{"id":17327,"date":"2026-01-05T13:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-congress-confronts-venezuela-fallout\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T13:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:17:14","slug":"capitol-agenda-congress-confronts-venezuela-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-congress-confronts-venezuela-fallout\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Congress confronts Venezuela fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Venezuela will dominate the congressional agenda this week, with Republicans lacking a unified vision on what happens next after the capture of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and the Senate poised to vote to limit further attacks without lawmaker approval.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Briefings incoming: <\/b>Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Dan Caine will brief top lawmakers on this weekend\u2019s Venezuela attack at 5:30 p.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

The members receiving the briefing include the top four congressional leaders as well as senior House and Senate members of the Intelligence, Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Relations committees.<\/p>\n

Trump himself will speak to House Republicans Tuesday at their annual retreat at the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are also working to schedule an all-senators briefing as soon as mid-week, according to two people granted anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The big question: Who will ‘run’ Venezuela? <\/b>Republicans have largely rallied behind<\/a> the administration\u2019s capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. But there\u2019s some daylight between them when it comes to what happens next \u2014 and some emerging distrust with the administration.<\/p>\n

Trump, at least initially<\/a>, praised Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez \u2014 now the country\u2019s acting leader \u2014 as someone he could work with. His comments were at odds with the wishes of Florida Republican lawmakers who prefer Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado. Trump dismissed her as not having the \u201csupport\u201d or \u201crespect\u201d to lead the country. Other Republicans including Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana are calling on Trump to look to Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez, who many nations consider the rightful winner<\/a> of Venezuela\u2019s 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, some Republicans are entering the week, as many Democrats are saying publicly, feeling misled by Rubio and the others in the administration about what the endgame has been for Venezuela. Lawmakers have generally trusted Rubio, their former colleague, but the Venezuela attack is straining the relationship.<\/p>\n

Rubio on Sunday was vague on the administration\u2019s transition plans<\/a> for Venezuela. Instead of outlining Trump\u2019s pledge to \u201crun\u201d the country, he said the U.S. is not occupying Venezuela and is instead implementing a \u201cquarantine that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 The war powers vote:\u00a0<\/b>Despite some bipartisan misgivings, it doesn\u2019t yet appear there will be a groundswell of GOP opposition to Trump\u2019s move if the Senate votes this week on whether to limit further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval. A November vote on the issue<\/a> garnered support from just two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). <\/p>\n

House Democrats in a private meeting Sunday discussed how they could force Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a vote on war powers, according to three people granted anonymity. House Republicans in December narrowly defeated a resolution<\/a> to block military action in Venezuela, with Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) breaking with their party to support it.<\/p>\n

Massie\u2019s aggressive rebuke<\/a> of the weekend attack is opening a new front<\/a> in his primary as he faces off against Trump-backed challenger and former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Shutdown vibes not so bad: <\/b>House leaders are hoping to put a three-bill funding package on the floor Thursday covering Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment and Energy-Water. If the House passes it with Democratic support, it could also become a vehicle for a stop-gap continuing resolution in the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Health care action: <\/b>House Democrats will move as soon as Wednesday to force a vote on extending expired Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss internal planning. The House could pass the bill by Thursday but it\u2019s on track to die in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Nicholas Wu, Lisa Kashinsky and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venezuela will dominate the congressional agenda this week, with Republicans lacking a unified vision on what happens next after the capture of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and the Senate poised to vote to limit further attacks without lawmaker approval. \u2014 Briefings incoming: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}