Barely a month since the Senate dismissed a move to halt President Donald Trump’s actions against purported drug-smuggling vessels, Senator Rand Paul plans to persist in addressing the matter. The Republican from Kentucky informed TIME that a revised resolution might be put to a vote as early as next week, aiming to garner sufficient bipartisan backing to prevent Trump from further escalating these operations.

“The notion of treating human beings as mere refuse, as if to say, ‘We don’t care if we kill them because they’re not Americans and they’re on the high seas,’ represents an extremely insensitive stance,” Paul explained to TIME during a Tuesday interview. “This is a matter I will not abandon.”

Over the last two months, Trump has sanctioned multiple military attacks targeting suspected drug trafficking vessels, resulting in at least 57 fatalities. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed that military actions had struck four additional boats in the Pacific, near the Central and South American coastlines, the previous day, with Monday marking the highest recorded death count for a single day since these operations were first disclosed last month.

Trump asserted he is waging a conflict against drug cartels, with these strikes intended to halt the influx of narcotics into the U.S. However, specialists have challenged this claim, pointing out that vessels depicted in footage lack sufficient fuel to reach the U.S., and contending that such assaults will not diminish the volume of drugs entering the nation.

The Constitution’s Article 1 explicitly grants Congress the authority to declare war. Earlier this month, the Senate rejected a resolution introduced by Paul and Democratic Senators, which sought to end the Administration’s bombing operations. Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski was the sole Republican who sided with Paul in backing the measure.

Paul states the revised resolution is more specifically focused on Trump’s operations targeting Venezuela, in an effort to gain support from a greater number of his party colleagues. The previous resolution, defeated 48-51 on October 8, aimed to prevent the military from targeting non-state organizations engaged in drug trafficking. “If you intend to implement rules of engagement that involve eliminating people without inquiry—that constitutes warfare—and the authority for war rests solely with the legislature,” Paul remarks.

Accompanying the vessel attacks, there has been a military escalation in the Caribbean, off Venezuela’s coast. The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford received orders to reposition from the Mediterranean Sea to Latin America. Addressing journalists on October 15, Trump indicated he was contemplating extending the military offensive to land-based targets and confirmed he had empowered the CIA to carry out operations within Venezuela.

On Sunday, the Venezuelan government announced the capture of mercenaries, alleging they were instructed by the American intelligence agency to carry out a false-flag operation designed to conceal the perpetrators’ identities. These assertions lacked independent corroboration. The CIA refrained from commenting on whether Venezuela had indeed thwarted one of its operations.

The intensifying military actions have fueled speculation that the Trump Administration’s true objective is to effect regime change in Venezuela. Paul considers such an aim to be an error, conflicting with Trump’s longstanding stance against involving the U.S. in “a regime change war.” Paul, a Senator since 2011, previously objected to drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. “The concept of simply killing individuals without due process is not novel for Donald Trump; rather, he is extending President Obama’s legacy in this regard,” Paul asserts.

Senator Lindsey Graham stated on Sunday that, following a conversation with Trump the previous day, the President’s “ultimate goal” is to “ensure Venezuela and Colombia are not exploited to harm America, and that the narco-terrorist dictator Maduro can no longer menace our nation and dispatch drugs to cause American deaths.”

Paul anticipates that additional Republicans will unite with him in challenging Trump’s military engagements in Latin America and the Caribbean, which lack Congressional approval. The subsequent resolution he and Democrats intend to propose will be more precisely aimed at Trump’s operations concerning Venezuela, with the aim of securing broader support from GOP senators. 

Paul mentions he has not been among those offered a briefing by the Trump Administration regarding the lethal strikes, and expressed skepticism that a briefing would sufficiently address his apprehensions. He considers enacting a war powers resolution as Congress’s most effective instrument for curtailing Trump’s authority. However, even if such a bill were to clear both the Republican-dominated House and Senate, its enactment into law remains improbable. Trump would likely veto it, necessitating a two-thirds majority in both legislative bodies to overturn the veto.

Nevertheless, Paul plans to continue advocating on this matter. “The discussion itself retains its significance, regardless of our victory,” he states.