[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 5 (Thursday, January 8, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H246-H250]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REFLECTING ON IMPACT OF ILLEGAL ACTION IN VENEZUELA
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms. Kaptur
of Ohio was recognized for 30 minutes.)
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend, I prayed, and thanks to
God for saving the lives of every single one of our precious soldiers,
sailors, airmen, marines, and intelligence officers who were deployed
secretly to Venezuela by the President of the United States without
consent of Congress.
Importantly, this operation was planned and executed in violation of
the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 7: ``No
money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of
appropriations made by law.'' That clause also requires publication of
all publicly expended money, funds.
[[Page H247]]
None of that came to Congress, even in some of the most sequestered
private meetings--nothing, no information, no support.
This military operation expended billions upon billions of U.S.
taxpayer funds. The prior speaker, Congressman Schweikert, talked about
the deficit going up. Well, where did the money that was not
appropriated come from?
No one could be more grateful than I that our valiant combat teams
all came home safely. Without question, because of funds that have been
provided over the years, their readiness and performance resulted in
their safe return. However, the commanding officials who are
responsible for their deployment have not responded to requests by
Congress to report from which accounts the money was withdrawn--
billions and billions of dollars, for almost 6 months--for the
deployment and actions in the Gulf and Atlantic theater.
The Trump administration has failed to account for the funds that
they have expended. Commanding officers and administration appointees
have withdrawn billions and billions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury,
from our taxpayers, without legal authority, as constitutionally
required. For this, the executive branch and those who are in charge
must be held accountable. That day will come.
{time} 2020
The draw down of billions of Federal taxpayer dollars to conduct
these military operations has been expended without a vote of Congress,
nor even a notification. I can attest the administration has failed,
despite two requests I have made in public and private meetings with
the highest level of Department of Defense officials and this
administration, to provide the Committee on Appropriations of both
Chambers of Congress the details of which accounts were drawn down and
how much will it be to carry out these costly continuing operations.
Tonight, for a third time, I place on the public record asking the U.S.
Department of Defense: What funds have been expended in years 2025 and
are being expended currently, and from which specific accounts, and are
projected to be expended from which accounts in this year of 2026 in
the Venezuelan operations.
Billions and billions and billions of taxpayer dollars have been
spent and are being spent in the Gulf and Atlantic theater for these
operations since midyear last year. Secretary of State Rubio has
claimed the Venezuelan invasion was not a military operation. Do you
believe that? He calls it a law enforcement action. Really? Did these
funds flow from the Department of Justice? Congress doesn't know.
Thousands upon thousands of America's finest have been positioned and
missed holidays and family days on dozens of battleships, some lifted
in the air and then dispatched to ground action. This operation was
much more than a law enforcement action. It was an action of war and
regime change in another nation.
This country is powerful enough to do almost everything, but you
can't violate the Constitution. That is different.
Can Secretaries Hegseth and Rubio give us examples of other so-called
law enforcement actions that have cost U.S. taxpayers billions and
billions of dollars? Moreover, this Presidential administration has not
legally appropriated a single dollar. Rather, it appears billions and
billions of dollars have been expended, some might say illegally
transferred and some might say stolen, from other Department of Defense
accounts or from executive accounts or from other Federal agencies to
conduct these costly Venezuelan operations. From where? So now the
simple question: How much did it cost to capture the dictator of
Venezuela, Maduro, and his wife?
I ask, Mr. President, how much money and exactly from which accounts?
Give me the specific numbers and accounting titles from which billions
and billions of America's taxpayer funds were transferred. These
shorted accounts are going to have to be refinanced. How and when?
Secretary Hegseth, Secretary Rubio and perhaps OMB Director Russell
Vought, their chief budget manager, it is your sworn constitutional
duty to provide the American people which Defense or other Federal
department and agency accounts have been shorted because you
transferred untold billions of dollars to depose Venezuela's dictator
Maduro and his wife.
Do you know that our own citizens can't get through to the Social
Security office because you have cut the staffing back so much? Do you
have any idea what is actually happening at the local level in this
country? No one in this Chamber is a fan of Maduro, and the people of
Venezuela have a humongous, difficult task of building their country
forward now, but why behave deceitfully when you swore an oath to the
Constitution of the United States.
