Elizabeth Warren: Poutrage or Hate?

[bhikkhu]

134. Article II, Section II: "He shall have Power...to make treaties."

The snipped part in the middle there is "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate", which has been the issue over the years. Advice might be listened to or not - there is no compulsion - and consent is simply an up or down vote. That's more or less what we have now.

The controversy historically was that it was often allowed for the president to make treaties and enter into international agreements on trade without senate approval. The history is more clear here:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/art2frag21_user.html

In any case, the president does have the authority to negotiate trade agreements, granted by the constitution, and that's always been a part of the job description. Obviously congress is required by the constitution to approve anything before it becomes law, though that hasn't always been the case in practice.

on edit - one thing that might make that more understandable is that senators are elected to represent the people of their state in congress. The president represents the interests of the whole. Negotiating with a foreign power has always been done at the "whole" level, and that was the intent of the constitution. The articles of the federation didn't provide for that; individual states were on their own, which worked very poorly for virtually everyone (except perhaps France and Spain, who were able to take advantage of the disorganized mess).