A Day of Defiance Shows Life In Congress Amid Election Pressure

Congress showed signs of life Thursday.

Across the Capitol members of both chambers delivered President Donald Trump a rare trio of rebukes. The Senate advanced a measure to restrict further military action in Venezuela, while the House passed a health-care bill over the objections of GOP leaders closely aligned with the president.

The Senate also unanimously agreed to post a plaque honoring police who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, despite Trump’s attempts to whitewash that day.

Taken together, the moves amounted to an unusual display of independence from a Congress that spent most of 2025 cowed by an aggressive White House.

It all came against the backdrop of a perilous political moment for Republicans, with the president’s poll numbers falling as the calendar flipped into an election year.

“Public sentiment in terms of how Trump is behaving as president, what he’s doing as president, keeps sinking, and sinking, and sinking, and our Republican colleagues realize that,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The political stakes were made even more acute by Trump’s vaguely-defined pledge to “run” Venezuela, possibly for years, and rising health-care premiums for millions due to the Dec. 31 expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits.

On both issues, a small but critical number of Republicans broke with the president and joined Democrats to serve up defeats to the president.

Venezuela Pushback

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) led the Venezuela resolution.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

The first move came in the Senate, which voted 52-47 to advance a measure that would bar Trump from further military action in Venezuela unless he gets congressional approval. Five Republicans joined every Democrat to support it.

While the measure still has to pass the House, and doesn’t have enough support to overcome a presidential veto, the vote provided a telling measure of lawmakers’ response with the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

It was the first chance for senators to formally weigh in since that strike, and came as Trump has increasingly threatened other countries with similar aggression.

“This is all about letting the public in on what’s going on,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who sponsored the resolution.

Advancing the measure Thursday sets up a vote on passage, likely next week, which will allow for a robust debate on a topic that Kaine said has until now mostly been contained to classified settings.

Democrats also plan to force votes on restricting military action in other places Trump has threatened.

Trump Blasts GOP Defectors

Republicans who joined with Democrats should be “ashamed” for trying “to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America,” Trump said on social media.

They should “never be elected to office again,” he added on Truth Social. One of the defectors, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), faces one of the most difficult reelections in the chamber.

Several Republicans who backed the measure said they thought Trump was on solid legal footing for the raid that captured Maduro, but that further incursions required congressional sign off, unless it was a defensive action.

“On a going forward basis, if the president should determine that he needs to put troops on the ground in Venezuela, I think then Congress would have to be on the hook,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who supported the measure.

He had opposed a similar resolution in November, before Trump followed through on his threats against Maduro.

Other supporters argued that a decision as consequential as war should be decided by a broad consensus involving Congress, not by any president alone.

“The decision to go to war under the Constitution was designated to Congress,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who co-sponsored the resolution. “This is, I think, a good debate and good for the country.”

Shortly after, the Senate quietly, by unanimous consent, agreed to post the Jan. 6 plaque on their side of the Capitol.

Pepper spray is used as demonstrators battle with US Capitol police officers while breaching the Capitol building grounds in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The plaque, approved as part of a bipartisan spending law in 2022 and meant to be given a place of prominence on the Capitol’s West Front, has been blocked from display by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), a close Trump ally who has raised technical complaints about the way the plaque provision was written.

Trump avoided total defeat when attempts to override two of his vetoes fell short in the House. Each won a majority, but not the two-thirds support required.

The day ended, however, with a 230-196 House vote to pass a three-year extension of expired subsidies that help millions of people purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act — aiming to extend the very policy Democrats highlighted during the fall’s government shutdown. Seventeen Republicans, mostly from swing districts, sided with Democrats to advance the measure, bolstering a law that Trump and most Republicans despise.

The extension will almost certainly die in the Senate, but lawmakers in both parties said it will build momentum, and add pressure on the upper chamber to finalize on a compromise to revive the aid.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a leader of the bipartisan negotiations to keep the subsidies alive, dismissed any concern about crossing his own party.

“The will of the country ought to be reflected on the House floor,” he said.