[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6991 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6991

  To prohibit actions to terminate or withdraw the United States from 
international treaties without affirmative approval from both Houses of 
                   Congress, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 22, 2020

 Mr. Panetta introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit actions to terminate or withdraw the United States from 
international treaties without affirmative approval from both Houses of 
                   Congress, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Preventing Actions Undermining 
Security without Endorsement Act'' or the ``PAUSE Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The COVID-19 global pandemic has highlighted the need 
        for United States leadership to address the full range of 
        international security challenges, which the Government of the 
        United States can do by reaffirming its steadfast commitment to 
        those mutually beneficial treaties and agreements forged with 
        its European and Indo-Pacific allies, along with other states 
        parties.
            (2) For more than 70 years, the United States has shown a 
        bipartisan commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 
        (NATO), specifically to the principle of collective defense 
        enshrined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed at 
        Washington April 4, 1949.
            (3) Section 1242 of the National Defense Authorization Act 
        for Fiscal Year 2020 (Public Law 116-92) prohibited the use of 
        funds for the United States withdrawal from the North Atlantic 
        Treaty in recognition that the NATO alliance remains a 
        cornerstone for peace and prosperity throughout the world.
            (4) On January 22, 2019, the House of Representatives 
        passed H.R. 676 (116th Congress) on a 357-22 vote, prohibiting 
        the use of funds for the United States withdrawal from the 
        North Atlantic Treaty, and on December 17, 2019, the Committee 
        on Foreign Relations of the Senate reported out S.J. Res. 4 
        (116th Congress), which if enacted into law, would require 
        approval of two-thirds of the Senate, or both Houses of 
        Congress, before the President could withdraw the United States 
        from the treaty.
            (5) The Treaty on Open Skies, signed at Helsinki March 24, 
        1992, provides a critical confidence-building measure for Euro-
        Atlantic security to the mutual benefit of the 34 States 
        Parties to the treaty, and the Open Skies Consultative 
        Commission (OSCC) is one of the few remaining operational 
        diplomatic forums from which the United States can engage with 
        the Russian Federation.
            (6) Although the Government of the United States is right 
        to diplomatically press the Government of the Russian 
        Federation to return to full compliance with its obligations 
        under the Treaty on Open Skies, withdrawal or termination of 
        the treaty would deprive United States allies and partners of 
        the benefits derived from observation missions over Russian 
        territory and Russian occupied Eastern Ukraine, missions that 
        have vastly outnumbered Russian overflights of United States 
        territory since entry into force of the treaty.
            (7) The Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and 
        the Republic of Korea, signed at Washington October 1, 1953, 
        the ratification of which the Senate advised and consented to 
        on January 26, 1954, was born from mutual sacrifice during the 
        Korean War, is based on shared values and interests, and 
        remains critical to the national security of the United States 
        nearly 7 decades after its signing.
            (8) A February 2020 report from the Department of State 
        confirmed, in part, that verifiable limits on ``Russia's 
        strategic nuclear force'' under the New START Treaty 
        ``currently contribute to the national security of the United 
        States''.
            (9) A decision by the President to allow the New START 
        Treaty to expire on February 5, 2021, without the United States 
        having first successfully concluded a verifiable and binding 
        agreement in its place, would lead to the United States losing 
        visibility into the location, movement, and disposition of the 
        strategic arsenal of the Russian Federation to the detriment of 
        the national security of the United States and its allies.
            (10) The Constitution of the United States provides 
        Congress an important role in the treaty process, requiring the 
        advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate for approval of 
        a resolution of ratification.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the President should refrain from taking any action to 
        withdraw or terminate any international treaty to which the 
        Senate has given its advice and consent to ratification without 
        proper consultation with, and affirmative approval from, 
        Congress;
            (2) the 1979 Supreme Court decision in Goldwater v. Carter, 
        444 U.S. 996 (1979), is not controlling legal precedent with 
        respect to the role of Congress in the withdrawal or 
        termination of the United States from an international treaty, 
        as the Court directed the lower court to dismiss the complaint 
        and did not address the constitutionality of the decision by 
        President Carter to terminate the Mutual Defense Treaty between 
        the United States of America and the Republic of China, signed 
        at Washington December 2, 1954 (commonly referred to as the 
        ``Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty''); and
            (3) the United States should take every action to reinforce 
        its global reputation as a country that fully complies with its 
        obligations under the international treaties to which it is a 
        party.

SEC. 4. AFFIRMATIVE CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL FOR TERMINATION OR 
              WITHDRAWAL FROM AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY.

    No action to terminate or withdraw the United States from any 
international treaty to which the Senate has given its advice and 
consent to ratification may occur unless--
            (1) the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State 
        meet the requirements under section 5; and
            (2) there is enacted into law a joint resolution that 
        approves such action.

SEC. 5. JUSTIFICATION, CERTIFICATIONS, DETERMINATION, AND STRATEGY ON 
              ACTIONS TO TERMINATE OR WITHDRAW THE UNITED STATES FROM 
              AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days before the provision of 
notice of intent to terminate or withdraw the United States from any 
international treaty to which the Senate has given its advice and 
consent to ratification, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 
State, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, 
shall each submit to the appropriate committees of Congress--
            (1) a detailed justification for the withdrawal from or 
        termination of the treaty;
            (2) if the justification described in paragraph (1) 
        includes that a state party to the treaty is in material breach 
        of one or more obligations under the treaty, a detailed 
        explanation of the steps taken by that state party to return to 
        compliance with such obligations;
            (3) a certification that all other state parties to the 
        treaty have been consulted with respect to the justification 
        described in paragraph (1);
            (4) a certification that withdrawal from or termination of 
        the treaty would be in the best national interests of the 
        United States;
            (5) a certification that the United States rationale and 
        all steps taken for withdrawal from the treaty are made in 
        compliance with the treaty; and
            (6) a comprehensive strategy to mitigate against lost 
        capacity of benefits, including a superseding treaty or 
        potential new bilateral or multilateral confidence-building 
        measures.
    (b) Form.--The submission required by subsection (a) shall be 
submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
    (c) Applicability to New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.--This 
section shall apply to a decision by the President to not renew the New 
START Treaty for up to an additional 5 years.

SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Appropriate committees of congress.--The term 
        ``appropriate committees of Congress'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on Armed Services and the 
                Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
                    (B) the Committee on Armed Services and the 
                Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
                Representatives.
            (2) New start treaty.--The term ``New START Treaty'' means 
        the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian 
        Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation 
        of Strategic Offensive Arms, signed at Prague April 8, 2010.
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