IV 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 44 
Recognizing a health and safety emergency disproportionately affecting the 
fundamental rights of children due to the Trump administration’s direc-
tives that unleash fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions that con-
tribute to climate change, while suppressing climate change science. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 16, 2025 
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY (for herself, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. 
LEE of Pennsylvania, Mr. THANEDAR, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Ms. ANSARI, Ms. 
NORTON, Mr. CARSON, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Ms. OCASIO- 
CORTEZ, Ms. TITUS, Mr. FROST, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. COHEN, 
Ms. SCANLON, Ms. SIMON, Mr. NADLER, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. 
MULLIN, Mr. DAVIS of North Carolina, Ms. BROWNLEY, Mr. MIN, Ms. 
JACOBS, Ms. CHU, Ms. DEXTER, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. 
TAKANO, Mr. AMO, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mrs. 
FOUSHEE, Ms. BALINT, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. 
ADAMS, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. 
SOTO, Mr. LYNCH, Mrs. MCIVER, Ms. HOYLE of Oregon, and Mrs. 
HAYES) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Recognizing a health and safety emergency disproportionately 
affecting the fundamental rights of children due to the 
Trump administration’s directives that unleash fossil 
fuels and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to 
climate change, while suppressing climate change science. 
Whereas Congress approved the establishment of the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency in 1970 and enacted the 
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•HCON 44 IH 
Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.) to exercise the 
United States sovereign authority and duty to protect the 
air, water, lands, and seas of the United States from pol-
lution that harms human health and welfare and the nat-
ural environment; 
Whereas the administration of President Donald J. Trump 
exceeds its authority by directing Federal agencies, in 
violation of the Constitution and Acts of Congress, to un-
leash domestic fossil fuel production, while inhibiting the 
production of clean, renewable energy and electric vehi-
cles, knowing that fossil fuel production will increase 
greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate 
change and injure the children of the United States; 
Whereas the Executive orders of President Trump that are 
being implemented by Federal agencies— 
(1) unleash and expand fossil fuel extraction, includ-
ing what President Trump calls ‘‘beautiful clean coal’’, 
and eliminate environmental protections while blocking 
the least expensive and cleanest forms of renewable en-
ergy, such as wind energy, solar energy, and energy stor-
age technologies; 
(2) invoke emergency powers to support a false na-
tional energy emergency; 
(3) increase the already-excessive United States pro-
duction and reliance on fossil fuels to achieve ‘‘energy 
dominance’’; and 
(4) suppress and deny policymakers, scientists, and 
students access to critical climate science data and infor-
mation; 
Whereas President Trump’s declaration of a national energy 
emergency is false because— 
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(1) the United States is producing more oil and gas 
than at any other time in history; 
(2) energy experts report that, since 2020, the 
United States has exported more petroleum (products 
made from crude oil) than it has imported, and the ex-
perts agree that the United States has ample energy re-
sources to meet its needs in 2025 and into the future; 
and 
(3) the production of less costly, clean, renewable 
energy and electric vehicles is being impeded; 
Whereas the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
Agency and President Trump are defying the Agency’s 
core mission to abate pollution and preserve ‘‘the Earth 
as a place both habitable by and hospitable to 
[hu]man[s]’’ as approved by Congress by disregarding its 
statutory mandates and permitting exemptions to emit 
hazardous air pollutants and promote fossil fuel develop-
ment; 
Whereas experts, including physicians and other public health 
experts, have found that President Trump’s Executive or-
ders will increase air pollution and cause at least an addi-
tional 195,857 deaths over the next 25 years; 
Whereas there is no compelling government interest in 
unleashing fossil fuel energy, allowing destabilizing 
amounts of greenhouse gas emissions to enter the air, 
and endangering the Earth’s life support systems and 
young people’s right to life; 
Whereas the Constitution of the United States protects chil-
dren’s fundamental rights to life, liberty, and property, 
and equal protection of the laws; 
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Whereas the United States was founded on a stable climate 
system necessary for children to exercise their rights to 
life, liberty, and property, which include rights to the 
pursuit of happiness, dignity, personal security, family 
autonomy, bodily integrity, and the ability to practice cul-
tural and religious traditions; 
Whereas the right to life, as the Framers of the Constitution 
intended, includes the right of current and future genera-
tions to pursue happiness, vitality, and a full lifespan; 
Whereas there is overwhelming scientific consensus that 
human-caused greenhouse gas emissions from the extrac-
tion and burning of fossil fuels is causing unprecedented 
warming on Earth and dangerous impacts to the climate 
system; 
Whereas the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration has 
risen from 350 parts per million in 1988 to over 424 
parts per million in 2024 due to accelerated fossil fuel 
use, when carbon dioxide levels hovered no higher than 
285 parts per million for most of human life on the plan-
et; 
Whereas fossil fuel-induced temperature increases are dan-
gerously accelerating faster today than they did during 
the 20th century, with the 10 warmest years on record 
all occurring since 2015; 
Whereas a substantial portion of every ton of carbon dioxide 
emitted from the production and combustion of fossil 
fuels persists in the atmosphere for at least centuries, 
which, if fossil fuels continue to be produced, will worsen 
the steady accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmos-
phere, continued heating of the Earth, loss of ice sheets 
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and glacier mass with sea level rise, and an increase in 
