Risch should lead or get out of the way on Venezuela invasion | Opinion

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch has once again demonstrated his toothless leadership as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In response to President Donald Trump’s unilateral military invasion of Venezuela, Chairman Risch issued a press release stating the obvious: “As always, Congress has a constitutional responsibility to review all kinetic (repeating Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s word of the day) actions and ensure proper oversight.”

Indeed! Take that Trump. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as the Senate, has been reduced to a rubber stamp for Trump.

Risch should be embarrassed (and incensed) that Secretary of State Marco Rubio reached out to Utah’s Senator Mike Lee, the 7th ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to brief him on the U.S. invasion of Venezuela instead of Risch, his former Foreign Relations Committee colleague. But then, the Trump Administration tipped its hand in briefing Senator Lee, the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. It’s all about the oil.

Risch’s lack of stature in the Senate stands in sharp contrast to Idaho’s former Foreign Relations Committee chairmen, Frank Church and William Borah. They both understood and exercised the constitutional responsibility of the Senate’s advice and consent power. In stark contrast, Risch seems not inclined or incapable of serious Congressional oversight when it is needed most.

Given that Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro is a brutal dictator, his removal by U.S. force begs the question of how the Trump Administration plans to “run the country.” Risch ought to assert his Senate authority and demand immediate oversight hearings not unlike the Senate hearings on Vietnam in the 1960’s and the Church Committee hearings on intelligence agencies in the 1970’s.

But then, perhaps the octogenarian chairman is not up to the task. At the very least, he should call for the passage of his co-sponsored bill, S. 37, the “Venezuela Advancing Liberty, Opportunity and Rights Act of 2025 (or the VALOR ACT) under which the President “must develop a plan to provide assistance to Venezuela under a democratically elected government…”

By acquiescing to Trump’s justification of a new Monroe Doctrine, Risch encourages a return to great power hegemony. Trump’s threats to the elected governments of Mexico and Columbia along with Rubio’s warnings to Cuba, speak volumes about the intentions of this Administration in Latin America and elsewhere. It reminds us of Church’s investigations into the role of the CIA and multi-national corporations in the overthrow of President Salvador Allende in Chile.

However, the real winners in the U.S. takeover of Venezuela are Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine and Xi Jinping’s vow to unite Taiwan with China. Frank Church foresaw this in 1978, when as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, he led the revision of the Taiwan Relations Act to permit Taiwan to purchase defensive weapons from the U.S.

All of this seems beyond Risch, who is running for re-election this year, and who would be 89 years old at the end of his next term. Perhaps, Idahoans should encourage him to retire in favor of more vigorous Senate leadership.

Garry V. Wenske served on the staff of Sen. Frank Church including as legislative counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.