I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2010
To prevent the President of the United States from withdrawing from the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH10, 2025
Mr. P
ANETTA(for himself and Mr. BACON) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition
to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To prevent the President of the United States from
withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘NATO Edge Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 5
Congress finds the following: 6
(1) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization 7
(‘‘NATO’’) has served as a pillar of international 8
peace and stability, a critical component of United 9
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•HR 2010 IH
States security, and a deterrent against adversaries 1
and external threats. 2
(2) The House of Representatives affirmed in 3
H. Res. 397, on June 27, 2017, that— 4
(A) NATO is one of the most successful 5
military alliances in history, deterring the out-6
break of another world war, protecting the ter-7
ritorial integrity of its members, and concluding 8
the Cold War peacefully; 9
(B) NATO remains the foundation of 10
United States foreign policy to promote pros-11
perity, freedom, and peace in Europe; 12
(C) the United States is solemnly com-13
mitted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-14
tion’s principle of collective defense as enumer-15
ated in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty; 16
(D) condemns any threat to the sov-17
ereignty, territorial integrity, freedom, and de-18
mocracy of any NATO ally; and 19
(E) strongly supports collaboration with 20
NATO allies to enforce Ukraine’s territorial in-21
tegrity against unprovoked aggression from the 22
Russian Federation. 23
(3) NATO members should abide by the deci-24
sion at the NATO Wales Summit in 2014 that each 25
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alliance member aim to spend at least 2 percent of 1
its nation’s gross domestic product on defense by 2
2024. 3
(4) Investing in multinational training exercises 4
and joint research and education programs with 5
NATO allies have offered improvements for inter-6
operability and readiness against threats to Euro-7
pean security, particularly from the Russian Federa-8
tion. 9
SEC. 3. MODIFICATION OF LIMITATION ON WITHDRAWAL 10
FROM NATO. 11
Section 1250A of the National Defense Authorization 12
Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (22 U.S.C. 1928f) is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (a), by inserting after ‘‘an Act 14
of Congress’’ the following: ‘‘, and unless all remain-15
ing members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-16
tion who have not allocated a minimum of 2 percent 17
of their Gross Domestic Product to annual defense 18
spending have not made an explicit commitment to 19
spend 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product, as 20
defined by NATO standards, on defense within 5 21
years from the given fiscal year to which the Presi-22
dent is seeking to so suspend, terminate, denounce, 23
or withdraw the United States from the North At-24
lantic Treaty’’; 25
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(2) by amending subsection (b) to read as fol-1
lows: 2
‘‘(b) P
ROHIBITION ON THE USE OFFUNDSTO 3
W
ITHDRAWFROMNATO.—No funds authorized or ap-4
propriated by any Act may be made available to support, 5
directly or indirectly, any decision on the part of any 6
United States Government official to suspend, terminate, 7
denounce, or withdraw the United States from the North 8
Atlantic Treaty, done at Washington, DC, 3 April 4, 1949, 9
except by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 10
provided that two-thirds of the Senators present concur, 11
or pursuant to an Act of Congress, and unless all remain-12
ing members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 13
who have not spent a minimum of 2 percent of their Gross 14
Domestic Product to defense have not made an explicit 15
commitment to spend 2 percent of their Gross Domestic 16
Product, as defined by NATO standards, on defense with-17
in 5 years from the given fiscal year to which the Presi-18
dent is seeking to so suspend, terminate, denounce, or 19
withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Trea-20
ty.’’; 21
(3) by redesignating subsections (c), (d), (e), 22
and (f) as subsections (f), (g), (h), and (i), respec-23
tively; and 24
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(4) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-1
lowing new subsections: 2
‘‘(c) I
NGENERAL.—By adoption of a resolution of 3
the Senate or the House of Representatives, respectively, 4
the Senate Legal Counsel or the General Counsel to the 5
House of Representatives may be authorized to initiate, 6
or intervene in, in the name of the Senate or the House 7
of Representatives, as the case may be, independently, or 8
jointly, any judicial proceedings in any Federal court of 9
competent jurisdiction in order to oppose any action to 10
suspend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw the United 11
States from the North Atlantic Treaty in a manner incon-12
sistent with this section. 13
‘‘(d) C
ONSIDERATION.—Any resolution or joint reso-14
lution introduced relating to any action to suspend, termi-15
nate, denounce or withdraw the United States from the 16
North Atlantic Treaty and introduced pursuant to sub-17
section (a) shall be considered in accordance with the pro-18
cedures of section 601(b) of the International Security As-19
sistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (Public 20
Law 94–329; 90 Stat. 765). 21
‘‘(e) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENT.—Any legal counsel 22
operating pursuant to section 1299R shall report as soon 23
as practicable to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 24
House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 25
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Relations of the Senate with respect to any judicial pro-1
ceedings which the Senate Legal Counsel or the General 2
Counsel to the House of Representatives, as the case may 3
be, initiates or in which it intervenes pursuant to section 4
1299R.’’. 5
SEC. 4. SUNSET. 6
The amendments made by section 3 of this Act shall 7
terminate on September 30, 2033. Section 1250A of the 8
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 9
(22 U.S.C. 1928f) shall be restored on such date as if 10
such amendments had not been enacted and as in effect 11
on the day after the date of the amendment of such Act 12
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024. 13
Æ
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