executive agreement

executive agreement, an agreement between the United States and a foreign government that is less formal than a treaty and is not subject to the constitutional requirement for ratification by two-thirds of the U.S. Senate.

The Constitution of the United States does not specifically give a president the power to conclude executive agreements. However, he may be authorized to do so by Congress, or he may do so on the basis of the power granted him to conduct foreign relations. Despite questions about the constitutionality of executive agreements, in 1937 the Supreme Court ruled that they had the same force as treaties. Because executive agreements are made on the authority of the incumbent president, they do not necessarily bind his successors.

Most executive agreements have been made pursuant to a treaty or to an act of Congress. Sometimes, however, presidents have concluded executive agreements to achieve purposes that would not command the support of two-thirds of the Senate. For example, after the outbreak of World War II but before American entry into the conflict, President Franklin D. Roosevelt negotiated an executive agreement that gave the United Kingdom 50 overage destroyers in exchange for 99-year leases on certain British naval bases in the Atlantic.

The use of executive agreements increased significantly after 1939. Prior to 1940 the U.S. Senate had ratified 800 treaties and presidents had made 1,200 executive agreements; from 1940 to 1989, during World War II and the Cold War, presidents signed nearly 800 treaties but negotiated more than 13,000 executive agreements.