Senators Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill to Block the US President From Leaving NATO

Banners displaying the NATO logo are placed at the entrance of new NATO headquarters during the move to the new building, in Brussels, Belgium, on April 19, 2018. Yves Herman/Reuters

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) reintroduced a bill on Wednesday that would constrain any U.S. president from ever withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance.

“NATO serves as an essential military alliance that protects shared national interests and enhances America’s international presence,” Mr. Rubio said on Wednesday. “Any decision to leave the alliance should be rigorously debated and considered by the U.S. Congress with the input of the American people.”

The United States has been a part of NATO since its inception, with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington D.C. on April 4, 1949.

The resolution Mr. Kaine and Mr. Rubio introduced on Wednesday states that the president of the United States cannot exit the alliance without either the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate or an act of Congress (pdf).

Mr. Kaine and Mr. Rubio have repeatedly introduced this resolution over the years. Their latest attempt comes as members of the NATO alliance are meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Both senators serve on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. Mr. Kaine also serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee and Mr. Rubio is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Mr. Kaine emphasized his support for NATO amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a country that borders the eastern edge of NATO allied territories.

“Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine and Finland’s accession and Sweden’s pending accession into NATO all underscore the same thing: NATO is stronger than ever,” the Democratic Virginia senator said on Wednesday. “I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan bill to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to NATO and ensure any U.S. President can’t unilaterally decide to leave the alliance without congressional approval.”

In addition to barring any U.S. president from leaving NATO without first going through Congress, the bill also attempts to take away any resources a president may use to end U.S. participation in NATO without Congressional approval. A president would not be able to use any taxpayer funds to bring about a U.S. withdrawal from NATO and the resolution authorizes Congress to challenge any such presidential actions in federal court.

Trump’s NATO Skepticism Inspired Resolutions

During his time in office, former President Donald Trump accused other NATO member nations of failing to meet their defense spending commitments to the alliance and said he'd threaten to leave the alliance if other members didn’t contribute more.

Mr. Kaine joined Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), as well as then-Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2018 in their first attempt to pass the resolution maintaining U.S. involvement in NATO. Mr. Kaine cited Mr. Trump’s NATO remarks as part of his decision to support the resolution at the time.

A bipartisan group of senators again introduced the NATO commitment resolution in January of 2019.

“President Trump’s repeated threats to withdraw from NATO are dangerous,” Mr. Kaine said of the failed 2019 attempt to pass the resolution. The Democratic senator went on to accuse the then-president of showing deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as “destroying strategic partnerships” with his “reckless decision-making” and efforts to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Syria.

Mr. Kaine and Mr. Rubio backed additional attempts in 2021 and 2022 to pass the resolution blocking a presidential withdrawal from NATO.

Mr. Trump is once again running to become president and is currently leading the field of Republican primary contenders.

Thus far in his 2024 run, Mr. Trump has made calls for a peace resolution to the war between Russia and Ukraine, in contrast to NATO’s current efforts to bolster the Ukrainian side with new weapons systems.

In a February campaign message, Mr. Trump accused certain U.S. government officials of being “obsessed with pushing Ukraine toward NATO” and said, “We need to clean house of all of the warmongers and America-Last globalists in the Deep State, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the national security industrial complex.”

From NTD News