On September 8, 2008, President George W. Bush officially notified Congress that, in light of military actions taken by the Russian Federation against the nation of Georgia, he was rescinding his statutorily required certification of the proposed U.S.-Russia nuclear cooperation agreement. The President's action, in effect, withdrew the proposed agreement from further congressional consideration for the foreseeable future. The President's notification raised the possibility that should circumstances "permit future reconsideration of the proposes Agreement, a new determination will be made and the proposed Agreement will be submitted for Congressional review" pursuant to section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act. In light of these developments, this report is being archived and will not be updated. On May 13, 2008, President Bush submitted to Congress a proposed agreement for civil nuclear cooperation with the Russian Federation. In accordance with the non-proliferation provisions of the Atomic Energy Act, as amended (AEA or "the act"), agreements for nuclear cooperation may go into effect only following an opportunity for congressional consideration defined by section 123. of the act (42 U.S.C. 2153), on account of which these agreements are sometimes known as "123 agreements." For an agreement like that with Russia, the effect of these provisions is that the agreement will go into effect at the end of 90 "days of continuous session" of Congress after it is initially submitted, unless, during that time, a joint resolution disapproving the agreement is enacted through procedures defined in section 130. of the act (42 U.S.C. 2159). This report first sketches the procedures prescribed by the AEA for congressional action in relation to agreements of this kind, then summarizes legislative proceedings occurring in relation to the proposed agreement with Russia since its May 13 submittal. Thereafter, the report addresses several questions of the implementation and intent of these statutory requirements that are raised by their application to the proposed agreement with the Russian Federation. Special attention is given to the definition of "days of continuous session" and the consequences if the requisite period is not completed before the end of the 110 th Congress. Specific questions addressed in this report about congressional action on the proposed agreement and its potential effects include: What does the President submit, when, to whom, and with what effect? How and when are resolutions of disapproval (or approval) introduced? How might the requirement for automatic discharge of a resolution of disapproval (or approval) come to bear? How might congressional action on a resolution of disapproval (or approval) come about? What proceedings would have to occur for the nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia to be disapproved or approved? What possibilities of disapproval (or approval) of the agreement exist other than pursuant to the statutory procedures? Section 123.a. of the AEA establishes nine requirements that a proposed agreement for nuclear cooperation must either meet or receive presidential exemption from meeting. The remainder of section 123. prescribes different regulations for congressional action depending on whether or not the agreement requires this exemption and on other features of its terms. As explained below, the procedural regulations applicable specifically to the proposed agreement with Russia depend principally on three features of the agreement: (1) it requires no exemption for failure to meet any of the nine requirements; (2) it includes provisions relating to "large reactors;" and (3) it covers only civil uses of atomic energy. Section 123.a. provides that if a proposed agreement requires no exemption, it may go into effect at a prescribed point unless Congress acts before then to disapprove it. Section 123.b. specifies that unless an agreement involves military-related uses of nuclear energy, the President is to submit its text to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for a period of "not less than 30 days of continuous session" for consultation. This submission is to be accompanied (for agreements like that with Russia) by an unclassified Nuclear Proliferation Assessment Statement (NPAS) prepared by the Department of State. Section 123.d. directs that if the agreement involves large reactors, the President is to submit it, along with additional supporting documents, to Congress for a period of 60 "days of continuous session." The supporting documents include (1) any classified annexes to the NPAS; and (2) a statement of the President's approval of the agreement and determination that it "will promote, and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to, the common defense and security." The measure is to be referred to the same two committees as specified under section 123.b., which are, during this 60-day period, supposed to hold hearings on the proposal and report recommendations to their respective chambers. The agreement goes into effect unless, by the end of the 60-day period, a joint resolution of disapproval is enacted into law pursuant to procedures prescribed by section 130.i. Section 130.i. specifies the text for this joint resolution of disapproval and provides that a joint resolution with respect to the agreement be automatically introduced in each chamber, at the beginning of the 60-day period, in the House by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in the Senate by the two party floor leaders, or, in either case, by their designees. If a committee of referral does not report a joint resolution with respect to the agreement within 45 days, it is automatically discharged from further consideration of the introduced resolution. For the Senate, section 130.i. provides that the joint resolution may be called up on a non-debatable motion, time for consideration is limited to 10 hours, and amendments are prohibited. For the House, the statute invites the Committee on Rules to report a special rule incorporating comparable restrictions. President Bush submitted the proposed agreement for civil nuclear cooperation with the Russian Federation to Congress on May 13, 2008. The President's letter of submittal stated that the agreement was accompanied by his "approval and determination," as well as by the requisite unclassified NPAS. The submittal letter also stated that the classified annex would be submitted separately (and it appears, in fact, that the committees of jurisdiction had already received this annex on May 12). The inclusion of the unclassified NPAS met the requirements of the AEA to begin the 30-day period, and the inclusion of the President's "approval and determination," together with the separate submission of the classified annex to the NPAS, met the requirements for the 60-day period to start. The President's letter of submittal, accordingly, stated that this submission "shall constitute a submittal for purposes of both sections 123.b. and 123.d. of the Atomic Energy Act." The letter of submittal, nevertheless, also expressed an understanding that the two periods would not both commence immediately, but instead would occur consecutively. It went on to declare that the 60-day period shall commence "upon completion of the 30-day period." Although it is unclear that the President can determine by declaration when the statutory periods start and end, these stipulations appear to conform to recent the past practice of both the President and Congress on agreements for nuclear cooperation. These practices appear to have the effect of treating the two periods, for practical purposes, as a single uninterrupted period of 90 days of continuous session. In accordance with section 123. of the AEA, the President's message and the accompanying papers were referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. On May 14, 2008, a joint resolution of disapproval with the text required by section 130.i. was introduced in the House by a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. On June 12, the House Committee held a hearing on "Russia, Iran, and Nuclear Weapons: Implications of the Proposed U.S.-Russia Agreement," at which John C. Rood, Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, appeared as a witness. On June 17, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations received a closed briefing from William J. Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, on "Russia, Iran and U.S.-Russian Nuclear Cooperation." Under the stipulations stated in the President's letter of submittal, as explained below in " Days of Continuous Session in the 110 th Congress ," the 30-day consultation period ended on June 23 and the 60-day period for congressional action began on June 24. On June 24, pursuant to the statute, a joint resolution to disapprove the agreement was submitted in the House, and a joint resolution to approve the agreement was submitted in the Senate. The possible consequences of these different forms of resolution being submitted are considered below, in the section on " Resolutions of Disapproval ." Section 123. of the AEA specifies that the two time periods involved in the proceedings prescribed for the nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia are to be measured in days of continuous session, as defined by section 130.g. of the AEA. Section 130.g. (2) stipulates that [F]or purposes of this section insofar as it applies to section 123 ... continuity of session is broken only by an adjournment of Congress sine die; and ... the days on which either House is not in session because of an adjournment of more than three days are excluded in the computation of any period of time in which Congress is in continuous session. The effect of this provision is that (1) any period of continuous session terminates only with the final adjournment of the last session of a Congress; but (2) in determining the length of a period of continuous session, any day on which either house is in a recess of its session is not counted. This arrangement is apparently intended to prevent a situation in which an agreement would go into effect only because Congress was not in session, or did not remain in session long enough to act on a disapproval resolution. The definition established by section 130.g.