[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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