A July 21 Instagram post (direct link, archived link) claims a majority of senators voted to give an international coalition the authority to send the U.S. to war.
“Breaking: 83 U.S. Senators voted to allow NATO to choose when Americans will have to go to war,” reads the post from the conservative group FreedomWorks.
It was liked more than 4,700 times in four days.
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The amendment rejected in the Senate would only have reaffirmed something that has always been the case: In the U.S., only Congress, and not NATO, has the power to declare war.
The "Declare War Clause" of the Constitution – Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 – makes clear that only Congress may declare war in the U.S.
Experts say the defeat of a measure in the Senate does nothing to change that.
The social media post is based on a Senate vote taken July 19 on an amendment proposed by Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul to a defense spending bill.
The purpose of the measure was to “express the sense of Congress that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty does not supersede the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war before the United States engages in war," according to the statement of purpose included with the bill on the Senate website.
The vote failed by an 83-16 margin.
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