Trump’s Venezuela strike upends a packed January agenda
Plus: How this week’s marquee House bills harken back to “Refrigerator Week” and MTG officially calls it quits.
Most lawmakers traveled home for the holidays last month with the expectation that they would return to a full legislative agenda to kick off the new year.
The immediate orders of business are to finish a long-overdue funding deal to keep the government open, pressing the Justice Department over its missed deadline to release unclassified Epstein-related records, and grappling with the fallout after 22 million Americans lost health coverage when enhanced ACA subsidies expired without congressional action.
All of this is more than enough to consume the 12 legislative days the chambers are expected to be in session this month. But now there’s the aftermath of Operation Absolute Resolve—the roughly two-and-a-half-hour military mission President DONALD TRUMP ordered on Saturday morning in Venezuela to capture the South American country’s President NICOLÁS MADURO and his wife on several charges related to transnational criminal violence.
House Democrats held an emergency virtual caucus meeting this afternoon to discuss the latest developments. A source on the call told me leadership’s message was to be clear-eyed about the current reality.
“This is a war,” the source said. “There are boots on the ground. Oil companies are on the scene. He’s deciding who he likes to be his puppet.” (According to public reporting and official statements so far, the U.S. is not currently occupying Venezuela with ground forces, and U.S. officials have said the U.S. will not be governing the country. Trump has suggested troops could be used and a strong U.S. military posture remains in the region, but the Venezuelan interim government and local forces are still in control on the ground.)
The Trump administration carried out the operation without advance notice to Congress, a move that has drawn scrutiny from U.S. officials, international law experts, the United Nations, and foreign governments over whether the strike was legal.
Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO said the administration called members of Congress immediately after the operation but said it was a “trigger-based mission” that met dynamic conditions. Meanwhile, Trump seemed to suggest without evidence that members would have leaked the attack had they been notified.
Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) rejected the administration’s defense as an excuse to conduct the operation in secrecy.
“I believe they use that as a total excuse to keep Congress—all of Congress—in the dark. And on something as serious as this, that is just outrageous,” Schumer told me this weekend. “One of the reasons we have hearings, we have consultation with Congress is so that there would be debate, discussion, different points of view before something so momentous happens and they’re just ripping up that part of the Constitution.”
Sen. TIM KAINE (D-Va.) will force a vote in the Senate this week on resolution to stipulate that the U.S. Schumer, who with Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.) is a co-sponsor on the bill, told reporters he would work to ensure it received sufficient floor time for debate and discussion.
The top Senate Democrat said he spoke with the ranking Democrats on the relevant committees to begin reviewing how their panels can act to hold the administration accountable. But this effort will be as Republicans allow, since they control the gavels.
Schumer and House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-N.Y.) also demanded an immediate Gang of Eight briefing from the administration, followed by all-member briefings in both chambers early this week. I’m told the leaders haven’t received a response.
In a separate statement, Jeffries said his unanswered questions included whether strikes were about seizing foreign oil to benefit Trump allies and why Trump pardoned the former Honduran president convicted of narcotrafficking, but risks war in Venezuela over similar allegations against Maduro.
In the months leading up to the attack, the administration sent mixed signals by repeatedly assuring wary lawmakers that it was not pursuing regime change or military action, then carrying out a large-scale strike, capturing Maduro, and Trump openly talking about the U.S. “running” Venezuela, which critics of the operation argue undermines its credibility and raises questions about intent and transparency that should be answered in a secure briefing.
“I believe there are inconsistencies and want to learn where fissures are,” a House Democrat told me. “The administration is not disciplined enough.”
Among the questions the lawmaker is seeking answers to are how much Venezuelan oil has been seized and to what extent are oil companies involved in the economic outcomes of any seizures, whether China or Russia were involved in the attack and what impact it has on the war in Ukraine.
Despite the urgency the situation in Venezuela demands, Democratic sources told me they won’t lose momentum on making the case that the president has failed to address the affordability and health care crises facing millions of Americans, including those who voted for Trump because he promised to address the high cost of living.
“We are in another flood-the-zone moment,” the House Democrat told me. “But the thread is that [Trump] is not making the lives of the American people better with any of this.”
Looking Ahead
SENATE FLOOR ACTION: The Senate will meet at 3 PM on Monday and vote at 5:30 PM to confirm KEITH BASS to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense.
It’s unclear if Thune will attempt to move forward this week on a “minibus” package of five funding bills to cover everything from the military and law enforcement to health care, education, housing, infrastructure and public lands.
Flashback: Thune hoped to clinch a deal to set up floor action on the mini before the holiday break, which had been stalled for weeks. Senate rules require unanimous consent to combine individual funding bills into a single measure. GOP leaders had finally cleared all of the holds from conservatives who oppose steering federal dollars to specific projects back home.
As Democratic leaders checked for objections and amendment requests from their members, it became clear that Sens. MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.) and JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D-Colo.) would block the package from advancing in response to reports that the Trump administration planned to dismantle a research and development center headquartered in Boulder. (This isn’t the only issue Colorado lawmakers have with Trump, as you’ll read below.)
FWIW, the top appropriators in each chamber—Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) and Rep. TOM COLE (R-Okla.)—reached an agreement over the break on the overall spending limit for the remaining nine funding bills, but have not agreed on the allocations for each measure. Collins and Cole are aggressively lobbying Republican leaders to move the funding bills before the end of the month to avoid another government shutdown or full-year continuing resolution that would lock in outdated policy priorities and sideline Congress’s power of the purse.
