[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 395 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 395
To ensure transparency with Congress and the American people by
requiring that the President report to Congress on a nationally
determined contribution to the Paris Agreement prior to the submission
of the nationally determined contribution to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat and to provide that
nothing in the Paris Agreement may be used to establish or demonstrate
the existence of a violation of United States law or an offense against
the law of nations in United States courts, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 21, 2021
Ms. Foxx (for herself and Mr. Graves of Louisiana) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs,
and in addition to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To ensure transparency with Congress and the American people by
requiring that the President report to Congress on a nationally
determined contribution to the Paris Agreement prior to the submission
of the nationally determined contribution to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat and to provide that
nothing in the Paris Agreement may be used to establish or demonstrate
the existence of a violation of United States law or an offense against
the law of nations in United States courts, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may cited as the ``Protecting American Resources,
Innovation, and Sovereignty Act'' or ``PARIS Act''.
SEC. 2. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION RELATING TO PARIS AGREEMENT.
(a) Relating to Paris Agreement.--Nothing in the Paris Agreement
may be used to establish or demonstrate the existence of a violation of
United States law or an offense against the law of nations in United
States courts, including--
(1) to establish standing, a cause of action, or a source
of damages as a matter of law; or
(2) to demonstrate whether an action by a Federal agency is
arbitrary or capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise
not in accordance with law.
(b) Relating to This Act.--Nothing in subsection (a) may be
construed to modify or limit any obligation of the United States
pursuant to an international treaty that was ratified by the President
with the advice and consent of the Senate, including the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
SEC. 3. ACTIONS TO ESTABLISH OR REVISE UNITED STATES NATIONALLY
DETERMINED CONTRIBUTION UNDER THE PARIS AGREEMENT.
(a) In General.--Any action to establish or revise the United
States nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement
shall have force and effect only if--
(1) before the President submits the nationally determined
contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change Secretariat, the President submits to Congress a
report that--
(A) describes the proposed action;
(B) includes a plan for the United States to meet
its nationally determined contribution under the Paris
Agreement that details--
(i) a complete description of measures
under the authority of the Federal Government
necessary to achieve the United States
nationally determined contribution, including
new or revised regulations, new or revised
authorities that require congressional actions,
and new or revised financial incentives; and
(ii) how the United States will use the
Paris Agreement's transparency provisions to
confirm that other parties to the Agreement,
including all major emitters, are fulfilling
their announced contributions to the Agreement;
(C) describes how the United States nationally
determined contribution will impact the level of total
global emissions, based on the most recent available
global emissions data, and how the United States
nationally determined contribution in the aggregate
with the nationally determined contributions of other
countries submitted under the Paris Agreement will
result in a reduction of global emissions below 2005
levels by 2036 or by the date that is 15 years after
the submission of the United States nationally
determined contribution, whichever occurs later;
(D) if any measure described in subparagraph (B)(i)
results in increased costs of energy produced or
consumed in the United States or increased costs to
manufacture or produce goods or resources in the United
States, includes specific policy measures that will
prevent--
(i) job displacement that would result as a
result of any such measure;
(ii) reduced global competitiveness of
goods and resources manufactured or produced in
the United States as a result of any such
measure; and
(iii) leaked emissions, including new or
increased lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions
that will occur outside of the United States,
as a result of any such measure;
(E) includes a specific timeline for implementing
the specific policy measures described in subparagraph
(D) in a manner that such measures are fully
implemented and in effect prior to or simultaneously
with implementation and effectiveness of the measures
described in subparagraph (B)(i) in order to ensure
there is no period of time when domestic jobs and
manufacturing will be negatively impacted by such
measures described in subparagraph (B)(i); and
(F) contains a determination of the President that
the proposed action is in the national interest of the
United States; and
(2) during the 60-day period beginning on the date on which
the report is submitted under paragraph (1), a joint resolution
of disapproval described in subsection (b) with respect to the
proposed action is not enacted into law.
(b) Joint Resolution of Disapproval.--
(1) In general.--In this subsection, the term ``joint
resolution of disapproval'' means only a joint resolution of
either House of Congress--
(A) the title of which is as follows: ``A joint
resolution disapproving the action of the President to
establish or revise the United States nationally
determined contribution under the Paris Agreement.'';
and
(B) the sole matter after the resolving clause of
which is as follows: ``Congress disapproves of the
action of the President to establish or revise the
United States nationally determined contribution under
the Paris Agreement as proposed by the President in the
report submitted to Congress under section 3(a)(1) of
the Protecting American Resources, Innovation, and
Sovereignty Act on __ relating to __.'', with the first
blank space being filled with the appropriate date and
the second blank space being filled with a short
description of the proposed action.
(2) Congressional procedures.--A joint resolution of
disapproval shall be considered in the House of Representatives
and the Senate in accordance with paragraphs (3) through (5) of
section 135(e) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C.
2160e(e)).
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Major emitter.--The term ``major emitter'' means any
country, or defined group of countries that share a common
nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement,
that accounts for at least one percent of global greenhouse gas
emissions based on most recent data as determined by the
Department of State.
(2) Paris agreement.--The term ``Paris Agreement'' means
the decision by the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change's 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, France,
adopted December 12, 2015.
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