[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 3 (Tuesday, January 6, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S20-S21]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, yesterday, I joined with House and Senate 
leaders for a briefing with Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth, Attorney 
General Bondi, and other officials about what comes next in Venezuela 
and beyond.
  For 2 long hours, we heard yesterday from the administration. And 
what we heard was little more than wishful thinking and no real 
answers. We got no clear answer to any of the four questions I have 
been asking the administration for days:
  First, how many troops are we going to commit to Venezuela? Are there 
any limits? No answer.
  Second, for how long would we be committed to running Venezuela? No 
answer.
  Third, how much is this all going to cost? They said they had no cost 
estimate.
  And fourth, what country is next? Is Colombia on the table? Are we 
going to invade a NATO ally like Greenland? Where does this 
belligerence stop? I was very troubled--very troubled--by their answer 
on this as well.
  Sitting in yesterday's briefing, it is clear the administration 
pulled the trigger on step 1 of their plan in Venezuela without 
figuring out how they are going to follow through on steps 2 to 10.
  How do you enter a country and remove its leader by force without 
knowing anything about what happens after?
  The current Vice President for Venezuela now says she may cooperate 
with the United States, but her grip on power is weak. She has many 
rivals in government, and her reputation for steadfastness and honesty 
leaves much to be desired. And all of the remaining regime leaders in 
Venezuela are so corrupt that it is naive for the administration to 
think we can rely on any of them to maintain stability.
  Now, this is how we get into endless wars. The administration has a 
1-day plan on how to get rid of Maduro but no idea of what happens 
after. It is what happened to us in Iraq. Yes, this is how we get into 
endless wars: a 1-day plan to get rid of Maduro but no idea what 
happens after. Look at history. Look at Iraq. Look at so many other 
places. This is what leads to endless wars.
  And last night, Donald Trump added to the fires of confusion once 
again.
  He was asked who exactly is in charge in Venezuela, and he simply 
said, ``Me.'' Donald Trump. A lot of macho going on there.
  How the hell does Donald Trump expect to exert direct control over 
Venezuela? We have so many problems here at home--people who are 
struggling to make ends meet when the economy is slowing down and costs 
are going up. Yesterday, Donald Trump even suggested we might spend up 
to 18 months in Venezuela rebuilding its oil infrastructure. And that 
is probably a low estimate according to most experts. Most experts 
think it could take easily longer than that, the Venezuela oil fields 
are such a mess. And are you kidding me? How are we going to spend 18 
months and potentially tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money in 
Venezuela at a time when people here at home don't even have basic 
healthcare?
  There are also reports that Stephen Miller might be heavily involved 
in the governance of Venezuela. I asked about this at our briefing, and 
the answers were very troubling. This is the same Stephen Miller who 
yesterday went to CNN and asserted that Greenland rightfully belongs to 
the United States and nobody will fight the U.S. military over 
Greenland.
  What is going on here? What kind of venture is this?
  The language Miller used comes right out of the 1930s, directed by a 
senior official of the United States against a NATO ally. God help us 
and the future of world order.

[[Page S21]]

  Donald Trump has opened a Pandora's box. We have to take seriously 
that, after Venezuela, he may attack other nations without warning--
maybe Colombia, maybe even a NATO ally like Greenland run by Denmark. 
All the while, how does any of this belligerence in Venezuela or 
Greenland put America first?
  How does any of this help people here at home pay the bills, pay for 
their healthcare, put a roof over their heads, pay for their groceries 
or their energy bill? The American people voted for Donald Trump to put 
America first. That is what he campaigned on. A lot of his most hard-
right supporters voted for him because he was ``America First.''
  Well, ``America First'' means focusing on healthcare costs and all 
kinds of rising costs here at home, instead of using taxpayer dollars 
to build up the oil fields in Venezuela. It means helping American 
farmers instead of bailing out Argentinian farmers. It means bringing 
manufacturing back to our shores instead of giving critical chips away 
to China.
  It means helping people pay their rent, pay their mortgage, pay their 
energy bill, instead of launching an attack on foreign countries and 
putting our troops in danger.