Now, based on President Trump's press conference this past weekend,
it seems that this lengthy and costly deployment of U.S. military into
the Gulf and the Atlantic aims to reclaim very dirty crude oil deposits
with out-of-date refineries in Venezuela. How many refineries are
there? One? Who formerly owned them? Is it only the former Chevron
facility? What is the business plan going forward, starting with how
are we going to reimburse the accounts that were raided here?
For the sake of the American people who are footing the big bill for
all of this, here is an idea. What if Congress considers a taxpayer
recovery fee on every Venezuelan or American energy company that will
benefit from the heroism of America's military. How about putting some
of that money into military housing, which is a disgrace.
Let's refund it back to our taxpayers in the form of an energy rebate
to help them pay their rising utility bills. That is, Congress could
mandate that any company that draws up Venezuelan dirty crude oil for
their corporate coffers should instead be required to share in the cost
of the operation and rebate any profit to the hardworking American
taxpayers. The military operations amount to billions of dollars, so
any energy company benefiting from the heroism of our military should
pay an energy tax refund to U.S. taxpayers. Think about it.
U.S. energy prices are rising and even doubling across Ohio, our
Buckeye State, and many other localities across our country due to the
rise of data centers. Meanwhile, this administration is cutting off
funds for modern energy systems. Wouldn't such a rebate not only be
sensible but welcome and impactful for America's households that are
seeing rising energy bills every month and rising water utility bills?
Historically, the human lust for crude oil--and Venezuela's crude is
very dirty--is legendary. It is a subject about which the American
people are going to become even more keenly aware. Why? Because the
blood of war and the quest for dirty crude oil are tightly bound. Far
too many members of our military have lost their lives to defend the
interests of dirty crude. That isn't always in the headlines, but
underneath, that is exactly what it is. The Saudi oil kingdom is but
one example of the bondage of blood and oil to military dictatorships
and war. To gain a sense of it, I recommend a book, ``Sleeping With the
Devil'' by Robert Baer. You will learn a lot about blood and war and
the sacrifice of the people in our military of this country over
several generations.
Over the last three-quarters of a century in particular, the rush and
fixation for crude has become a very costly cause of U.S. war deaths
across our military forces. Thousands upon thousands of our war dead
have been sacrificed in such conflicts for which I will now put figures
on the Record.
Over the last century, time and again, in war after war, excepting
for World War II, but for the China-Burma-India theater, our most
precious U.S. military has rendered hundreds of thousands of selfless
Americans, men and women, who have been ordered to battle and
sacrificed their lives to gain access to the world's crude oil
deposits.
The time for foreign oil conquests should be over. Frankly, America
must not live in the past. We must keep inventing. We can't go back. We
have got to go forward. Our energy future is right here at home. Over
the last 50 years, new American energy sources have been invented. All
exist in our homeland, with more to come. I am just so proud of the
inventiveness of the American people. The discovery of natural gas in
the Utica and Marcellus shale deposits at the border in Ohio
[[Page H248]]
and Pennsylvania is absolutely enormous, the largest on our entire
continent. We are seeing whole communities changed and revitalized
because of this. That was only made possible by the Department of
Energy's invention of fracking technology since President Jimmy Carter
first founded the Department when he was President of the United States
in the 1970s. Ohio's nuclear industrialized north is being positioned
to grow through fundamental modernization. That can't come soon enough
for me. We have got to replace our 50-year-old nuclear power plants
across this country.
Our objective must be to make America energy independent here at home
in perpetuity. Our military has gone to war too many times in the last
century to engage in wars in oil-rich places.
How President Trump is going to run Venezuela remains a mystery. My
concern remains how much is this going to cost the taxpayers of our
country. He has already expended billions, without the approval of
Congress, to decapitate the corrupt leaders of Venezuela; but the White
House can't even tell Congress how much has been expended, nor which
accounts their budget director, Russell Vought, moved money out of to
cover the billions and billions spent on this Venezuelan operation.
