[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1028 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1028

     Reasserting congressional prerogatives in foreign policy and 
 reaffirming the importance of following constitutional processes when 
 the United States Government enters into agreements regarding the use 
  or maintenance of the United States Armed Forces or the use of the 
financial resources of the United States to assist a foreign government 
   or people and clarifying the nature and scope of status of forces 
                              agreements.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 6, 2008

    Ms. Lee (for herself, Ms. Woolsey, Ms. Waters, and Mr. Filner) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                           on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
     Reasserting congressional prerogatives in foreign policy and 
 reaffirming the importance of following constitutional processes when 
 the United States Government enters into agreements regarding the use 
  or maintenance of the United States Armed Forces or the use of the 
financial resources of the United States to assist a foreign government 
   or people and clarifying the nature and scope of status of forces 
                              agreements.

Whereas the Framers of the Constitution of the United States intended that all 
        significant foreign commitments by the United States Government be made 
        by treaty or statute and that only routine, essentially nonpolitical 
        foreign engagements be left to the sole discretion of the executive 
        branch;
Whereas the President is Commander in Chief of the Army and the Navy of the 
        United States and of the militia of the several states when called into 
        service;
Whereas the Constitution of the United States also gives the President the power 
        to receive Ambassadors and other public ministers and the duty to ensure 
        that the laws are faithfully executed;
Whereas the Constitution of the United States gives Congress the power to 
        declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a 
        navy, to make rules governing such forces, to provide for organizing and 
        calling forth the militia, to make rules concerning captures on land and 
        water, and to regulate commerce with foreign nations;
Whereas the Constitution of the United States also gives Congress the power to 
        make all laws necessary for carrying out the powers vested in the 
        Government, and the power to raise and spend money;
Whereas the Framers of the Constitution of the United States recognized that for 
        the protection of the Republic the United States Armed Forces must never 
        be independent of civil authority and vested in Congress the authority 
        to ``raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation for that Use shall 
        be for a longer Term than two Years'';
Whereas, in addition, the Senate has the responsibility of confirming 
        appointments to diplomatic posts and by two-thirds vote must give its 
        advice and consent to treaties before such treaties become effective;
Whereas to believe that the functions of Congress are to simply approve what the 
        President does in foreign affairs, blindly appropriate funds for 
        requests made by the President without question or challenge, or give 
        automatic consent and support to whatever foreign policy course the 
        executive branch formulates involves a profound misreading of the 
        Constitution of the United States;
Whereas, despite having the Constitution of the United States as a road map and 
        compass, the United States has witnessed a disturbing trend toward 
        unchecked presidential supremacy in the formulation and conduct of the 
        foreign policy of the United States, especially in the aftermath of 
        World War II and the Cold War and the steady ascendancy of the United 
        States as a global superpower;
Whereas, at times, emboldened Presidents from both political parties have 
        transgressed constitutional boundaries by committing the United States 
        to foreign conflicts and financial burdens, with such Presidents 
        claiming expediently that the survival of the United States and Western 
        civilization itself are at stake;
Whereas, in 2008, the United States has more than 700 military bases and 
        outposts in 130 foreign countries and the United States Department of 
        Defense reports that the United States Armed Forces are currently 
        deployed in more locations than ever before in the history of the United 
        States;
Whereas there is an increasingly dangerous complacency in Congress and among the 
        people of the United States who have been led to believe that the sheer 
        size, complexity, and reach of the United States foreign policy means 
        that only the President and his advisors are capable of formulating and 
        executing the foreign policy of the United States in the accelerated 
        21st century;
Whereas the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the foreign policy 
        response of the Bush-Cheney administration to such attacks, and the 
        ensuing misnamed, mischaracterized, and open-ended ``global war on 
        terrorism'' risk concentrating unwarranted power in the executive branch 
        and threaten the ingenious system of separation of powers established by 
        the Framers of the Constitution of the United States;
Whereas, Congress, established in Article I of the Constitution of the United 
        States, is a co-equal branch of the Government, and each Member of 
        Congress, regardless of political party, must resist encroachment by the 
        executive branch on the constitutional prerogatives of Congress;
Whereas, in the most recent example of executive branch overreaching, and 
        without congressional consultation or input, on November 26, 2007, 
        United States President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri 
        al-Maliki signed the ``U.S.-Iraq Declaration of Principles for 
        Friendship and Cooperation'', a shared statement of intent that 
        established common principles to frame the future relationship between 
        the United States and Iraq;
Whereas President Bush has publicly stated that the relationship envisioned in 
        the ``U.S.-Iraq Declaration of Principles for Friendship and 
        Cooperation'' includes cooperation between the United States and Iraq in 
        the political, diplomatic, economic, and security arenas;
Whereas President Bush has declared his intent, during 2008, to negotiate and 
        conclude detailed arrangements, without any role for Congress, that will 
        codify the bilateral relationship between the United States and Iraq 
        following the expiration of the mandate of the Multi-National Force--
        Iraq under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter and the concomitant 
        resumption of Iraq's normal status as a state with full legal and 
        functional sovereignty and authorities and the restoration of Iraq's 
        legal international status;
Whereas status of forces agreements (SOFAs) typically deal with routine 
        administrative and legal issues such as the protection of United States 
        military personnel from foreign jurisdiction, proceedings, and 
        imprisonment, issues necessary for day-to-day business such as entry and 
        exit of personal belongings, postal and banking services, and exemption 
        of certain covered persons from civil and criminal jurisdiction, 
        taxation, customs duties, immigration law, and similar laws of a foreign 
        jurisdiction;
Whereas the ``Status of Forces Policies, Procedures, and Information'' of the 
        Department of the Army and the Department of the Navy, issued on 
        December 15, 1989, makes clear that the North Atlantic Treaty 
        Organization SOFA is the benchmark for defining a ``standard'' or 
        ``typical'' SOFA agreement because ``the same procedures for 
        safeguarding the interests of U.S. personnel subject to foreign 
        jurisdiction will be applied, insofar as practicable, to all foreign 
        countries'';
Whereas SOFAs customarily do not include any guarantee to defend a host country 
        against external or internal threats; and
Whereas SOFAs customarily do not include a provision for immunity from host 
        country laws for private military contractors not acting in direct 
        support of the United States Armed Forces: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) any agreement, understanding, or commitment, other than 
        a treaty, entered into by the President or his designee, 
        whether characterized or denominated as a status of forces 
        agreement or otherwise, which purports to impose a binding or 
        enforceable obligation on the United States to use or maintain 
        the United States Armed Forces to assist a foreign country, 
        government, or people, either immediately or upon the happening 
        of certain events, should be approved by an Act of Congress;
            (2) any agreement, other than a treaty, between the United 
        States and another country that requires the use of the 
        financial resources of the United States should be approved by 
        an Act of Congress; and
            (3) any agreement, other than a treaty, between the 
        Republic of Iraq and the United States that imposes upon the 
        United States burdens in excess of those customarily included 
        in a status of forces agreement should likewise have no legal 
        effect if such agreement has not been approved by an Act of 
        Congress.
                                 <all>