18.12.2025 - 02:13 [ Reuters ]

Sweeping US defense bill passes, with Ukraine, Venezuela provisions defying Trump

And it has a provision to withhold a chunk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said the strikes are directed at Venezuelan drug-traffickers.

The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s government.

It repeals the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) against Iraq,
an attempt to reassert Congress‘ role in deciding to send troops into combat.