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Sen­ate Re­pub­li­cans vot­ed to re­ject leg­is­la­tion Thurs­day that would have put a check on Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s abil­i­ty to launch an at­tack against Venezuela, as De­moc­rats pressed Con­gress to take a stronger role in Trump’s high-stakes cam­paign against Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro.

Law­mak­ers, in­clud­ing top Re­pub­li­cans, have de­mand­ed that the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion pro­vide them with more in­for­ma­tion on the U.S. mil­i­tary strikes against al­leged drug-smug­gling ves­sels in the Caribbean Sea and east­ern Pa­cif­ic Ocean. But Thurs­day’s vote, on leg­is­la­tion that would es­sen­tial­ly fore­stall an at­tack on Venezue­lan soil with­out con­gres­sion­al au­tho­ri­sa­tion, sug­gest­ed Re­pub­li­cans are will­ing to give Trump lee­way to con­tin­ue his buildup of naval forces in the re­gion.

“Pres­i­dent Trump has tak­en de­ci­sive ac­tion to pro­tect thou­sands of Amer­i­cans from lethal nar­cotics,” said Sen. Jim Risch, the Re­pub­li­can chair of the Sen­ate For­eign Re­la­tions Com­mit­tee.