Historical Precedent: Treaties and Lame Duck Sessions
Anna Leutheuser /
As newly-elected members of the Senate pointed out in a letter to Majority Leader Reid: “no bilateral strategic arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union or Russia has ever been ratified during a lame duck session.” Let’s go further: Has any major bilateral U.S. treaty ever been ratified during a lame duck session?
The 20th Amendment (ratified in 1933) established the current dates of Federal office terms, and consequently made possible the modern Congressional “lame duck” session. Since 1933, there have been a total of eighteen lame duck sessions, including the current one.
A study of every treaty ratified by the United States would, though desirable, take more time than is left in the lame duck session. So we assembled a list of 34 significant United States treaties from 1933 to the present from multiple sources (including the State Department). (more…)