ABSTRACT
Congress is neither an outsider nor powerless with regard to the sale of arms by the United States. The authority of the executive branch to sell arms to other countries, as well as its authority to regulate commercial exports, derives from legislation. Arms sales are made both by the government as foreign military sales and by private firms under government license. The director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency is to be consulted regarding export licenses. The Arms Control Act of 1976, then, is the culmination of a clearly marked phase in arms sales legislation. Congressional sentiment is probably best summed up by Senator Hubert Humphrey, whose subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took the lead in putting together the 1976 act. The basic concern of Congress is with policy, as expressed in the first instance in legislation, and then in assessing executive performance through reports and hearings.