HOUSE FLOOR ACTION: The House will return on Tuesday evening with a vote scheduled at 6:30 p.m. to start the second session of the 119th Congress.
Refrigerator Week déjà vu? Republican leaders will focus on a measure to rewrite the statutory definition of showerheads to relax federal water-efficiency regulations, and another to repeal a Biden-era regulation that empowered the Energy Department to enforce federal energy-efficiency standards on manufactured housing. Democrats will likely compare these bills to the so-called Refrigerator Week agenda from April 2024, when the House GOP planned to vote on a series of bills related to home appliance energy efficiency standards, which it said limited consumer choice and increased upfront costs.
That’s not all: The House may also consider the Jeffries discharge petition on a three-year extension of ACA tax credits, action on two bills President Trump vetoed last week that Congress had passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. One would have funded the completion of a long-planned water pipeline to bring clean drinking water to rural Colorado towns, while the other would have expanded the Miccosukee Tribe's land control in the Florida Everglades.
The political undercurrent: Some Republicans like Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT and the state’s congressional delegation said they think Trump’s veto of the Colorado water bill was politically motivated because Boebert had backed forcing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files Trump didn’t want out, and because Trump has publicly blasted Colorado’s governor for not freeing convicted election denier TINA PETERS from state prison. Boebert is the sponsor of the water bill and was one of four GOP votes that forced the release of the files.
The House could also move on its own 2026 funding bills this week, but we’ll see. One more approps flag; Cole told reporters before Christmas that a five-bill minibus is too big to pass the House since Freedom Caucus types will feel jammed into voting for what they think is an omnibus (one big bill rolling several funding measures into one). His preference is to move three sets of trios each week the House is in this month. It’s unclear which bills would go first, but the Pentagon bill and the measure that funds most major domestic priorities (Labor-HHS) would likely go last.
The Rules Committee will meet Tuesday evening to prepare the showerhead and home-manufacturing bills for floor consideration. Below are a few other committee hearings I’ll be watching this week:
Wednesday: House Oversight will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on fraud and misuse of federal funds in Minnesota.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on competition and consumer choice in digital streaming. Related: I wrote in September about how the streaming era has made sports fandom so damn expensive. Read it if you missed it.
The House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on modernizing retirement policy for today’s workforce.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts will hold a hearing at 2:30 p.m. on holding rogue judges accountable.
Thursday: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on legislative proposals to support patient access to Medicare services.
MTG RETIREMENT WATCH: Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE’s unexpected retirement will become official on Monday at 11:59 PM, capping a messy exit fueled by her public break with President Trump over his failure to address the affordability crisis, fulfill his “America First” agenda and treat to support a primary challenger over her decisive vote on the Epstein files.
The Georgia Republican also expressed anger at Speaker Johnson for keeping the House sidelined during the government shutdown a few months ago. (You may recall Johnson survived a Greene-led motion to vacate his speakership in May due in part to Democratic opposition to her effort.) The New York Times published a profile of Greene last week on her break with Trump and MAGA. And I wrote in my weekly COURIER column in October about how Democrats felt about her criticism of GOP leadership and her surprising call for Republicans to extend the ACA premium subsidies.
The clerk read Greene’s retirement letter during a non-voting session on Friday morning. Once it’s official, the total number of the House will be 432 (219 Republicans and 213 Democrats), with two Democratic vacancies plus Greene’s.
Georgia Gov. BRIAN KEMP is required by state law to call a special election within 10 days of Greene’s vacancy to take place at least 30 days after it is called. All candidates will run on one ballot, with a runoff between the top two if none receive more than 50% of the vote. The Cook Political Report rates her northwest Georgia seat 19 points more Republican than the nation as a whole based on how it voted in the previous two elections.
ICYMI
Before I went on holiday hiatus, I wrote a series of deeply reported pieces that will help you contextualize the days, weeks and months ahead as Congress grapples with the ramifications of failing to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, whether Republicans will pursue another party-line megabill and Democrats seek to win back Congress and provide a check on President Trump’s final two years in office. Here’s a roundup:
Hakeem Jeffries notched the most significant tactical win in his three years as the top House Democrat when he successfully secured a bipartisan majority of signatures on a procedural measure to force a vote on legislation that would extend the expiring Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits for three years. Here’s how he did it.
EVAN TURNAGE has only ever voted for one man to represent his hometown of Jackson, Miss., in Congress—and that’s Homeland Security Ranking Member BENNIE THOMPSON. But now Chuck Schumer’s former top lawyer is campaigning to unseat Thompson and deliver the economic prosperity and democracy reform he says the district deserves. Read my profile of Turnage on how he plans to beat a 32-year incumbent.
During the House Democrats’ final caucus meeting of the year, they were presented with polling data that showed a 13% swing among independent voters against Trump, driven by the perception that the president is only helping himself and the billionaire class. Here’s what that means now that we’re in an election year.
I broke the news that the Congressional Black Caucus is tracking how 2028 presidential hopefuls engage with its priorities, including support for CBC incumbents, responsiveness during high-stakes moments, and a willingness to show up beyond safe or symbolic gestures, all of which are expected to factor into the caucus’s political calculus as the next presidential cycle unfolds. Go inside the CBC’s thinking on 2026, 2028 and beyond.
By now, you know Rep. JASMINE CROCKETT is running for Senate in Texas. But do you know why she called her viral launch video a “work of art,” the parallels she sees between her campaign and Obama’s 2008 presidential bid and how she feels about her pastor running to succeed her in the House? If not, then be sure to read what she told me about it.
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