Small Business, Family Farms, and Constitutional Protection Act

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Business, Family Farms, and 
Constitutional Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The provision of the Departments of Veterans Affairs 
        and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies 
        Appropriations Act, 1999, that prohibits the use of Federal 
        funds to implement the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations 
        Framework Convention on Climate Change prior to its 
        ratification should be extended and strengthened.
            (2) The Environmental Protection Agency claims that it has 
        authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide as 
        a ``pollutant'', although the Administrator of the 
        Environmental Protection Agency has not yet proposed to 
        regulate carbon dioxide under the Act.
            (3) When the Congress enacted and amended the Clean Air 
        Act, it did not delegate to the Environmental Protection Agency 
        authority to regulate carbon dioxide. Such regulation would 
        constitute a usurpation of legislative power.
            (4) Furthermore, regulation of carbon dioxide would 
        necessarily have the effect of implementing the Kyoto Protocol.
            (5) Since a speech by the President on October 22, 1997, 
        the Administration has called for enactment of a program 
        commonly known as ``credit for early action'' or ``early action 
        crediting'' as part of its global climate change policy.
            (6) Early action crediting is fundamentally a strategy to 
        prematurely implement the nonratified Kyoto Protocol and to 
        build a pro-Kyoto business constituency.
            (7) Early action crediting would reward some big businesses 
        for taking steps to comply with the Kyoto Protocol prior to its 
        ratification.
            (8) Early action crediting would also encourage 
        participating big businesses to support ratification, because 
        participants would acquire costly paper assets that could be 
        used as emission credits under a future regulatory system and 
        that could be monetized if the Kyoto Protocol were ratified.
            (9) Early action crediting is not a truly voluntary 
        program, because it would penalize non-participants by reducing 
        the supply of emission credits available to them in the first 
        Kyoto Protocol compliance period.
            (10) Early action crediting would increase compliance costs 
        under the Kyoto Protocol for small businesses and family farms, 
        which generally lack the technical expertise and discretionary 
        capital required for participation in emissions reduction 
        projects and lack the legal sophistication necessary to 
        negotiate early action agreements with Federal agencies.
            (11) Early action crediting would lose even the pretense of 
        being voluntary if it were administered by the Environmental 
        Protection Agency or any other agency wielding powers of 
        regulatory coercion.
            (12) Companies already may voluntarily record and report 
        their actions to reduce greenhouse gases under section 1605 of 
        the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (42 U.S.C. 13385). That section 
        is administered by the Energy Information Administration, an 
        agency with no regulatory authority or agenda.
            (13) Early action crediting is not needed to protect early 
        big business emissions reducers from any extra costs under the 
        Kyoto Protocol, because, as a practical political matter, the 
        Kyoto Protocol will not be ratified and implementing 
        legislation will not be adopted without the active support of 
        the policy makers and big businesses advocating early action 
        crediting.
            (14) The most effective way for members of the Congress to 
        protect United States competitiveness, small businesses, and 
        family farms from the regulatory excesses of a possible future 
        climate treaty is to declare their unequivocal and unqualified 
        opposition to the Kyoto Protocol.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are the following:
            (1) To safeguard the Senate's constitutional role in treaty 
        making.
            (2) To prevent implementation of the Kyoto Protocol prior 
        to its ratification.
            (3) To protect small businesses and family farms from 
        incurring additional costs under a future climate change treaty 
        or domestic program to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL ACTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE KYOTO PROTOCOL.

    (a) In General.--Federal funds may not be used to propose or issue 
rules, regulations, decrees, or orders or used to propose or issue 
rules, regulations, decrees, or orders or for programs designed to 
implement, or in preparation for implementing, the Kyoto Protocol to 
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change before the 
date on which the Senate gives its advice and consent to ratification 
of the Kyoto Protocol.
    (b) No Federal Authority To Regulate Carbon Dioxide Emissions.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal Agency has 
authority to promulgate regulations to limit emissions of carbon 
dioxide unless a law is enacted after the date of enactment of this Act 
that specifically grants such authority.
    (c) Restriction on Use of Funds for Regulatory Credits.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, Federal funds may not be 
used to advocate, develop, or implement a program providing regulatory 
credits for early voluntary greenhouse gas emission reductions, before 
the date on which the Senate gives its advice and consent to 
ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.

Summary: Small Business, Family Farms, and Constitutional Protection Act - Prohibits the use of Federal funds to propose or issue rules, regulations, decrees, or orders or for programs to implement the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change before the date on which the Senate gives its advice and consent to Protocol ratification. Provides that no Federal agency has authority to promulgate regulations to limit carbon dioxide emissions unless a law is enacted after this Act's enactment that specifically grants such authority. Prohibits the use of Federal funds to advocate, develop, or implement a program providing regulatory credits for early voluntary greenhouse gas emission reductions before the date on which the Senate gives its advice and consent to Protocol ratification.