Bay Area Lawmakers Seek to Block Further Military Action in Venezuela

Bay Area lawmakers signaled support on Monday for reasserting Congress’ war powers, days after an astonishing raid in which the U.S. military captured Venezuela’s president and first lady and reportedly killed dozens.

The lawmakers accused the Trump administration of violating the U.S. Constitution by failing to obtain congressional approval before authorizing the military force. They said they would favor resolutions to bar the administration from ordering further military action in Venezuela.

“Congress doesn’t exist to be briefed after the bombs fall,” Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, told KQED’s Forum on Monday. “Clearly, we have to vote this week on a war powers resolution.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he expects the Senate to vote this week on a resolution, co-sponsored by Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California, that would prohibit future military action in Venezuela without congressional approval.

“We must speak for the American people who profoundly reject being dragged into new wars,” Schiff said in a statement on Saturday.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Monday that he also expects three separate similar resolutions to see a vote on the House floor this week.

Republicans control both houses of Congress, and Democrats would need at least four to cross the aisle in the House or the Senate for either resolution to pass. Similar efforts in both the House and the Senate failed to garner enough Republican votes to pass last year.

The Trump administration has argued that Saturday’s action did not require congressional approval because it was not a military invasion.

“This was an arrest operation. This was a law enforcement operation. [Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro] was arrested on the ground in Venezuela by FBI agents, read his rights and removed from the country,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.

Maduro was indicted in 2020 on federal drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges.

Saturday’s action, dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve,” involved thousands of troops, an elite military unit and more than 150 military aircraft, including drones, bombers and fighter planes.

The Cuban government said Sunday that 32 Cuban citizens from its armed forces or interior ministry were killed during the strike. The New York Times reported Sunday that the overall death toll has risen to 80, according to a “senior Venezuelan official.”

“This is really a dereliction of congressional authority and responsibility,” Rep. John Garamendi, whose district includes parts of Contra Costa and Solano County, said Monday on KQED’s Forum.

Trump administration officials briefed members of Congress on the operation on Monday, but those meetings were not open to the public.

“Those hearings need to be public. The American public and indeed the world needs to know what is being contemplated and why,” Garamendi said.

Bay Area Rep. Kevin Mullin called Maduro a “brutal dictator who has terrorized the people of Venezuela for decades,” but he maintained that the Trump administration’s actions were still illegal.

“It’s ridiculous for Trump to pretend that this military action is about law enforcement and drugs. It reeks of corruption. He even tipped off the oil companies before notifying elected leaders,” Mullin told KQED.

President Trump has said that the United States will “run” Venezuela for the foreseeable future, including taking control of its plentiful oil industry.

Since Saturday’s action in Venezuela, President Trump has threatened the president of Colombia, as well as Greenland, Cuba and Mexico, with similar military interventions.

In response, South Bay Rep. Ro Khanna is calling for additional war powers resolutions to limit the ability of the Trump administration to strike other countries without congressional approval in the future.

“We need to aggressively oppose what Trump is doing,” Khanna said. “We need to be debating and introducing resolutions to prevent him from going into Greenland, to prevent him from attacking Iran. We need to stand up to an imperial presidency.”

Several Democratic leaders have pointed out that Trump recently pardoned the former president of Honduras, who was convicted in 2024 of importing cocaine into the United States, while ordering the arrest of Maduro on similar drug-trafficking charges.

“Let’s be clear what we did here. We went in and invaded another country to take their oil,” Khanna said. “It is immoral. It was a violation of the Constitution, and it’s a violation of everything America stands for.”

KQED’s Natalia Navarro contributed to this report.