S 3344 Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.
Prohibiting Unauthorized Military Action in Venezuela Act of 2025
To prohibit the unauthorized use of United States Armed Forces in hostilities with respect to Venezuela.
Summary
This bill prohibits the Department of Defense and other federal agencies from using funds to conduct military hostilities against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress or consistent with the War Powers Resolution. The prohibition allows exceptions for defending the United States or its personnel from armed attack, conducting counternarcotics operations, and providing humanitarian assistance. The bill defines hostilities as any use of lethal or potentially lethal force by U.S. forces, including remote operations. It does not supersede existing requirements under the War Powers Resolution.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (D-OR)
9 cosponsors
- Sen. Alsobrooks, Angela D. [D-MD] (D-MD)
- Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI] (D-WI)
- Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA] (D-VA)
- Sen. Kim, Andy [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] (D-MA)
- Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] (I-VT)
- Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD] (D-MD)
- Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT] (D-VT)
- Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR] (D-OR)
Actions (2)
- Dec 4, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. · senate
- Dec 4, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
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 Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Prohibiting Unauthorized Military Action in Venezuela Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES TO CONDUCT HOSTILITIES WITH RESPECT TO VENEZUELA.
(a) Prohibition.—None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available for the Department of Defense, or for any other department or agency of the United States Government, may be used to conduct hostilities with respect to Venezuela, except—
(1) pursuant to a specific statutory authorization enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act; or
(2) pursuant to a congressional authorization consistent with section 2(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1541(c)).
(b) Rules of Construction.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the United States from—
(1) acting to defend itself or its citizens from an armed attack or the threat of an imminent armed attack;
(2) acting to defend the United States Armed Forces or United States personnel from an armed attack;
(3) conducting lawful counternarcotics operations that do not constitute hostilities; or
(4) providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Venezuela.
(c) Hostilities Defined.—In this section, the term “hostilities” means any situation involving any use of lethal or potentially lethal force by United States forces, whether such force is deployed remotely and irrespective of the intermittency thereof.
(d) Relation to the War Powers Resolution.—Nothing in this section supersedes any requirement of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1541 et seq.). <all>
Comments