when was the last time a foreign leader addressed congress
Joint session of the United States Congress The most recent addresses by foreign dignitaries were given by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 8, 2016, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 29, 2015, and Pope Francis on September 24, 2015. The Pope did not address the joint session as a religious dignitary but as a head of state.[11]
Powers of the United States Congress The Constitution also gives Congress an important role in national defense, including the exclusive power to declare war, to raise and maintain the armed forces, and to make rules for the military.[4] Some critics charge that the executive branch has usurped Congress's Constitutionally-defined task of declaring war.[5] While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, they asked for and received formal war declarations from Congress for the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the Spanish–American War, World War I, and World War II,[6] although President Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903 did not get Congressional assent.[6] Presidents have initiated war without Congressional war declarations; Truman called the Korean War a "police action"[7] and the Vietnam War lasted over a decade without a declaration of war.[6] In 1970, Time magazine noted: "All told, it has been calculated, U.S. presidents have ordered troops into position or action without a formal congressional declaration a total of 149 times" before 1970.[6] In 1993, one writer noted "Congress's war power has become the most flagrantly disregarded provision in the Constitution," and that the "real erosion (of Congressional authority to declare war) began after World War II."[8] President George H. W. Bush claimed he could begin Operation Desert Storm and launch a "deliberate, unhurried, post–Cold War decision to start a war" without Congressional approval.[8] Critics charge that President George W. Bush largely initiated the Iraq War with little debate in Congress or consultation with Congress, despite a Congressional vote on military force authorization.[9][10] Disagreement about the extent of congressional versus presidential power regarding war has been present periodically throughout the nation's history.[11]