[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4678 Reported in House (RH)]
<DOC>
Union Calendar No. 378
114th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4678
[Report No. 114-496]
To prohibit modification, abrogation, abandonment, or other related
actions with respect to United States jurisdiction and control over
United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without
congressional action.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 3, 2016
Mr. Royce (for himself, Mr. Yoho, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Duncan of South
Carolina, and Mr. Salmon) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
April 15, 2016
Additional sponsors: Ms. Jenkins of Kansas, Mr. Nunes, Mr. Cook, Mrs.
Walorski, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, and Mr. Woodall
April 15, 2016
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union
and ordered to be printed
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit modification, abrogation, abandonment, or other related
actions with respect to United States jurisdiction and control over
United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without
congressional action.
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 ``United States Naval Station
Guantanamo Bay Preservation Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has
been a strategic military asset critical to the defense of the
United States and the maintenance of regional security for more
than a century.
(2) The United States continues to exercise control over
the area of United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
pursuant to the Guantanamo Lease Agreements, which were
initiated and concluded pursuant to an Act of Congress.
(3) Senior United States military leaders have consistently
voiced strong support for maintaining United States Naval
Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, noting its strategic value for
military basing and logistics, disaster relief, humanitarian
work, terrorist detention, and counter-narcotics purposes.
(4) On February 29, 2016, Secretary of Defense Ashton B.
Carter, discussing United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, stated that ``it's a strategic location, we've had it for
a long time, it's important to us and we intend to hold onto
it''.
(5) On March 12, 2015, Commander of United States Southern
Command, General John Kelly, testified that the United States
facilities at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay ``are indispensable
to the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State's
operational and contingency plans. . . . As the only permanent
U.S. military base in Latin America and the Caribbean, its
location provides persistent U.S. presence and immediate access
to the region, as well as supporting a layered defense to
secure the air and maritime approaches to the United States''.
(6) In testimony before Congress in 2012, then-Commander of
United States Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser, stated
that ``the strategic capability provided by U.S. Naval Station
Guantanamo Bay remains essential for executing national
priorities throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, and South
America''.
(7) Following a 1991 coup in Haiti that prompted a mass
exodus of people by boat, United States Naval Station,
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, provided a location for temporary housing
and the orderly adjudication of asylum claims outside of the
continental United States.
(8) In 2010, United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, was a critical hub for the provision of humanitarian
disaster relief following the devastating earthquakes in Haiti.
(9) The United States presence at United States Naval
Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has its origins in Acts of
Congress undertaken pursuant to the powers of Congress
expressly enumerated in the Constitution of the United States.
(10) By joint resolution approved on April 20, 1898,
Congress ``directed and empowered'' the President ``to use the
entire land and naval forces of the United States'' as
necessary to ensure that the Government of Spain ``relinquish
its authority and government in the island of Cuba, and
withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban
waters''.
(11) Congress declared war against Spain on April 25, 1898,
which lasted until December 10, 1898, when the United States
and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, in which Spain
relinquished all claims of sovereignty over Cuba, and United
States governance of Cuba was established.
(12) Nearly three years later, in the Act of March 2, 1901
(Chapter 803; 31 Stat. 898), Congress granted the President the
authority to return ``the government and control of the island
of Cuba to its people'' subject to several express conditions
including, in article VII of the Act of March 2, 1901, the sale
or lease by Cuba to the United States of lands necessary for
naval stations.
(13) Pursuant to the authority granted by article VII of
the Act of March 2, 1901, the United States negotiated the
Guantanamo Lease Agreements, which specified the area of, and
United States jurisdiction and control over, what became United
States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(14) On October 2, 1903, when approving the Lease to the
United States by the Government of Cuba of Certain Areas of
Land and Water for Naval or Coaling Stations, signed in Havana
on July 2, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt cited the Act of
March 2, 1901, as providing his authority to do so: ``I,
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America,
having seen and considered the foregoing lease, do hereby
approve the same, by virtue of the authority conferred by the
seventh of the provisions defining the relations which are to
exist between the United States and Cuba, contained in the Act
of Congress approved March 2, 1901, entitled `An Act making
appropriation for the support of the Army for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1902.'''.
(15) Obtaining United States naval station rights in Cuba
was an express condition of the authority that Congress gave
the President to return control and governance of Cuba to the
people of Cuba. In exercising that authority and concluding the
Guantanamo Lease Agreements, President Theodore Roosevelt
recognized the source of that authority as the Act of March 2,
1901.
(16) The Treaty of Relations between the United States of
America and the Republic of Cuba, signed at Washington, May 29,
1934, did not supersede, abrogate, or modify the Guantanamo
Lease Agreements, but noted that the stipulations of those
agreements ``shall continue in effect'' until the United States
and Cuba agree to modify them.
(17) The Constitution of the United States expressly grants
to Congress the power to provide for the common defense of the
United States, the power to provide and maintain a Navy, and
the power ``to dispose of and make all needful Rules and
Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property
belonging to the United States''.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON MODIFICATION, ABROGATION, OR OTHER RELATED
ACTIONS WITH RESPECT TO UNITED STATES JURISDICTION AND
CONTROL OVER UNITED STATES NAVAL STATION, GUANTANAMO BAY,
CUBA, WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL ACTION.
No action may be taken to modify, abrogate, or replace the
stipulations, agreements, and commitments contained in the Guantanamo
Lease Agreements, or to impair or abandon the jurisdiction and control
of the United States over United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, unless specifically authorized or otherwise provided by--
(1) a statute that is enacted on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act;
(2) a treaty that is ratified with the advice and consent
of the Senate on or after the date of the enactment of this
Act; or
(3) a modification of the Treaty Between the United States
of America and Cuba signed at Washington, DC, on May 29, 1934,
that is ratified with the advice and consent of the Senate on
or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 4. GUANTANAMO LEASE AGREEMENTS DEFINED.
In this Act, the term ``Guantanamo Lease Agreements'' means--
(1) the Agreement Between the United States of America and
the Republic of Cuba for the Lease to the United States of
Lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations, signed by the
President of the United States on February 23, 1903; and
(2) the Lease to the United States by the Government of
Cuba of Certain Areas of Land and Water for Naval or Coaling
Stations, signed by the President of the United States on
October 2, 1903.
Union Calendar No. 378
114th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4678
[Report No. 114-496]
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit modification, abrogation, abandonment, or other related
actions with respect to United States jurisdiction and control over
United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without
congressional action.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 15, 2016
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union
and ordered to be printed