The President's action, in effect, withdrew the proposed agreement from further congressional consideration for the foreseeable future. Introduction and Overview

		Nuclear Cooperation with Russia and the Atomic Energy Act

On May 13, 2008, President Bush submitted to Congress a proposed agreement for civil nuclear cooperation with the Russian Federation. For an agreement like that with Russia, the effect of these provisions is that the agreement will go into effect at the end of 90 "days of continuous session" of Congress after it is initially submitted, unless, during that time, a joint resolution disapproving the agreement is enacted through procedures defined in section 130. of the act (42 U.S.C. How and when are resolutions of disapproval (or approval) introduced? of the AEA. (2) stipulates that
[F]or purposes of this section insofar as it applies to section 123 ... continuity of session is broken only by an adjournment of Congress sine die; and ... the days on which either House is not in session because of an adjournment of more than three days are excluded in the computation of any period of time in which Congress is in continuous session. 398 , which stipulated that both chambers reconvene on September 8. The House schedule projects adjournment sine die on September 26, 2008; the Senate schedule includes no projection for this event. Inasmuch as the President has 10 days to act on a measure presented for his approval (Sundays excepted), Congress might, in practice, be unable to prevent an agreement from taking effect unless it completes its initial action on the disapproval resolution by about the 88 th day of continuous session. This difficulty, however, might be overcome by use of the authority of the leadership or the President to reconvene Congress before the expiration of the recess. The leaders identified by the statute would presumably have to introduce new resolutions of disapproval on the first day of the following period of 60 days of continuous session, and the agreement would go into effect if no resolution of disapproval were to be enacted by the end of that 60-day period. will not run concurrently with the 30-day period prescribed by section 123.b., but will instead follow that 30-day period. First, the President's letter of submittal made explicit reference only to submitting the agreement to Congress for approval; it did not explicitly submit the text of the agreement to the committees of jurisdiction as well. The chief reason against doing so appears to be the apparent presumption of the statute that the President's "agreement and determination," the submission of which is required for the beginning of the 60-day period for congressional action, is to follow and, in some sense, result from the consultation with committees that is supposed to occur during the period of at least 30 days. The House measure is a joint resolution of disapproval, which, if enacted before the end of the 60-day period, would presumably have the effect contemplated by the statute of preventing the agreement from taking effect. If this resolution were to be enacted within the 60-day period, it would neither prevent nor hasten the entering into effect of the proposed agreement. 85 ) had already been introduced in the House on May 14, the day after the President submitted the agreement to Congress. Pursuant to this expedited procedure, the joint resolution of disapproval is privileged, meaning that the Senate may take it up by approving a non-debatable motion to proceed to consider. (5) authorizes the Committee on Rules to report a special rule providing for consideration of the measure under terms that "may be similar, if applicable" to those of ISAAECA.
On May 13, 2008, President Bush submitted to Congress a proposed agreement for nuclear cooperation with the Russian Federation. On September 8, the President announced that he was rescinding his certification of the proposed U.S.-Russia nuclear cooperation agreement. This action, in effect, withdrew the proposed agreement from further congressional consideration for the foreseeable future
Under the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the text of such an agreement is to be submitted to the committees of jurisdiction for at least 30 days of consultation, and the agreement itself is then to be submitted to Congress for 60 days, during which the committees are to consider it and report recommendations. The AEA requires the President to state his approval of the agreement before the 60-day period begins, but he did so in his initial letter of submission, perhaps rendering moot the consultive purpose of the 30-day period.
Such an agreement would go into effect unless a joint resolution of disapproval is enacted by the end of the 60-day period, which, the President's submittal stipulated, will immediately follow the 30-day period. Both periods are measured in "days of continuous session," which includes all days except recesses of either house of more than three days, with "continuity" broken only by the sine die adjournment of a Congress. September 8, when the August recess is to end, is to be the 59th day of the full 90-day period, and the projected sine die adjournment on September 26 may be only the 77th day. A later sine die adjournment, a "lame duck" session, recall by the President or by congressional leadership, or the use of pro forma sessions instead of recesses could allow the 90th day to be reached within the 110th Congress. Otherwise, the agreement could not take effect until the end of a new disapproval period starting anew after the 111th Congress convenes in January, 2009.
The AEA prescribes an expedited procedure for Senate consideration, including committee discharge, a non-debatable motion to proceed to consider, a 10-hour limit on consideration, and a prohibition on amendments. For the House, the Committee on Rules is invited to prescribe similar terms of consideration. A disapproval resolution was introduced in the House on May 14, and another, by committee leaders, as the AEA prescribes, at the start of the 60-day period on June 24. On the same date, Senate committee leaders introduced a resolution of approval. Although enactment of the approval resolution neither block nor hasten the effectiveness of the agreement, it could apparently be considered under the expedited procedure, and might thereby prevent expedited action on a disapproval resolution. Congress could also disapprove the agreement, or approve it with conditions, by enacting an alternative measure under its general rules. The President might likely veto any disapproval or conditional approval, in which case the agreement would go into effect unless Congress overrides the veto before the end of the disapproval period. Inasmuch as the President may take 10 days for his action, the timely enactment of a disapproval resolution may be feasible only if Congress initially passes it with more than 10 days remaining in the disapproval period. This report will not be updated.