{time} 2030
What this administration is carrying out is in clear violation of the
appropriations authority of Congress. It is undermining our
Constitution under Article I. That is the beginning of the
Constitution. I recommend every American go back and look. It puts
everyone in danger when you don't follow the law.
Operating dilapidated oil platforms in Venezuela is really not the
President's job. That is what he says he is going to do. Now, the
President does have responsibility for America's security, and so does
Congress, to assure our energy independence, but he is shortchanging
many programs across the Federal establishment that would make energy
independence in perpetuity a reality.
Our energy portfolio domestically must be balanced and comprehensive,
a truly all-of-the-above strategy in order that there be competition
not reliance on dirty crude. That day should be over. That means
continuing progress on renewable energy systems like modern nuclear,
green hydrogen, fusion, biofuels, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, and
capturing thermal waste heat. Though the President does not like wind
power, in some remote and coastal locations they do make sense.
The administration's Venezuela obsession is going to prove to be, I
am sad to say, very expensive. Whatever happens will also take time.
Forces of sabotage may lurk in an impoverished nation of over 30
million people, and its institutions are run down. Is the Trump
administration assuming the task of nation building? That could add
billions and even trillions to our debt.
When I asked Secretary Hegseth how many billions of dollars the
Venezuelan operation had cost us in the United States to date, I asked
where the unappropriated funds had come from. He rather dismissively
blew me off and stated: From the general accounts. Mr. Speaker, there
is no such thing. I asked that he identify the specific accounts at the
Department of Defense from which he diverted funds to pay for this
operation. He did not reply.
For example, I have been told military housing has been shorted to
spend billions on military action. Secretary Hegseth then had a second
thought. He said: Call my office. I asked him directly with whom in his
office should I speak, and he replied: Anyone. Mr. Speaker, I am from
the working class town of Toledo, Ohio. We understand a dodge when we
hear one. I then reasked the question yesterday in a bipartisan
convening here in the Congress: From which accounts, Mr. Secretary,
were funds diverted to pay for the billions of dollars being expended
in the Gulf and Atlantic theater. Again, he dodged and refused to
answer.
The Secretary of State calls this Venezuelan deployment ``a law
enforcement action.'' I have never seen--and please anyone listening to
this, if you have seen a law enforcement action that has cost multiple
billions of dollars, please let me know. Call my office.
The briefings we received before Christmas were hollow, and as we
know now, totally misleading. The bipartisan briefing yesterday
described the operation but not the costs.
Again I ask: Name the accounts exactly from which billions of dollars
have been diverted to pay all the expenses of this major continuing
military operation? Is the administration going to hire mercenaries in
the next several months? If so, exactly from which accounts and which
companies?
I would prefer any funds be rebated to our American people for the
rapidly rising costs of energy because of the emergence of AI and data
centers. The operation executed by our military that the administration
has just perpetrated is not a law enforcement action by any stretch of
reasonable consideration. It is an act of war and occupation.
Are funds being taken from our nuclear Navy shipbuilding program
which is already 2 years behind schedule? Are funds being subtracted
from cybersecurity accounts that are so essential to national security
and our future? What about military housing, which I mentioned for
servicemembers and their families all across this country and world, or
how about the healthcare of those who have served in theater?
I can guarantee this: There aren't enough people at the Veterans
Administration to answer the phones when our vets call in and ask for
appointments because they are being shorted on doctors and nurses. The
thousands of people they need to hire that Elon Musk erased from
Federal employment, that is un-American.
The American people have an absolute right to know account by account
how much this U.S.-Venezuela military oil operation has cost over the
last several months. Rebuilding Venezuela is not the top priority for
the people of the district I represent in northwestern Ohio.
While we observe billions being spent in Latin America for oil, the
Trump administration has just canceled millions of dollars to Ohio
manufacturers who were hoping to make their operations more energy
efficient to compete with China and other countries around the world
who compete so unfairly.
Those projects to manufacturing companies in Ohio have been halted by
the administration over the course of the last year and then just again
before the holidays. The U.S. Department of Commerce, for example,
canceled all Federal assistance for manufacturing extension long relied
upon in Ohio and across our country, especially in manufacturing areas
that were depleted after the passage of NAFTA to help spur business
extensions for small- and medium-sized manufacturers.
