I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6991 
To prohibit actions to terminate or withdraw the United States from inter-
national treaties without affirmative approval from both Houses of Con-
gress, 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 ap-
proval from both Houses of Congress, and for other 
purposes. 
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 ‘‘Preventing Actions 
Undermining Security without Endorsement Act’’ or the 
‘‘PAUSE Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) The COVID–19 global pandemic has high-
lighted the need for United States leadership to ad-
dress the full range of international security chal-
lenges, 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 Arti-
cle 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed at Wash-
ington April 4, 1949. 
(3) Section 1242 of the National Defense Au-
thorization 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 cor-
nerstone for peace and prosperity throughout the 
world. 
(4) On January 22, 2019, the House of Rep-
resentatives 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 
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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 Hel-
sinki March 24, 1992, provides a critical confidence- 
building measure for Euro-Atlantic security to the 
mutual benefit of the 34 States Parties to the trea-
ty, and the Open Skies Consultative Commission 
(OSCC) is one of the few remaining operational dip-
lomatic 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 Govern-
ment 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. 
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(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 Janu-
ary 26, 1954, was born from mutual sacrifice during 
the Korean War, is based on shared values and in-
terests, and remains critical to the national security 
of the United States nearly 7 decades after its sign-
ing. 
(8) A February 2020 report from the Depart-
ment of State confirmed, in part, that verifiable lim-
its on ‘‘Russia’s strategic nuclear force’’ under the 
New START Treaty ‘‘currently contribute to the na-
tional 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 visi-
bility 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 pro-
vides Congress an important role in the treaty proc-
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ess, requiring the advice and consent of two-thirds 
of the Senate for approval of a resolution of ratifica-
tion. 
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 inter-
national treaty to which the Senate has given its ad-
vice and consent to ratification without proper con-
sultation with, and affirmative approval from, Con-
gress; 
(2) the 1979 Supreme Court decision in Gold-
water v. Carter, 444 U.S. 996 (1979), is not control-
ling legal precedent with respect to the role of Con-
gress in the withdrawal or termination of the United 
States from an international treaty, as the Court di-
rected the lower court to dismiss the complaint and 
did not address the constitutionality of the decision 
by President Carter to terminate the Mutual De-
fense 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 
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fully complies with its obligations under the inter-
national 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 un-
less— 
(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, DETERMINA-
TION, AND STRATEGY ON ACTIONS TO TERMI-
NATE 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 Con-
gress— 
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(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 ter-
mination of the treaty would be in the best national 
interests of the United States; 
(5) a certification that the United States ra-
tionale 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 super-
seding treaty or potential new bilateral or multilat-
eral confidence-building measures. 
(b) FORM.—The submission required by subsection 
(a) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may in-
clude a classified annex. 
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(c) APPLICABILITY TO NEW STRATEGIC ARMS RE-
DUCTION 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
CON-
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-
gress’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on Armed Services and 
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Sen-
ate; 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 Federa-
tion on Measures for the Further Reduction and 
Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, signed at 
Prague April 8, 2010. 
Æ 
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