S.Amdt. 2043

SA 2043. Mr. MARKEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 4049, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2021 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place in title XII, insert the
following:

Subtitle __--Matters Relating to Treaty Withdrawal and Termination

SEC. ___1. SHORT TITLE.

This subtitle 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 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) On May 22, 2020, President Trump submitted notice of
the decision to withdraw the United States from the Treaty on
Open Skies, and, in doing so, failed to comply with section
1234 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2020 (Public Law 116-92), requiring the President to
provide notification to Congress 120 days before the
provision of notice of intent to withdraw the United States
from that treaty.
(8) 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.
(9) 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''.
(10) 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.
(11) 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. JOINT RESOLUTION OF 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. SUBMISSION ON NOTICE OF INTENT TO TERMINATE OR
WITHDRAW THE UNITED STATES FROM AN
INTERNATIONAL TREATY.

(a) In General.--Not later than 120 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--
(A) all other state parties to the treaty have been
consulted with respect to the justification described in
paragraph (1);
(B) withdrawal from or termination of the treaty would be
in the best national interests of the United States; and
(C) all steps taken for withdrawal from or termination of
the treaty are in compliance with the treaty; and
(4) a comprehensive strategy to mitigate against lost
capacity of benefits, including plans for 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. APPLICABILITY TO TREATY ON OPEN SKIES.

Sections ___4 and ___5 shall apply with respect to the
Treaty on Open Skies.

SEC. ___7. DEFINITIONS.

In this subtitle:
(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.
(3) Treaty on open skies.--The term ``Treaty on Open
Skies'' means the Treaty on Open Skies, signed at Helsinki
March 24, 1992.
______