Booker Statement on Senate Republicans Failure to Reassert Congressional Authority

“For over a year, Senate Republicans have refused to do their jobs and hold this administration accountable for its foreign policy failures. Today, they voted to allow President Trump to continue his illegal, costly, and reckless military adventurism against Venezuela without a strategy or the required congressional authorization. The Constitution is unambiguous: Congress has the power and responsibility to authorize the use of military force and declare war. Congress has a duty of oversight. Congress must serve as a check, not a rubber stamp, to the President. Congressional Republicans have failed on all of these counts.

“Make no mistake– Maduro is a brutal dictator who has oppressed the Venezuelan people. But that does not give any administration the license to ignore the Constitution, U.S. law, or international law, and it does not give Congressional Republicans a pass on doing their job. Without a check on the president’s military actions, the United States has the potential to be dragged into an endless war in Venezuela, eroding the very international norms and credibility that have kept us safe since World War II–and there’s no telling where this president will send our military next.

“This is all another example of President Trump’s reign of chaos, corruption, and cruelty. Trump is not prioritizing the needs of the American people, like lowering costs here at home. Trump is showing his continued corruption–helping oil companies get richer at the expense of Americans. And his foreign policy continues to make the American people less safe. My Republican colleagues have once again failed to stand up to this President and do right by the American people.”

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