Congress to check the balances of power of the executive branch by limiting the president’s ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad. 

Since September, President Donald Trump has approved four known military strikes in the Caribbean that have killed 21 so far, and, without offering evidence, said the boats were used by drug cartel members. 

“We call them water drugs,” Trump said about the most recent known boat strike on Oct. 3. “The drugs that come in through the water.”

The White House has released few details of the strikes. 

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, also without providing any evidence, said on social media that the boats contained narcotics heading for the U.S.

“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Hegseth wrote. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”

Those attacks have taken place in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, Hegseth added.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in a statement, condemned the attacks as an “illegal incursion of combat aircraft from the United States.”

Use of military

It’s illegal for the U.S. military to intentionally kill civilians who are not actively taking part in hostilities against the U.S. 

Senate Democrats and some Republicans have expressed skepticism about claims from the Trump administration that the boats were affiliated with drug cartels and have pushed the White House for more information on the boat strikes. 

Kaine said it’s possible that more people have died in the boat strikes, but they are seeking that information. He added that the strikes circumvent Congress’ authority to declare war. 

“We are vested with the power of declaring war. We ask basic questions,”  Kaine, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. “Give us the intel about these particular boats, that they’re actually carrying narcotics.”

The Trump administration has argued that the strikes on the boats don’t warrant notification to Congress because they don’t rise to the level of war, and that the attacks are in self-defense. Kaine said he rejects those arguments.

“That’s just an invented rationale,” he said. “Self-defense has always been understood (as) imminent attack, imminent invasion of the United States. It is not within the norm of self-defense to define a drugrunner’s operation.” 

Paul said he is working on getting a briefing from the White House about the strikes and was skeptical that in the most recent strike, the four people killed were affiliated with drug cartels.

“If they’re members of a gang and you know them to be terrorists, and you’re convinced enough to kill them, why shouldn’t you know their names?” Paul said. 

Schiff said that since the first U.S. military attack near Venezuela in early September, the White House has not answered his and other lawmakers’ questions on those missions. 

“We just have little or no information about who was on board these ships, or what intelligence was used, or what the rationale was, and how certain we can be that everyone on that ship deserved to die,” he said. 

Congress passed the War Powers Resolution in 1973 to limit the president’s authority to wage war overseas after the Nixon administration secretly bombed Vietnam and Cambodia, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Then-President Richard Nixon vetoed the resolution, but Congress overrode the veto.