Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to ``Air Plan Approval; South Dakota;
Floor Speech
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Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of my colleague from Virginia's resolution prohibiting the United States from engaging in any further military operations in Venezuela. And I want to begin by asking a simple question: Have we learned nothing?
Nicolas Maduro is, without a doubt, a horrendous and illegitimate dictator. He lost the 2024 Venezuelan Presidential election, but through fraud and force he stayed in power. He is a known drug trafficker and has been indicted twice by the Department of Justice on multiple charges of collaborating with drug cartels and smuggling drugs into the United States. And he is a brutal dictator responsible for murder, torture, and systematic repression of the Venezuelan people.
But the question before us today is not whether Nicolas Maduro is a brutal dictator or not. The question is, Have we learned nothing?
I am so reminded of a similar debate in Congress before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In 2002, as a Member of the House of Representatives, I spoke out against President Bush's intent to invade Iraq. I believed the Bush administration dangerously underestimated the potential consequences of a war with Iraq and did not have a clear path forward after the initial military operation.
And, lo and behold, I was right. And, as a result, thousands of brave servicemembers died, taxpayers were forced to pay hundreds of billions of dollars, and we got ourselves into a yearslong war that destabilized the entire Middle East.
So, again, I am here to ask the question: Have we learned nothing?
I have those same concerns with President Trump and Venezuela today as I had with President Bush and Iraq.
The U.S. military operation in Venezuela last week was remarkable. There is no doubt our military is the most capable in the world. However, President Trump's concept of a plan for Venezuela and whether the Senate will allow him to drag our country further into conflict is much less clear.
Yes, our military operation to capture Maduro last week was a success, but I would remind my colleagues that the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 was also considered a success. Yet, in both Iraq and Venezuela, the President did not have a clear plan about what would happen next. And that uncertainty today is dangerous and risks leading the United States into an all-out war in Venezuela.
President Trump has openly claimed that the United States would run Venezuela and mused about deploying U.S. military troops to the country--in other words, taking the United States to war.
President Trump and his administration have offered confusing and contradictory claims regarding their intentions. The President has offered multiple reasons for last week's operation: stopping drug trafficking, securing Venezuelan oil, and protecting the Western Hemisphere from our adversaries. Yet Venezuela is not the center of drug trafficking into the United States, and, just last month, Trump pardoned the former President of Honduras, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for running his country as a narcostate.
Our economy does not depend on access to Venezuelan oil, but President Trump is after Venezuela's oil to enrich his Big Oil buddies. And, if anything, our adversaries will only feel empowered by President Trump's reckless violations of international law.
Let me be clear: There is no U.S. national interest in Venezuela worth the lives of my constituents in Wisconsin. Wisconsinites want President Trump to live up to the promise of lowering costs back home, to live up to his promises that he made during his campaign. They do not want him to pull our country into another war that the American people did not choose.
The President does not have the unilateral authority to invade foreign countries, oust their governments, and seize their resources. Under the Constitution of the United States, the power to go to war lies with the people's branch. It is time for Republicans and Democrats in Congress to reassert our constitutional role in authorizing military force when needed and hold President Trump accountable before the United States is engaged in another war that the American people did not choose.
So, again, I ask my colleagues across the aisle: Have we learned nothing? Have we forgotten how dangerous it is for our country and our constituents when Presidents recklessly take us into conflict without a plan to get us out? Have we forgotten the lessons we learned from each of the thousands of Americans killed in Iraq?
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