No Who Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MASSIE.

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Mr. MASSIE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my amendment, which simply recognizes that the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Our Constitution establishes a very clear framework for making treaties by the executive and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Our Constitution also establishes a clear framework for making laws that affect our domestic affairs. If any provisions of a treaty are to have legal bearing on United States citizens, those provisions must pass both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate and be presented to the President, as all Federal laws must.

Treaties don't override our constitutional process for making law. Presidents can't make U.S. law by agreeing to new terms in an international treaty. Every law that American citizens live under must pass the House and the Senate.

My colleagues have eloquently made the point that a President can't enter into a treaty without the advice and consent of the Senate, and, in doing so, they are standing up for the sovereignty of American citizens. They are requiring the Senate to be that portion of the legislative branch that decides what laws will bear on citizens, depending on what the treaty is.

My amendment here is very simple. It says that, if a treaty has a law in it that has a bearing on United States citizens, on our domestic activities, then it has to follow the lawmaking process of the Constitution.

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Mr. MASSIE. Mr. Chairman, the bulk of my speech in support of my amendment actually doesn't come from me. It is going to come from Alexander Hamilton, who describes in Federalist 75 the treaty-making powers of the executive. He states: ``Its objects are contracts with foreign nations, which have the force of law, but derive it from the obligations of good faith.''

This is the most important part: ``They are not rules prescribed by the sovereign to the subject, but agreements between sovereign and sovereign. The power in question seems therefore to form a distinct department, and to belong, properly, neither to the legislative nor to the executive. The qualities elsewhere detailed as indispensable in the management of foreign negotiations, point out the executive as the most fit agent in those transactions; while the vast importance of the trust, and the operation of treaties as laws, plead strongly for the participation of the whole or a portion of the legislative body in the office of making them.''

What is he saying here? He is saying domestic laws can't be made using a treaty. Treaties can't bind the United States to declare war. Treaties can't raise taxes. Treaties can't create new laws for us. The United States should not take part in international institutions that erode our sovereignty. Congress should not legitimize blatantly unconstitutional notions that agreements that come out of these institutions supersede the Constitution of the United States.

Mr. Chairman, I will close by saying this: Do we believe that the Senate itself and the President, without consulting the House, could implement a vaccine mandate by merely calling it a treaty and finding another sovereign party to enter into it with? I do not.

Do we believe that they could implement or impose social distancing on U.S. citizens by calling it a treaty and finding another sovereign to enter into an agreement with? I do not. They have to come to the House.

Let's take the example of gun control. By the way, this is not a hypothetical. Do we think they could impose gun control on U.S. citizens in a treaty with the United Nations and some other sovereign countries merely with the advice and consent of the Senate? That would take two-thirds or 67 votes in the Senate, but it could completely leave out the House of Representatives. No, they cannot do that. That is outside of our Constitution. We are guaranteed a Republican form of government with a legislature that makes the laws that bear on citizens.

Mr. Chairman, I will close with this most important part of my amendment, which says: ``If any provisions of a treaty are to have legal bearing on United States citizens those provisions must pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate and be presented to the President, as all Federal laws must.''

Mr. Chairman, I urge adoption of my amendment, and I support the underlying bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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