IB 
Union Calendar No. 378 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4678 
[Report No. 114–496] 
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 
APRIL 15, 2016 
Additional sponsors: Ms. JENKINS of Kansas, Mr. NUNES, Mr. COOK, Mrs. 
WALORSKI, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, and Mr. WOODALL 
APRIL 15, 2016 
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 
and ordered to be printed 
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A BILL 
To prohibit modification, abrogation, abandonment, or other 
related actions with respect to United States jurisdiction 
and control over United States Naval Station, Guanta-
namo Bay, Cuba, without congressional action. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 crit-
ical 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 Sta-
tion, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pursuant to the 
Guantanamo Lease Agreements, which were initi-
ated 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, ter-
rorist detention, and counter-narcotics purposes. 
(4) On February 29, 2016, Secretary of De-
fense Ashton B. Carter, discussing United States 
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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, tes-
tified that the United States facilities at Naval Sta-
tion Guantanamo Bay ‘‘are indispensable to the De-
partments 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 se-
cure 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 Guanta-
namo 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 
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States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pro-
vided a location for temporary housing and the or-
derly 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 
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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), Con-
gress 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 arti-
cle VII of the Act of March 2, 1901, the United 
States negotiated the Guantanamo Lease Agree-
ments, 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 
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foregoing lease, do hereby approve the same, by vir-
tue 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, enti-
tled ‘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 au-
thority 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 Theo-
dore Roosevelt recognized the source of that author-
ity 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 super-
sede, 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 ex-
pressly grants to Congress the power to provide for 
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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 Regula-
tions respecting the Territory or other Property be-
longing to the United States’’. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON MODIFICATION, ABROGATION, OR 
OTHER RELATED ACTIONS WITH RESPECT TO 
UNITED STATES JURISDICTION AND CON-
TROL OVER UNITED STATES NAVAL STATION, 
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA, WITHOUT CON-
GRESSIONAL ACTION. 
No action may be taken to modify, abrogate, or re-
place the stipulations, agreements, and commitments con-
tained 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 pro-
vided 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 en-
actment of this Act; or 
(3) a modification of the Treaty Between the 
United States of America and Cuba signed at Wash-
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ington, 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 Agree-
ments’’ 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 Gov-
ernment 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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Union Calendar No. 378 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4678 
[Report No. 114–496] 
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. 
APRIL 15, 2016 
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
State of the Union and ordered to be printed 
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