Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X that the military had struck another suspected drug smuggling boat on Oct. 17, 2025, this one affiliated with a Colombian rebel group. (Screen capture from X)
WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee on Monday demanded a congressional hearing on the Trump administration’s use of the military to carry out strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean as if they were enemy combatants.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., called for his panel to hold the hearing after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday announced the military had struck another suspected drug smuggling boat on Friday, this one affiliated with a Colombian rebel group.
It was the seventh attack on an alleged drug-carrying vessel since early September. The Trump administration has told Congress the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels and has deemed boat crews “unlawful combatants.”
Smith accused President Donald Trump and his administration of repeatedly failing to answer lawmaker questions about the legality of the strikes, provide transparency about the bombing campaign or present a list of cartels designated as terrorist organizations.
Ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., makes opening remarks during a House Armed Services Committee meeting on April 29, 2025, in Washington. Smith on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025, demanded a congressional hearing on the Trump administration’s use of the military to carry out strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean as if they were enemy combatants. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
“We have also yet to see any evidence to support the president’s unilateral determinations that these vessels or their activities posed imminent threats to the United States of America that warranted military force rather than law enforcement-led interdiction,” Smith said.
The Coast Guard typically interdicts suspected drug boats and arrests the people on board if suspicions of smuggling turn out to be correct.
Smith on Monday also called for Adm. Alvin Holsey, the outgoing head of U.S. Southern Command, to testify before the committee. Hegseth announced last week that Holsey would retire a year into what is typically a three-year job.
“Never before in my over 20 years on the committee can I recall seeing a combatant commander leave their post this early and amid such turmoil,” Smith said.
It is unclear if or when the House Armed Services Committee would hold a hearing on military operations in the Caribbean. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has kept the House out of session for a month and said he will extend the recess into this week amid an ongoing government shutdown.
The Senate, however, is expected to soon vote on a measure introduced last week by a bipartisan group of senators seeking to block the Trump administration from carrying out military operations against Venezuela without the approval of Congress.
The war powers resolution is the second attempt by mostly Democratic senators this month to assert congressional oversight over the White House and the Pentagon. The last effort, to stop the administration from launching strikes on boats in the Caribbean, failed in a 51-48 vote.
