Schiff, Kaine look to force vote on ‘narco-trafficking’ boat strikes as soon as this week
Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Tim Kaine (Va.) are looking to force a vote as soon as this week on a resolution to prevent the U.S. military from conducting strikes against vessels near Venezuela that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs into the U.S., Schiff’s spokesperson and another source told The Hill on Monday.
The War Powers Act resolution follows the latest U.S. military strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela that the Pentagon said was carrying narcotics. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strike killed four “narco-terrorists.”
The resolution will have a hard time passing through the GOP-controlled House and Senate, but will put lawmakers on record on the issue.
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“Congress alone holds the power to declare war. And while we share with the executive branch the imperative of preventing and deterring drugs from reaching our shores, blowing up boats without any legal justification risks dragging the United States into another war and provoking unjustified hostilities against our own citizens,” Schiff said when introducing the resolution last month.
The push to vote on the measure was reported earlier by Punchbowl News.
So far, the U.S. military has conducted four strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea that the administration alleged were being operated by cartels to smuggle drugs. The White House says 21 people have been killed in the operations.
Hegseth said the vessel the U.S. military took out on Friday was affiliated with a designated terrorist organization in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility.
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No U.S. military personnel were injured during the mission, and the strike took place in international waters, according to the Pentagon chief.
“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over,” Hegseth wrote Friday on the social platform X.
On Thursday, Trump declared the U.S. at war with drug cartels that are designated as terrorist organizations, giving legal rationale for the attacks on the boats in the region.
“In recent weeks, the Navy has supported our mission to blow the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water,” the president said in an address to U.S. service members on the USS Harry S. Truman.
“And you know, there are no boats in the water anymore,” Trump added. “You can’t find any. We’re having a hard time finding them.”
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