United States S 3344: Prohibiting Unauthorized Military Action in Venezuela Act of 2025

Bill Text

II
119TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 3344
To prohibit the unauthorized use of United States Armed Forces in hostilities
with respect to Venezuela.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
DECEMBER 4, 2025
Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. KAINE, and Mr. VAN HOLLEN) introduced
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To prohibit the unauthorized use of United States Armed
Forces in hostilities with respect to Venezuela.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prohibiting Unauthor-4
ized Military Action in Venezuela Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED 6
FORCES TO CONDUCT HOSTILITIES WITH RE-7
SPECT TO VENEZUELA. 8
(a) PROHIBITION.—None of the funds appropriated 9
or otherwise made available for the Department of De-10
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•S 3344 IS
fense, or for any other department or agency of the United 1
States Government, may be used to conduct hostilities 2
with respect to Venezuela, except— 3
(1) pursuant to a specific statutory authoriza-4
tion enacted after the date of the enactment of this 5
Act; or 6
(2) pursuant to a congressional authorization 7
consistent with section 2(c) of the War Powers Reso-8
lution (50 U.S.C. 1541(c)). 9
(b) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-10
tion shall be construed to prevent the United States 11
from— 12
(1) acting to defend itself or its citizens from 13
an armed attack or the threat of an imminent armed 14
attack; 15
(2) acting to defend the United States Armed 16
Forces or United States personnel from an armed 17
attack; 18
(3) conducting lawful counternarcotics oper-19
ations that do not constitute hostilities; or 20
(4) providing humanitarian assistance to the 21
people of Venezuela. 22
(c) HOSTILITIES DEFINED.—In this section, the 23
term ‘‘hostilities’’ means any situation involving any use 24
of lethal or potentially lethal force by United States forces, 25
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whether such force is deployed remotely and irrespective 1
of the intermittency thereof. 2
(d) RELATION TO THE WAR POWERS RESOLU-3
TION.—Nothing in this section supersedes any require-4
ment of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1541 et 5
seq.). 6
Æ
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