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A US lawmaker has introduced a bill that seeks to withdraw the United States from the NATO alliance.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, NATO is the largest military alliance in the world. It was established in 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty by 12 founding nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and France. Originally created to counter the Soviet Union’s influence during the Cold War, NATO’s core mission is collective defense (meaning an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all, as outlined in Article 5 of the treaty). Today, the alliance has grown to 32 member countries, with Finland and Sweden joining most recently in 2023 and 2024. NATO operates through a unified military command structure headquartered in Brussels, coordinating joint exercises, crisis response, and defense planning among members. Its combined military strength includes more than 3.5 million active personnel across air, land, sea, and cyber domains.

What’s going on now: In a notable development, Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced a bill titled the“NATO Act,” which would formally initiate the United States’ withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and accompanied by a Senate version introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), calls for the President to notify NATO of America’s intent to leave the alliance under Article 13 of the treaty (triggering a one-year countdown to exit). The bill also seeks to block all US taxpayer funding for NATO’s civil and military budgets, as well as the alliance’s Security Investment Program.

In a statement, Massie’s office said “Membership of the United States in NATO is inconsistent with the national security interests of the United States.” Massie, an outspoken critic of NATO, has consistently argued that NATO is outdated. He said, “NATO is a Cold War relic, We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries.” He added that the alliance “was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed over thirty years ago,” and since then, US involvement “has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk U.S. involvement in foreign wars.”

Pointing to the alliance’s budget expectations, he argued that “America should not be the world’s security blanket, especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense.” He also cited Founding Father George Washington’s warning against permanent foreign entanglements as philosophical backing for the move.

Despite gaining a few allies in Congress, Massie’s bill stands in sharp contrast to the broader stance of many Republican lawmakers, who continue to advocate for NATO. For example, Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) recently introduced a bipartisan bill focused on strengthening NATO’s eastern flank.