[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4678 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4678

  To prohibit modification, abrogation, abandonment, or other related 
  actions with respect to United States jurisdiction and control over 
      United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without 
                         congressional action.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 3, 2016

Mr. Royce (for himself, Mr. Yoho, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Duncan of South 
  Carolina, and Mr. Salmon) introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit modification, abrogation, abandonment, or other related 
  actions with respect to United States jurisdiction and control over 
      United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without 
                         congressional action.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``United States Naval Station 
Guantanamo Bay Preservation Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has 
        been a strategic military asset critical to the defense of the 
        United States and the maintenance of regional security for more 
        than a century.
            (2) The United States continues to exercise control over 
        the area of United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 
        pursuant to the Guantanamo Lease Agreements, which were 
        initiated and concluded pursuant to an Act of Congress.
            (3) Senior United States military leaders have consistently 
        voiced strong support for maintaining United States Naval 
        Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, noting its strategic value for 
        military basing and logistics, disaster relief, humanitarian 
        work, terrorist detention, and counter-narcotics purposes.
            (4) On February 29, 2016, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. 
        Carter, discussing United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, 
        Cuba, stated that ``it's a strategic location, we've had it for 
        a long time, it's important to us and we intend to hold onto 
        it''.
            (5) On March 12, 2015, Commander of United States Southern 
        Command, General John Kelly, testified that the United States 
        facilities at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay ``are indispensable 
        to the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State's 
        operational and contingency plans. . . . As the only permanent 
        U.S. military base in Latin America and the Caribbean, its 
        location provides persistent U.S. presence and immediate access 
        to the region, as well as supporting a layered defense to 
        secure the air and maritime approaches to the United States''.
            (6) In testimony before Congress in 2012, then-Commander of 
        United States Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser, stated 
        that ``the strategic capability provided by U.S. Naval Station 
        Guantanamo Bay remains essential for executing national 
        priorities throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, and South 
        America''.
            (7) Following a 1991 coup in Haiti that prompted a mass 
        exodus of people by boat, United States Naval Station, 
        Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, provided a location for temporary housing 
        and the orderly adjudication of asylum claims outside of the 
        continental United States.
            (8) In 2010, United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, 
        Cuba, was a critical hub for the provision of humanitarian 
        disaster relief following the devastating earthquakes in Haiti.
            (9) The United States presence at United States Naval 
        Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has its origins in Acts of 
        Congress undertaken pursuant to the powers of Congress 
        expressly enumerated in the Constitution of the United States.
            (10) By joint resolution approved on April 20, 1898, 
        Congress ``directed and empowered'' the President ``to use the 
        entire land and naval forces of the United States'' as 
        necessary to ensure that the Government of Spain ``relinquish 
        its authority and government in the island of Cuba, and 
        withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban 
        waters''.
            (11) Congress declared war against Spain on April 25, 1898, 
        which lasted until December 10, 1898, when the United States 
        and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, in which Spain 
        relinquished all claims of sovereignty over Cuba, and United 
        States governance of Cuba was established.
            (12) Nearly three years later, in the Act of March 2, 1901 
        (Chapter 803; 31 Stat. 898), Congress granted the President the 
        authority to return ``the government and control of the island 
        of Cuba to its people'' subject to several express conditions 
        including, in article VII of the Act of March 2, 1901, the sale 
        or lease by Cuba to the United States of lands necessary for 
        naval stations.
            (13) Pursuant to the authority granted by article VII of 
        the Act of March 2, 1901, the United States negotiated the 
        Guantanamo Lease Agreements, which specified the area of, and 
        United States jurisdiction and control over, what became United 
        States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
            (14) On October 2, 1903, when approving the Lease to the 
        United States by the Government of Cuba of Certain Areas of 
        Land and Water for Naval or Coaling Stations, signed in Havana 
        on July 2, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt cited the Act of 
        March 2, 1901, as providing his authority to do so: ``I, 
        Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, 
        having seen and considered the foregoing lease, do hereby 
        approve the same, by virtue of the authority conferred by the 
        seventh of the provisions defining the relations which are to 
        exist between the United States and Cuba, contained in the Act 
        of Congress approved March 2, 1901, entitled `An Act making 
        appropriation for the support of the Army for the fiscal year 
        ending June 30, 1902.'''.
            (15) Obtaining United States naval station rights in Cuba 
        was an express condition of the authority that Congress gave 
        the President to return control and governance of Cuba to the 
        people of Cuba. In exercising that authority and concluding the 
        Guantanamo Lease Agreements, President Theodore Roosevelt 
        recognized the source of that authority as the Act of March 2, 
        1901.
            (16) The Treaty of Relations between the United States of 
        America and the Republic of Cuba, signed at Washington, May 29, 
        1934, did not supersede, abrogate, or modify the Guantanamo 
        Lease Agreements, but noted that the stipulations of those 
        agreements ``shall continue in effect'' until the United States 
        and Cuba agree to modify them.
            (17) The Constitution of the United States expressly grants 
        to Congress the power to provide for the common defense of the 
        United States, the power to provide and maintain a Navy, and 
        the power ``to dispose of and make all needful Rules and 
        Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property 
        belonging to the United States''.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON MODIFICATION, ABROGATION, OR OTHER RELATED 
              ACTIONS WITH RESPECT TO UNITED STATES JURISDICTION AND 
              CONTROL OVER UNITED STATES NAVAL STATION, GUANTANAMO BAY, 
              CUBA, WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL ACTION.

    No action may be taken to modify, abrogate, or replace the 
stipulations, agreements, and commitments contained in the Guantanamo 
Lease Agreements, or to impair or abandon the jurisdiction and control 
of the United States over United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, 
Cuba, unless specifically authorized or otherwise provided by--
            (1) a statute that is enacted on or after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act;
            (2) a treaty that is ratified with the advice and consent 
        of the Senate on or after the date of the enactment of this 
        Act; or
            (3) a modification of the Treaty Between the United States 
        of America and Cuba signed at Washington, DC, on May 29, 1934, 
        that is ratified with the advice and consent of the Senate on 
        or after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 4. GUANTANAMO LEASE AGREEMENTS DEFINED.

    In this Act, the term ``Guantanamo Lease Agreements'' means--
            (1) the Agreement Between the United States of America and 
        the Republic of Cuba for the Lease to the United States of 
        Lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations, signed by the 
        President of the United States on February 23, 1903; and
            (2) the Lease to the United States by the Government of 
        Cuba of Certain Areas of Land and Water for Naval or Coaling 
        Stations, signed by the President of the United States on 
        October 2, 1903.
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