What happened
The Senate yesterday quashed a bipartisan resolution that would have required President Donald Trump to get congressional approval for any U.S. military activity in Venezuela. Five Republicans voted with Democrats last week to force a vote on the measure, but two of them — Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Todd Young (Ind.) (pictured above) — flipped under intense pressure from Trump. Vice President JD Vance had to break the 50-50 deadlock to scuttle the legislation.

Who said what
Senate Republicans used an “unusual procedure to block the measure,” stripping its “privileged” status, The Wall Street Journal said. The “deployment of the rare procedural tool” averted an “embarrassing defeat” for Trump while also giving “the Republican defectors an offramp without fully appearing to abandon their objections,” The New York Times said.

“It’s disappointing that my colleagues let the president sort of beat them into submission,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who co-sponsored the resolution with Sen Rand Paul (R-Ky.). But it forced the White House to “work their ass off to keep their people in the corral” and make “some commitments that they otherwise wouldn’t have.” The vote was a “victory” for Trump and proof of his “continued sway over the GOP,” Politico said, but last week’s “rare rebuke” and the White House’s “full-court press” to “beat back the Democrats” suggest “the fight over Trump’s war powers isn’t ending anytime soon.”

What next?
Republican “angst” over Trump’s “recent foreign policy moves — especially threats of using military force to seize Greenland from a NATO ally — is still running high in Congress,” The Associated Press said. Kaine said he didn’t expect planned war powers votes on Iran, Colombia, Mexico and Cuba to become law, but predicted the Greenland resolution could get the two-thirds majority needed to overcome Trump’s veto. 

What happened
The State Department yesterday announced that the U.S. would indefinitely suspend immigrant visa processing for people from 75 different countries whose migrants “would extract wealth from the American people.” Brazil, Egypt, Russia, Iran and Somalia are among the nations affected by the new policy, the latest effort by President Donald Trump to close legal immigration pathways into the U.S.

Who said what
The policy targets foreign nationals the White House has deemed “likely to require public assistance” while living in the U.S., The Associated Press said. It will not affect the “vast majority of visa seekers” who apply for “non-immigrant visas, or temporary tourist or business visas.” 

The new restrictions follow a State Department memo in November mandating “sweeping new screening rules under the so-called ‘public charge’ provision of immigration law,” Fox News said. The memo said consular officials could reject visas for a “wide range of factors,” including health, age, language proficiency and “even potential need for long-term medical care.”

What next?
Many of the 75 countries listed under the new policy were “already included” in the administration’s “expanded travel ban list,” CNN Said. The policy is scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 21.