When we get the tax refunds from oil that is going to be spent in
Venezuela, let's help some of these companies that need to build the
future for our communities.
The question must be asked: Why does the administration expend
billions for capturing dirty, defunct crude refineries in a foreign
country, rather than investing in the future of American companies
right here at home?
The American people deserve an answer. This is not a small amount of
money. They deserve transparency by the Trump administration.
I lived through the first Arab oil embargo of this country as our
people endured the great harm it caused. Our Nation should not be
funding recovery of defunct, dirty crude oil companies in foreign
nations, rather, investment is needed here not just in our northwestern
Ohio district but nationwide to modernize and advance modern energy
systems.
Our grid needs modernization across our Nation. Why? The poor
condition of the existing grid and the recent doubling of electric
bills across our region due to a surge of data centers consumes massive
amounts of power. Our grid is old. All over the country we must focus
on building new energy systems at the cutting edge of American
technology. Dirty Venezuelan crude is not the answer. We can't live in
the past.
America needs investment in new, diversified energy platforms, in
green hydrogen, in modern nuclear. I know our young people will do
this. I just know they are going to grow into this, in natural gas
applications and advanced biofuels, more powerful thin film energy
arrays, including solar, thermal heat recovery, fusion, advanced
batteries. Our region has oil refineries
[[Page H249]]
whose platforms have been made cleaner. They need help in dealing with
RINs inside our own Nation. Why not help them?
Nuclear power plants in our region of Ohio are over a half century
old. We don't need old nuclear, we need modern, safer nuclear. We need
the President's help to modernize Ohio's Nuclear North with a new grid.
Our industrial corridor produces heavy truck and car platforms, steel,
strategic metals, cryogenic hydrogen, biofuels, renewable fuels,
natural gas, advanced solar, and nuclear power. I would like the
President to take as much money as he just spent in the Gulf on this
Venezuelan operation and modernize the electric grid across the Great
Lakes region that I represent. There is enough money in that to cover
other areas of the country.
America should be excelling in new grid replacement and creating
jobs, but guess what, Mr. Speaker, we are very, very far behind.
The people of my region work in manufacturing. They work in steel.
They work in strategic materials. We prefer not to import steel here.
We make it. We build cars. We prefer not to import. We build tanks. We
can't import our defense industry base. We must build it. That is what
we do. Our region operates among the top 10 finest National Guard F-16
Fighter Wings in this whole Nation. Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago our,
pilots flew the first biofueled F-16 aircraft out of a major base in
our country.
{time} 2040
We grow crops for biofuels right where we live, and those fuels went
into those planes. We don't import it.
Our military is looking for more renewable fuels. The American people
and our military need domestic energy investment in our country, not
Venezuela. We need jobs here, not in penny-wage havens.
It is clear that the President deployed the U.S. Navy to the Gulf and
the Atlantic to take over Venezuela's oil industry. Both China and
Vladimir Putin's close relations with Venezuela have been a regional
concern, but we don't need to take over old, broken-down former
platforms for oil to block Putin. We just place further financial
sanctions on Russia, which could happen in this House Chamber with two
more Members signing discharge petition No. 8 at the Clerk's desk in
this Chamber. We need only two more signatures to get it across the
finish line to put more sanctions on Russia. That would make a big
difference.
President John F. Kennedy, a Navy man and the only President ever
awarded the Purple Heart, understood exactly what to do when faced with
the Cuban Missile Crisis perpetrated by Communist Russia one-half
century ago. He blockaded the region.
This country has the strongest defense ever known to humankind. We
can protect ourselves if we are smart enough to do it, but we can't do
it without investments in this country to make our companies stronger.
The President of the United States should not seek to run foreign
countries' oil companies.
What is morally troubling is that the President sought $1 billion in
campaign donations from major oil and gas interests. He should reflect
on our Nation learning a hard, painful lesson from our decades-long
presence in long conflicts that dragged on. Tutoring other governments
to make them work is a deep, dangerous, and expensive hole that is
being dug by this administration. The American people don't want to go
down this path anymore.
