Secretary of State Marco Rubio will testify Wednesday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S. policy toward Venezuela.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EST. Watch in live in the video player above.
The hearing comes a week after the House rejected a Democratic-backed resolution that would have prevented President Donald Trump from sending U.S. military forces to Venezuela after a tied vote on the legislation fell just short of the majority needed for passage.
The tied 215-215 vote was the latest sign of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s tenuous hold on the majority, as well as some of the growing pushback in the GOP-controlled Congress to Trump’s aggressions in the Western Hemisphere. A Senate vote on a similar resolution was also tied earlier this month until Vice President JD Vance broke the deadlock.
To defeat the resolution last Thursday, Republican leaders had to hold the vote open for more than 20 minutes while Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt, who had been out of Washington all week campaigning for a Senate seat in Texas, rushed back to Capitol Hill to cast the decisive vote.
At a meeting in Caracas with representatives of oil companies and trade associations, Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Monday that Venezuela’s government takes no orders from external powers.
Following the U.S. capture of former President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on Rodríguez and other allies of the ousted leader to invite greater investment from U.S. energy companies in Venezuela’s flagging oil industry.
