President Joe Biden made a unilateral decision to approve Ukraine’s use of Army Tactical Missile Systems (“ATACMS”)—long-range USA-manufactured missiles—on targets inside Russia without introducing a resolution into Congress declaring war on Russia.
On Tuesday, November 19, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally signed a revision to Russia’s “state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence.” That revision specified the following:
Aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies on the part of any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack.
The revised policy also specified that Russia would consider a nuclear strike if Russia or its ally, Belarus, faced aggression “with the use of conventional weapons that created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity.”
On the same day, Ukraine fired six ATACMS missiles at a military depot in the Russian region of Bryansk. Under the terms of Russia’s newly redefined nuclear weapons policy, Russia is now at war with the United States, with no indication that President Biden has any intention of sending to Congress a resolution declaring that the United States is at war with Russia.
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Congress saving the world. Image by AI.
Congress need not stand by idly, watching without recourse, as a lame-duck president (whose mental competence must be considered questionable) authorizes Ukraine to fire USA-manufactured missiles into Russia—a policy that has as its only rational purpose to induce Russia to use a tactical nuclear bomb in retaliation. Does anyone think arming Ukraine with ATACMS to lob into Russia will win the war for Ukraine while Russia occupies the essential Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine—Crimea—and controls parts of Donetsk and Luhansk Provinces in eastern Ukraine?
Under the authority of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, Congress can pass rescission legislation that, according to the Congressional Institute, “is considered under expedited procedures, making it easier for a simple majority of each Chamber of Congress to revisit spending decisions.” There is also an exception in U.S. law allowing Congress to pass a rescission bill without the president’s signature. A Ford administration White House memo dated September 13, 1976, entitled “Enactment of Legislation Without the Approval of the President,” specified the following:
Article I, section 7, clause 2 of the Constitution provides in pertinent part:
Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States: If he approves he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated.
If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.
The Constitution thus gives the President the primary options of approving a bill by signing it, or of returning it to Congress with his objections. In the latter case it becomes law only if approved by two-thirds of both Houses of Congress.
What the Ford administration makes clear is that “Congress can override a presidential veto by passing the act by a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate. (Usually, an act is passed with a simple majority.) This check prevents the president from blocking an act when significant support for it
While the process of passing rescission legislation to block ATACMS from being used by Ukraine to attack Russia may take longer than the presidential transition period that ends with President Trump’s Inauguration on January 20, 2025, the very fact of originating the legislation in Congress will send clear messages to Presidents Biden, Putin, and Trump. That message will be that Congress does not approve the funding of a reckless executive decision made by a lame-duck president (with questionable mental acuity) that could lead to a World War III thermonuclear confrontation before it was over.
Those generals worried that Trump, once in office, might move to court-martial them with treason charges have once again calculated poorly, betting that by getting Biden to escalate the war in Ukraine, they could save their hides. The introduction of rescission legislation in Congress will send a clear message to Biden that influential (most likely bipartisan) voices in Congress have no appetite for a war with Russia. Biden should be reminded that Congress “has the authority to extend the impeachment process to officials who are no longer in office.”
With rescission legislation introduced into Congress, President Zelensky will quickly realize that continued use of ATACMS missiles would effectively terminate Ukraine’s ability to get continued congressional funding to support the war. President-Elect Trump could publicly applaud the introduction of the legislation, repeating with emphasis his desire to end the war in Ukraine once he is back in the White House. Putin could convince his military, and perhaps even more importantly, his fellow Russian citizens, that by restraining a Russian nuclear retaliation (that he is now authorized to launch), he is showing restraint worthy of praise.
Members of Congress who do not support the introduction of recission legislation would realize that the likelihood the Congressional process to pass the legislation without the president’s signature would take more time than is available before the Inauguration. Thus, even those members of Congress who feel they would ultimately have to vote against the measure can be relieved that a final vote may never have time to come to the floor of both houses.
In the final analysis, a president willing to risk starting WWIII to make sure Trump’s second term would fail will be “trumped” by a Congress willing to deescalate the war in Ukraine at the risk that as president once again, Trump might end a war that never would have been fought had the Democrats not stolen the 2020 presidential election.
GodsFiveStones.com is a tax-deductible 501(c)3 foundation created by Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D., and Karladine Graves, M.D., managed by Capstone Legacy Foundation. As reported on GodsFiveStones.com, Andrew Paquette, Ph.D., has discovered cryptographic algorithms in the State Board of Elections voter registration databases in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona and yet to be reported in New Jersey, Texas, and Hawaii. As noted in a statement on Donald J. Trump’s election victory published on November 8, 2024, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò explained that “the algorithms allowed false voter registrations to be printed and concealed, which could be used in various election fraud schemes, including counting absentee ballots by nonexistent voters. By exposing the scheme, Dr. Corsi prevented the creation of millions of fraudulent votes for Kamala Harris.”
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
