WASHINGTON, D.C. – Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) issued the following statement after the Senate failed to pass a bipartisan War Powers Resolution—which Duckworth cosponsored—that would have prevented the use of the U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress. Last week, the same resolution advanced in the Senate by a vote of 52-47.
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“It is indisputable that Nicolás Maduro was a brutal dictator. But it is not America’s responsibility to go around the world using our military to push regime change when there is no imminent threat to our national security and then running foreign countries when we have our own serious problems here at home.
“Our Constitution is clear: only the American people, through their elected representatives in Congress, can authorize a President to engage in acts of war. It entrusts them with this solemn responsibility because it is the American people—not any single occupant of the Oval Office—who will be forced to live with the consequences of those decisions.
“With Donald Trump making clear he is happy to ignore this Constitutional requirement at every turn, Senate Republicans had an opportunity to block the President from further escalating military force against Venezuela, reassert our Constitutional authority and send an important message that he must end his march into another reckless forever war with no justification and no end state. It’s shameful that instead of taking this critical opportunity, they again chose to take the word of the least trustworthy President in history—continuing to show that they care more about Trump’s wrath than the best interest of our nation’s servicemembers and the American people.”