Our primary job must be to defend our country against all enemies,
foreign and domestic. That means being strong inside our own borders.
It means abiding by the rule of law and our Constitution. We had best
focus on the future right here in the USA, abide by our country and the
rule of law, and strengthen our ties with other proven democracies of
the world. That alliance is our insurance in war. America must not be
sucked down into unstable situations.
The lingering challenge of our own future energy security here at
home is real. The solution demands the brilliance of invention inside
our own borders, and we must never tie our future to imports or foreign
crude.
The good news is that our citizens and inventors have been busy
inventing our new energy future inside our borders right here at home.
Mr. President, if your staff allows you to watch this speech, I
personally invite you to join me with members of our American energy
team. We will show you the new energy future that is developing right
here inside our own Nation. They have you captured down there in Mar-a-
Lago. There is a lot bigger country to see.
Our nuclear Navy is the best in the world. Their work matters. They
are behind. We need your help. We are on the horizon of advanced
nuclear. We need your help.
Our farmers, too, have figured out how to grow a range of biofuels.
One-half of their crop now goes into fuel. Come. Meet them. Your
tariffs limit their global reach, even as their role in new energy
fuels is huge.
Our water and wastewater utilities are beginning to capture vast
amounts of geo-power in a way prior generations have never even
imagined possible. Building materials inventors are creating more
energy-efficient windows, better siding and materials for construction,
better roofing, and better batteries. So many power options like green
hydrogen await on the horizon.
Why would any wise leader handcuff their nation to imported and dirty
foreign crude dependency?
I have devoted a major share of my career to helping America regain
its energy independence in perpetuity across all sectors of energy.
That keeps it competitive.
Our domestic deposits of oil and natural gas must be used
judiciously. We are now the largest exporter of oil in the world. We
will not be the last generation, however, to populate this country, and
we cannot live in the past. We must live in the future.
In the last century, and even this one, America often headed to war
for oil interests. Our soldiers fought unending battles in godforsaken
places anchored to dirty crude. We even had to pass legislation here in
Congress that began in my district to create the toxic exposure fund,
the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address
Comprehensive Toxics Act, to allow treatment for the toxins our vets
who fought in the Middle East and Vietnam endured as their health
failed. No member of our military should ever die for dirty crude.
Folks, what a pity it would be if the Trump Presidency went down in
history as taking American progress backward on energy independence.
That hangs in the balance.
Just in my lifetime, here is a summary of U.S. military personnel who
died in foreign conflicts where crude oil interests underpinned the
surface warfare. I say no more.
World War II, in the 1940s, during World War II, our Uncle Tony was
deployed by the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, to the China-
Burma-India theater. He served as an Army parachutist and truck
driver--he was so brave--under command of General Vinegar Joe Stilwell.
Fighting off Japanese regulars in bitter combat, our uncle was part of
an elite unit building the Burma Road. His dangerous mission helped
stop the flow of oil to Japan from the surrounding oil-rich East Asian
deep-sea crude oil deposits. Again, control of oil was central to
warfare. Today, the former Burma Road that he helped build is a major
corridor for China's Belt and Road Initiative. Pay attention, folks, to
oil.
In the Korean war, 1950 to 1953, we lost 36,000 U.S. troops, 36,000
U.S. war dead. It was the second most deadly war of the Cold War, which
was undeclared by a gutless Congress involved in the North Korean
People's Army that invaded South Korea in an attack along the 38th
parallel, the dividing line between Communist North Korea and the
Democratic Republic of South Korea. Again, the war occurred along the
Korean Peninsula, which still remains divided but which accesses oil
from multiple fields along the eastern rims of both nations. Today,
South Korea does not produce oil, but it has the fifth largest refining
capacity in the world after the U.S., China, Russia, and India.
In Vietnam, over 58,280 conscripted U.S. troops died near the Chinese
border in an undeclared war by another gutless Congress. More than
60,000 more Vietnam veterans died when they returned home by their own
hand.
