[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 25 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. CON. RES. 25

 Expressing the sense of Congress that the President should submit the 
    Paris climate change agreement to the Senate for its advice and 
                                consent.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 19, 2015

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of Congress that the President should submit the 
    Paris climate change agreement to the Senate for its advice and 
                                consent.

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 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 nonbinding 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 nonbinding 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.
                                 <all>