[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.
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