Executive Agreement
An executive agreement is more commonly defined as an international agreement that is made by the president of the United States of America done outside of the formal treat ratification process. An executive agreement is a simple matter of acquiring the majority vote of both the lower house (House of Representatives) and the upper house (Senate).
An executive agreement is different from other political agreements in the sense that it doesn’t need subsequent implementation of bills from the senate chamber before being upheld. This is not to say that the legislative section of the government will be completely bypassed. Congress still has a voice by having the right to oppose any executive agreement by means of withholding the required implementing legislation. For the most part however, an executive agreement is usually initiated by the executive branch to address issues that need fast resolutions.
A president is given this authority to negotiate executive agreements by two sources. First, there is the power that is granted by the constitution as chief executive, and second is the specified power delegated to him/her via a prior act of Congress. Examples of executive agreements include GATT (General Admissions on Tariffs and Trade) and NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement). Note that plenty of executive agreements usually center around economic concerns.