Washington, DC – As the President prepares to deliver the State of the Union address, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced growing support for her legislation to prevent President Bush from tying the hands of his successor by unilaterally negotiating a long-term security agreement with the Iraqi government. Cosponsors for Senator Clinton’s bill now include Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jim Webb (D-VA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

“I will do everything I can in the Senate to prevent George Bush from establishing permanent bases in Iraq,” Senator Clinton said. “We need to bring our troops home swiftly and responsibly and end the Iraq war the right way.”

Expressing grave concern about the implications of President Bush’s Declaration of Principles for a Long-term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship with Iraq, Senator Clinton introduced S. 2426, the Congressional Oversight of Iraq Agreements Act of 2007 on December 6, 2007.  The major provisions of the legislation include:

• No funds may be authorized or appropriated to carry out any bilateral agreement between the United States and Iraq involving "commitments or risks affecting the nation as a whole," including a status of forces agreement (SOFA), that is not a treaty approved by two-thirds of the Senate under Article II of the Constitution or authorized by legislation passed by both Houses of Congress.
  

• The State Department Legal Advisor must provide to the Congress a memorandum evaluating the President's decision to deny Congress its constitutionally protected role by concluding an agreement on the future of the U.S.-Iraqi security relationship as an executive agreement without the assent of the Congress.
  

• The memorandum must include an analysis of the Constitutional powers relied on by the President in reaching the conclusion that such an agreement does not require approval by the Congress.
  

• It is the sense of Congress that any bilateral agreement between the United States and Iraq involving “commitments or risks affecting the nation as a whole,” including a status of forces agreement (SOFA), that is not a treaty approved by two-thirds of the Senate under Article II of the Constitution or authorized by legislation, does not have the force of law.

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