Mr. Speaker, they were and are America's patriots, drafted and sent
to that horrible war
[[Page H250]]
by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson from the oil rich State of
Texas. Thousands of conscripted U.S. soldiers were unloaded off ships
to fight in that undeclared conflict. Many deboarded vessels, as they
viewed and reported huge oil derricks operating in the South China Sea
ringing the coasts of Vietnam, and adjacent countries. Many came home
from that confusing deployment wondering what they had fought for and
against. Records indicate oil drilling in the South China waters
continues until today. Oil and gas companies in Vietnam made huge
profits in 2025.
Kuwait Gulf War--1991--147 U.S. War Dead:
About a decade later came the Gulf War. U.S. troops were deployed to
save the Royal Kingdom's dirty crude oil for the monarchy of Kuwait.
Republican President George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas was buddies
with the Saudi Family and its lobbyists and the Kuwaiti and Saudi
royalty. Together they mobilized the U.S. military and other nations to
push neighboring Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein back into Kuwait's border.
Hussein's objective was to steal from Kuwait's crude oil fields which
extended across the adjoining borders of Kuwait and Iraq. The Coalition
of the Willing Forces rolled back Saddam's forces inside his own
borders. When I landed in Kuwait during the Iraq War that came two
decades later, I entered the headquarters complex of the U.S. military
command. It was huge. It looked like a massive Mission Control for a
U.S. space launch. Video screens, hundreds of employees, and a full
color, smiling portrait of former President and oil man George Bush
Senior--probably 5 feet by 6 feet plastered on the wall of the secure
entryway. So, another U.S. President also from Texas supported another
crude, dirty oil kingdom war in the complex Middle East political array
of undemocratic states.
2001--Iraq War--U.S. War dead--3,481:
Saudi religious dissidents snuck into the U.S. under the tutelage of
Saudi religious zealot Osama bin Laden--they highjacked four airplanes
and flew those planes into New York City's tallest buildings--the World
Trade Towers--the first foreign attack on U.S. soil in American
history. Another plane hit the Pentagon and a fourth headed for
Washington, DC crashed near Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
In New York City, the demise of the World Trade Center occurred with
the first plane crashing into its North tower above the 80th floor.
That impact brought down the Cantor Fitzgerald trading company whose
President is Howard Lutnick (who today serves as the U.S. Secretary of
Commerce). That firm handled Wall Street's major oil trader called e-
bond's from the Middle East through its New York World Trade Center
offices by denominating them in dollars. It also ran a London Office.
Had the London office not existed on 9-11, it is likely the U.S.
financial bond markets would have collapsed that day. Chaos would have
reigned across our entire financial markets.
By way of history, Ronald Reagan who had served as President from
1981 through 1989--importantly with oil man George Bush Senior of Texas
as his Vice President--had negotiated an agreement during his
Presidency with the Saudis to dollar denominate all its oil revenue
trades, bringing enormous financial benefit to the U.S. financial
markets. Moreover, it is important to follow the footsteps of Richard
``Dick'' Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, and late Vice President
during the George Bush II Presidency from 2001 to 2009. When he left
his position as U.S. Secretary of Defense for George Bush I, he worked
for Haliburton company whose purpose is earning money off drilling, and
refining dirty crude oil from everywhere in the world. Oil is not
liberty. But its presence has impacted liberty throughout modern
history. Osama bin Laden was intelligent. He understood the finances of
Middle East oil interests. I believe he knew exactly how Cantor
Fitzgerald and U.S. bond markets were directly tied to the Middle East
kingdoms' stability, and U.S. markets.
History demonstrates our nation has rewarded tens of thousands of
American lives for dirty crude oil interests. We should not be sending
our sons and daughters to die in Venezuelan jungles so oil companies
can squeeze wealth out of that sovereign nation to pad their profit
margins, and fill the pockets and bank accounts of the influential
president's billionaire buddies, or presidents and financial interests
whose top priority is not the American people, nor liberty.
To remain strong and energy independent in perpetuity, the United
States of America must continue its steady progress in building
competitive modern energy systems forward here in our homeland. May God
bless America.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks
to the Chair.
____________________