[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2174 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2174
To require the President to give notice of denunciation of the North
Atlantic Treaty for purposes of withdrawing the United States from the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 25 (legislative day, June 24), 2025
Mr. Lee introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the President to give notice of denunciation of the North
Atlantic Treaty for purposes of withdrawing the United States from the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Not A Trusted Organization Act'' or
the ``NATO Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The North Atlantic Treaty (also known as the
``Washington Treaty'') was signed on April 4, 1949, in
Washington, DC, and created the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).
(2) NATO was intended to counterbalance the political and
military power of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and was
originally composed of 12 member states representing Western
Europe and its transatlantic partners.
(3) The preamble to the Washington Treaty affirms that the
Parties will ``unite their efforts for collective defense''.
Similarly, Article 3 of the Washington Treaty provides that
each Party will ``maintain and develop their individual and
collective capacity to resist armed attack''.
(4) The Warsaw Pact served as the collective defense bloc
of the Soviet Union and collapsed in 1991, followed by the
collapse of the Soviet Union itself by the end of that year.
(5) Shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union, United
States Secretary of State James Baker made assurances to Soviet
Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand
eastward.
(6) The dissolution of both the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet
Union fundamentally altered the security environment in Europe
and rendered NATO's founding collective defense mission
irrelevant.
(7) Despite its waning relevance and prior assurances to
the contrary, NATO began a profound eastward expansion in 1999,
which, as of 2025, culminated in a land border with the Russian
Federation that exceeds 1,500 miles and encircles the Baltic
Sea.
(8) Successive National Military Doctrines and National
Security Strategies of the Russian Federation have framed the
expansion of NATO as a pervasive threat to Russian security.
(9) In a speech before the Munich Security Conference in
2007, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin
described NATO expansion as a ``serious provocation'' and
referenced the assurances previously made by the United States.
(10) The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation in
2022 demonstrates the Russian Federation's willingness to
employ military action in response to perceived security
threats.
(11) NATO members have refused to rule out further
expansion.
(12) Since the founding of NATO, the United States has
shouldered the burden of what was characterized as a
``collective'' security alliance, as the largest financial and
hard power contributor.
(13) At the Wales Summit in 2014, NATO members pledged to
spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense,
known as the ``Wales Pledge''.
(14) More than a decade later, nearly \1/3\ of NATO members
fail to meet the Wales Pledge.
(15) Consistent with United States national security
interests, Europe is not a priority theater for United States
engagement. The principal interest of the United States in
Europe is preventing the emergence of a regional hegemon.
(16) The combined military and economic capacity of
European NATO members exceeds that of the Russian Federation,
serving as a sufficient counterweight to a prospective regional
hegemon without United States engagement.
(17) While the United States continues to subsidize
European security, European NATO members are disincentivized
from forward movement on burden shifting in the European
theater.
(18) Membership of the United States in NATO is
inconsistent with the national security interests of the United
States.
SEC. 3. DENUNCIATION OF NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY.
Consistent with Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty, done at
Washington April 4, 1949, not later than 30 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the President shall give notice of denunciation
of the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of withdrawing the United
States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
SEC. 4. FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENT OF SECTION 1250A OF THE NATIONAL
DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024.
This Act satisfies the requirement of section 1250A of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (22 U.S.C. 1928f) for
congressional authorization of suspension, termination, denunciation,
or withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty.
SEC. 5. PROHIBITION ON THE USE OF FUNDS.
No funds authorized to be appropriated, appropriated, or otherwise
made available by any Act may be used to fund, directly or indirectly,
United States contributions to the common-funded budgets of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the civil budget, the military
budget, or the Security Investment Program.
SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act or the application of such provision
to any person or circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the
remainder of this Act and the application of the provision to any other
person or circumstance shall not be affected.
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