By Lindsay Wise, Olivia Beavers and Siobhan Hughes

WASHINGTON -- A resolution to rein in President Trump's powers to wage war in Venezuela was narrowly defeated in the House, after Republican leaders hustled a lawmaker back from Texas to cast the deciding vote.

The resolution would have prohibited U.S. troops from being deployed in the country without authorization by Congress. It failed in a tie vote of 215-215. The Senate previously advanced and then rejected a similar measure after threats from Trump.

When the allotted time for voting on the bill expired, the resolution's supporters had a 215-214 lead, setting up a possible embarrassment for party leaders and the president. But Republican leaders held open the vote longer than usual to await the arrival of Rep. Wesley Hunt (R., Texas), who has been campaigning for Senate in his home state for much of the month.

Members of the leadership sent U.S. Capitol Police to meet Hunt when his flight landed at Washington Dulles International Airport and escort him to the Capitol, people familiar with the matter said.

Before he arrived, Democrats began chanting for Republicans to close the vote. "Order! Order!" they shouted. "Close the vote, this is serious!" shouted Rep. Pat Ryan (D., N.Y.), a West Point classmate of Hunt's.

Hunt's "no" vote created a tie and prevented the resolution from passing. He didn't take any questions from reporters on his way out of the building, responding to questions about his attendance with remarks about a snowstorm that is expected to hit the district.

A Hunt spokesman said Hunt "left the campaign trail, rushed to Washington, and delivered the deciding vote that nuked the radical Democrats' plan to block President Trump from securing the Western Hemisphere."

Republicans have a 218-213 majority in the chamber. Two GOP lawmakers -- Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Don Bacon of Nebraska -- sided with Democrats on the measure, a day after Trump backed off on his threats to seize Greenland by force and dropped plans to impose 10% tariffs on European allies that had opposed a U.S. takeover of the island, which is controlled by Denmark.

Massie said if members of Congress didn't act, they would be acquiescing to executive overreach, whether by the current Republican president or a future Democratic one. "We are rendering impotent our branch of government," Massie said during debate on the House floor ahead of the vote.

Republican opponents of the resolution said it was invalid because there are no longer any U.S. troops on the ground in Venezuela. The language of the bill said it would "direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress."

"There are no troops in Venezuela," said Rep. Brian Mast (R., Fla.) during the debate Thursday. "An operation that's over before breakfast? That's not a war."

Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it would be stupid for anyone to support the resolution. "It would be like them calling me today to take a pie out of the oven that we all ate a month ago," he said.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D., Mass.) countered that Republicans previously argued that it was too early to vote for a war-powers resolution and now they were arguing that it is too late.

By Mast's logic, McGovern said, the president "should be able to launch a pre-emptive nuclear war without congressional authorization. That's nuts." McGovern said lawmakers' constituents "did not send us here to be potted plants while the White House sleepwalks us into another mess."

Wall Street Journal polling this month found that voters see a role for Congress in consulting with Trump on action in Venezuela.

Respondents were about evenly divided over the U.S. military action seizing former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and bringing him to the U.S. for trial on drug-trafficking charges, with 49% in support and 47% opposed.

Two weeks ago, five Senate Republicans voted with Democrats to advance a similar war-powers resolution in the aftermath of the raid to remove Maduro. The Trump administration justified that raid as a law-enforcement operation, supported by Delta force operators on the ground and Navy ships offshore.

Trump lashed out at the five senators by name on social media and in phone calls, furious with them for what he saw as voting against him personally. Two of those Republicans -- Sens. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) and Todd Young (R., Ind.) -- later reversed themselves and voted to kill the resolution. Both said they had been satisfied by the administration's assurances that the U.S. has no plans to deploy ground troops or pursue an occupation.

Write to Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com, Olivia Beavers at Olivia.Beavers@wsj.com and Siobhan Hughes at Siobhan.hughes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2026 18:27 ET (23:27 GMT)

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