IIA
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. J. RES. 37
Requiring the advice and consent of the Senate or an Act of Congress
to suspend, terminate, or withdraw the United States from the North
Atlantic Treaty and authorizing related litigation, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JULY12, 2023
Mr. K
AINE(for himself, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. MORAN, Mrs.
F
EINSTEIN, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. KING, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. MERKLEY,
Mr. D
URBIN, Mr. WARNER, and Mrs. SHAHEEN) introduced the following
joint resolution; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Foreign Relations
JOINT RESOLUTION
Requiring the advice and consent of the Senate or an Act
of Congress to suspend, terminate, or withdraw the
United States from the North Atlantic Treaty and au-
thorizing related litigation, and for other purposes.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives1
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. OPPOSITION OF CONGRESS TO SUSPENSION, 3
TERMINATION, DENUNCIATION, OR WITH-4
DRAWAL FROM NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY. 5
The President shall not suspend, terminate, de-6
nounce, or withdraw the United States from the North 7
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•SJ 37 IS
Atlantic Treaty, done at Washington, DC, April 4, 1949, 1
except by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 2
provided that two-thirds of the Senators present concur, 3
or pursuant to an Act of Congress. 4
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON THE USE OF FUNDS. 5
No funds authorized or appropriated by any Act may 6
be used to support, directly or indirectly, any decision on 7
the part of any United States Government official to sus-8
pend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw the United States 9
from the North Atlantic Treaty, done at Washington, DC, 10
April 4, 1949, until such time as both the Senate and the 11
House of Representatives pass, by an affirmative vote of 12
two-thirds of Members, a joint resolution approving the 13
withdrawal of the United States from the treaty, or pursu-14
ant to an Act of Congress. 15
SEC. 3. NOTIFICATION OF TREATY ACTION. 16
(a) C
ONSULTATION.—Prior to the notification de-17
scribed in subsection (b), the President shall consult with 18
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and 19
the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep-20
resentatives in relation to any initiative to suspend, termi-21
nate, denounce, or withdraw the United States from the 22
North Atlantic Treaty. 23
(b) N
OTIFICATION.—The President shall notify the 24
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the 25
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Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representa-1
tives in writing of any deliberation or decision to suspend, 2
terminate, denounce, or withdraw the United States from 3
the North Atlantic Treaty, as soon as possible but in no 4
event later than 180 days prior to taking such action. 5
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF LEGAL COUNSEL TO REP-6
RESENT CONGRESS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—By adoption of a resolution of the 8
Senate or the House of Representatives, respectively, the 9
Senate Legal Counsel or the General Counsel to the House 10
of Representatives may be authorized to initiate, or inter-11
vene in, in the name of the Senate or the House of Rep-12
resentatives, as the case may be, independently, or jointly, 13
any judicial proceedings in any Federal court of competent 14
jurisdiction in order to oppose any action to suspend, ter-15
minate, denounce, or withdraw the United States from the 16
North Atlantic Treaty in a manner inconsistent with this 17
resolution. 18
(b) C
ONSIDERATION.—Any resolution or joint resolu-19
tion introduced relevant to North Atlantic Treaty-related 20
matters and pursuant to section 4(a) of this title shall be 21
considered in accordance with the procedures of section 22
601(b) of the International Security Assistance and Arms 23
Export Control Act of 1976 (Public Law 94–329; 90 Stat. 24
765). 25
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SEC. 5. REPORTING REQUIREMENT. 1
Any legal counsel operating pursuant to section 4 2
shall report as soon as practicable to the Committee on 3
Foreign Relations of the Senate or the Committee on For-4
eign Affairs of the House of Representatives with respect 5
to any judicial proceedings which the Senate Legal Coun-6
sel or the General Counsel to the House of Representa-7
tives, as the case may be, initiates or in which it intervenes 8
pursuant to section 4. 9
SEC. 6. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 10
Nothing in this resolution shall be construed to au-11
thorize, imply, or otherwise indicate that the President 12
may suspend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw from any 13
treaty to which the Senate has provided its advice and con-14
sent without the advice and consent of the Senate to such 15
act or pursuant to an Act of Congress. 16
SEC. 7. SEVERABILITY. 17
If any provision of this resolution or the application 18
of such provision is held by a Federal court to be unconsti-19
tutional, the remainder of this resolution and the applica-20
tion of such provisions to any other person or cir-21
cumstance shall not be affected thereby. 22
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 23
In this resolution, the terms ‘‘withdrawal’’, ‘‘denun-24
ciation’’, ‘‘suspension’’, and ‘‘termination’’ have the mean-25
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ing given the terms in the Vienna Convention on the Law 1
of Treaties, concluded at Vienna May 23, 1969. 2
Æ
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