[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 277 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 277

 To require that any request by the President for a declaration of war 
 include a cost/benefit statement, and to require that any declaration 
            of war by the Congress include such a statement.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 4, 1995

  Mr. Jacobs introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require that any request by the President for a declaration of war 
 include a cost/benefit statement, and to require that any declaration 
            of war by the Congress include such a statement.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PRESIDENTIAL REQUEST FOR DECLARATION OF WAR MUST INCLUDE 
              COST/BENEFIT STATEMENT.

    Whenever the President submits a request to the Congress for a 
declaration of war, the President shall include with that request a 
cost/benefit statement that shall identify areas of risk and 
uncertainty in terms of the cost in dollars as well as human misery and 
sorrow and describe them clearly so that the decision whether to 
declare war can be made with knowledge of the degree of reliability of 
the estimated benefits and costs and the effectiveness of alternate 
plans.

SEC. 2. DECLARATION OF WAR MUST INCLUDE COST/BENEFIT STATEMENT.

    Any declaration of war by the Congress shall include a cost/benefit 
statement that shall identify areas of risk and uncertainty in terms of 
the cost in dollars as well as human misery and sorrow and describe 
them clearly so that the decision to declare war is made with knowledge 
of the degree of reliability of the estimated benefits and costs and 
the effectiveness of alternate plans.
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