Congressional-executive agreement
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A congressional-executive agreement is an agreement with a foreign power that has been approved by U.S. Congress and the United States. Unlike a treaty, in the US constitutional sense of that term, it cannot cover matters normally outside the competence of the Federal government and does not require a two-thirds vote by the Senate, but rather is enacted as an ordinary law which requires majority votes by both the House and Senate followed by approval from the President. In contrast, a sole executive agreement is ratified by the President alone.
CEA's are often used to implement trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and United States accession to the World Trade Organization. It is used for this purpose because the requirement for two-thirds support in the Senate would make it difficult to ratify and implement these agreements, and it avoids the necessity for going to Congress twice for approval for foreign issues.
Some constitutional scholars, such as Laurence Tribe, have argued that CEA's are unconstitutional as they circumvent the treaty ratification scheme outlined in the United States Constitution. The United States courts have rejected this argument, ruling that such agreements are not treaties.
See Also: Executive agreement