[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 171 (Thursday, November 19, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8166-S8167]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 25--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT
THE PRESIDENT SHOULD SUBMIT THE PARIS CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT TO THE
SENATE FOR ITS ADVICE AND CONSENT
Mr. LEE (for himself, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Shelby,
Mr. Thune, Mr. Scott, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Hatch, Mr. McCain, Mr. Blunt, Mr.
Johnson, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Cochran, Mr.
Tillis, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Coats, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Inhofe,
Mr. McConnell, Mr. Sasse, Mr. Daines, Mr. Toomey, Mr. Barrasso, Mr.
Paul, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Enzi, and Mr. Cornyn) submitted the following
concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign
Relations:
S. Con. Res. 25
Whereas the United States is party to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, with annexes, done at
New York May 9, 1992, and entered into force March 21, 1994
(in this resolution referred to as the ``Convention'');
Whereas the Convention requires the United States to
``adopt national policies and take corresponding measures on
the mitigation of climate change, by limiting its
anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases,'' but does not
require the United States to commit to specific targets or
timetables for emissions reductions;
Whereas, during the Convention's advice and consent process
in the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate (in this
resolution referred to as the ``Foreign Relations
Committee'') a question arose whether future protocols made
pursuant to the Convention ``containing targets and
timetables'' for emissions reductions should be submitted to
the Senate for advice and consent;
Whereas the Foreign Relations Committee submitted a written
question, ``Would a protocol containing targets and
timetables be submitted to the Senate?'' to which the
Executive Branch responded, ``If such a protocol were
negotiated and adopted, and the United States wished to
become a party, we would expect such a protocol to be
submitted to the Senate.'';
Whereas the Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator
Claiborne Pell, issued Executive Report 102-55 regarding the
Convention in which it noted ``that a decision by the
Conference of the Parties to adopt targets and timetables
would have to be submitted to the Senate for its advice and
consent before the United States could deposit its
instruments of ratification for such an agreement'';
Whereas Executive Report 102-55 further noted ``that a
decision by the executive branch to reinterpret the
Convention to apply legally binding targets and timetables
for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to the United
States would alter the `shared understanding' of the
Convention between the Senate and the executive branch and
would therefore require the Senate's advice and consent'';
Whereas, under the auspices given by the Executive Branch
that future agreements made pursuant to the Convention
containing targets and timetables for emissions reductions
would be submitted to the Senate, the Senate gave its consent
to ratification of the Convention on October 7, 1992;
Whereas, in December 2011, at the seventeenth session of
the Conference of the Parties (COP-17) in Durban, South
Africa, the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for
Enhanced Action was established, inter alia, ``to develop a
protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with
legal force'' under the Convention to be completed no later
than 2015 and adopted at the twenty-first session of the
Conference of the Parties (COP-21);
Whereas, subsequent to COP-17, representatives of President
Barack Obama, including the Special Envoy for Climate Change,
have made public statements indicating that the United States
intends to finalize a climate change agreement at COP-21 that
contains
[[Page S8167]]
targets and timetables for emissions reductions;
Whereas the Executive Branch has made clear through its
public statements that it intends to negotiate a climate
change agreement at COP-21 that contains legally binding
provisions as well as non-binding provisions--including
targets and timetables for emissions reductions--attached as
an addendum or schedule to the legally-binding agreement;
Whereas the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent
Fabius, who will host COP-21, has stated, ``We must find a
formula which is valuable for everybody and valuable for the
U.S. without going to the Congress.'';
Whereas the Department of State developed guidelines known
as the Circular 175 Procedure (C-175) to facilitate ``the
application of orderly and uniform measures to the
negotiation, conclusion, reporting, publication, and
registration of U.S. treaties and international agreements'';
Whereas C-175, inter alia, set forth eight factors for
determining ``whether any international agreement should be
brought into force as a treaty or as an international
agreement other than a treaty'';
Whereas the Executive Branch must give ``due
consideration'' to the eight factors outlined in C-175, and
``the utmost care is to be exercised to avoid any invasion or
compromise of the constitutional powers of the President, the
Senate, and the Congress as a whole'';
Whereas the eight factors are as follows: (1) the extent to
which the agreement involves commitments or risks affecting
the Nation as a whole; (2) whether the agreement is intended
to affect State laws; (3) whether the agreement can be given
effect without the enactment of subsequent legislation by the
Congress; (4) past United States practice as to similar
agreements; (5) the preference of the Congress as to a
particular type of agreement; (6) the degree of formality
desired for an agreement; (7) the proposed duration of the
agreement, the need for prompt conclusion of an agreement,
and the desirability of concluding a routine or short-term
agreement; and (8) the general international practice as to
similar agreements;
Whereas COP-21 will be held in Paris, France from November
30 to December 11, 2015;
Whereas, at COP-21, the United States will be expected,
inter alia, to commit billions of dollars in taxpayer money
to fund the Green Climate Fund and other financial mechanisms
to fund mitigation and adaptation projects in developing
countries;
Whereas the Paris climate change agreement, either in the
form contemplated by the President or in its current draft
form released on October 5, 2015, by the Ad Hoc Working Group
on the Durban Platform, reflects the characteristics of a
treaty as set forth in C-175, and does not reflect the
characteristics of an international agreement other than a
treaty; and
Whereas, pursuant to commitments made by the Executive
Branch to the Senate during the advice and consent process
for the Convention the Executive Branch stated that any
protocol containing targets and timetables would be submitted
to the Senate: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the statements made by the Executive Branch to the
Senate during Senate consideration of the Convention and set
forth in Executive Report 102-55 remain valid and in force
and, accordingly, any agreement adopted at COP-21 containing
targets and timetables, whether deemed ``legally binding'' or
not, must be submitted to the Senate for advice and consent
pursuant to Article II, section 2 of the Constitution;
(2) any agreement or decision made at COP-21 that contains
targets and timetables--whether they are contained within a
legally-binding instrument or attached as a non-binding
schedule or addendum to a legally-binding instrument--shall
be considered by the Congress to be an agreement ``containing
targets and timetables'';
(3) a decision by the Executive Branch made at COP-21 or
any other venue to apply targets and timetables for reducing
emissions of greenhouse gases to the United States would
alter the ``shared understanding'' of the Convention between
the Executive Branch and the Senate and would therefore
require the Senate's advice and consent;
(4) the Department of State developed the ``Circular 175
Procedure'' to determine how international agreements would
be negotiated, and the eight factors contained in the
Procedure strongly support the conclusion that any agreement
made under the Convention that contains targets and
timetables for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases must be
submitted to the Senate for advice and consent;
(5) until all commitments on emissions targets and
timetables made at COP-21 are submitted to the Senate for
advice and consent and subsequently ratified by the Executive
Branch, such commitments shall have no effect on the
interpretation of United States law or the international
obligations of the United States; and
(6) Congress should refuse to consider any budget
resolutions and appropriations language that include funding
for the Green Climate Fund or any affiliated body or
financing mechanism unless and until all agreements on
emissions targets and timetables reached at COP-21 are
submitted to the Senate for advice and consent.
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