Advice and Consent of the Senate

Report Outline
The Senate and the Peace Settlements
Advice and Consent in Early History
Means of Obtaining Advice of the Senate
Partisanship in Senate Advice and Consent

The Senate and the Peace Settlements

The Constitution provides, in Article II, Section 2,

Paragraph 2, that: “He [the President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur …” The whole of the treaty-making power is conferred by these few words, appearing in the section which defines the powers and duties of the President of the United States.

Dissatisfaction over the country's experience after the last war with the method of treaty making prescribed in the Constitution, and fear of a new deadlock between the President and the Senate which may again result in “loss of the peace,” have generated a large number of proposals for change—-most of them offered in the form of constitutional amendments. Other proposals seek a fuller utilization of the “advice” provision of the existing advice-and-consent formula as a means of obtaining substantial agreement between the Senate and the Chief Executive on treaty terms before they are sent to the Senate with a request for its concurrence.