Report on Committee IV

Abstract

Professor Oliver observed that the current ex pression of Congress' will to participate in foreign policy and the unrelieved separation of powers impose serious impedi ments on the ability of the Executive branch to enter into reliable, immediate foreign commitments. The committee appeared to recognize that the crisis in the exercise of our foreign relations power existed and was in some measure created by congressional will to participate and complicated by our separation of powers; but it did not agree that the U.S. was unduly hampered in its power to carry on foreign relations effectively. The committee dealt with the relation ship between the Executive and Congress as one of con tinuing political balance that could be accommodated within our present Constitution. It considered how certain problems of congressional-Executive branch organization related to international agreements might be approached. In looking to the future, the committee projected that the U.S. would want to join international organizations of an increasingly sophisticated type. The view was expressed that constitutional problems arising from joining such organiza tions, if the matter were approached without amendments, could be quite complex.