Historical Precedent: Treaties and Lame Duck Sessions

Anna Leutheuser / December 10, 2010

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 20^th 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…)