extreme weather events; 
Whereas the United States must accelerate its transition to 
clean, renewable energy across all energy sectors and 
pursue a trajectory consistent with reducing atmospheric 
carbon dioxide to less than 350 parts per million this 
century to reduce Earth’s global heating at or below 1 
degree Celsius above preindustrial temperatures, stabi-
lizing the climate and protecting the fundamental rights 
of children; 
Whereas greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are caus-
ing a public health emergency that disproportionately 
harms children, decreasing their quality of life, and im-
posing on them a lifetime of hardship because children— 
(1) are at a critical development stage in life with 
brains and lungs that are not fully developed until 
around age 25; 
(2) spend more time recreating outdoors and have 
more difficulty self-regulating their body temperature, in-
creasing their susceptibility to excess heat and poor air 
quality; 
(3) are still dependent on adults; and 
(4) have longer lifespans than adults, exposing them 
to dangerous conditions for a longer period of time than 
adults; 
Whereas heat waves, droughts, wildfires, air pollution, heavy 
rainfall, flooding, hurricanes, and other extreme weather 
events, exacerbated in frequency and severity due to 
human-caused climate change, cause acute and chronic 
physical harm in children through— 
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(1) extreme heat that increases heat exposure and 
illness, shortens lifespans, and increases infant mortality 
by 25 percent on extremely hot days; 
(2) longer wildfire seasons with hotter and more de-
structive wildfires, including the devastating January 
2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, California, that increase 
children’s exposure to wildfire smoke, causing higher 
rates of asthma-related hospitalizations; 
(3) greater pollen concentrations and a longer pollen 
season that increase allergic rhinitis suffered by 19.87 
percent of children; and 
(4) more dangerous infectious disease patterns; 
Whereas the American Academy of Pediatrics and American 
Psychological Association have found that climate change 
has detrimental impacts on the mental health of young 
people, including feelings of uncertainty about the future 
and an understanding that their government is dis-
regarding the science and not protecting them from cli-
mate change, all of which result in anxiety, post-trau-
matic stress disorder, and other chronic impacts; 
Whereas Black, brown, Indigenous, low-income, and other 
vulnerable children, including children on the front lines 
of human-caused climate change who have borne the 
brunt of climate change— 
(1) often live in communities that have long suffered 
from systemic environmental racism and social and eco-
nomic injustices; 
(2) are more likely to reside in areas close to fossil 
fuel infrastructure, increasing their exposure to air pollu-
tion, in the short- and long-term, and be disproportion-
ately burdened by adverse health or environmental ef-
fects; and 
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(3) are subjected to disproportionate energy costs in 
terms of income spent on energy; 
Whereas Acts of Congress and longstanding Federal practice 
provide citizens, policymakers, scientists, and students a 
reasonable expectation of continued access to govern-
ment-supported scientific research and data regarding cli-
mate change and its solutions; 
Whereas the Trump administration has directed executive de-
partments, agencies, and institutes— 
(1) to change or remove references to climate change 
from Federal websites; 
(2) to remove thousands of crucial climate science 
datasets from Federal websites; 
(3) to withhold Federal funding for scientific climate 
research; and 
(4) to punish institutions or individuals the Trump 
administration labels as ‘‘environmental extremists’’, 
causing widespread government imposed and coerced cen-
sorship; 
Whereas the Trump administration’s actions that suppress 
climate change science cause irreparable harm to stu-
dents— 
(1) by denying access to critical climate change 
science needed to protect children’s fundamental rights; 
(2) by hindering the ability of scientists, medical 
professionals, and students to study and publish knowl-
edge on climate change that is critical to protect children 
from climate change risk; and 
(3) by engaging in viewpoint discrimination through 
censorship, cancellation of grant funding, and elimination 
of fields of scientific study that chill students’ and sci-
entists’ protected academic speech about climate change; 
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Whereas President Trump’s directives to unleash fossil fuels 
interfere with young people’s ability to exercise their fun-
damental rights to life and a stable climate system as 
recognized by State constitutions, for example, in Mon-
tana and Hawai‘i, and the Constitution of the United 
States and as beneficiaries of the public trust; 
Whereas the high courts of other nations, the European 
Court of Human Rights, and the United Nations General 
Assembly have affirmed the human right to a clean, 
healthy, and sustainable environment, and the funda-
mental importance of a life-sustaining climate system as 
essential to other human rights; and 
Whereas 73,000,000 children in the United States, who are 
denied the right to vote until they become 18 years old 
and are therefore politically powerless, are harmed by the 
Trump administration’s climate and energy policies that 
they cannot influence: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That— 
(1) leadership in the United States urgently 
needs— 
(A) to recognize and address the current 
health and safety emergency faced by children 
that is well documented and supported by the 
scientific community; 
(B) to express their opposition to Presi-
dent Trump’s Executive orders that unleash 
fossil fuels, increase greenhouse gas emissions, 
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block a vital clean, renewable energy transition, 
and chill climate change-related speech; and 
(C) to demand the Trump administra-
tion— 
(i) comply with congressional statu-
tory mandates and reverse ongoing imple-
mentation of the Executive orders that in-
crease fossil fuel production, block clean, 
renewable energy and electric vehicles, and 
weaken protections for children; 
(ii) restore the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency to its core mission approved 
by Congress; and 
(iii) restore climate change resources 
and climate science data on Federal 
websites; 
(2) Congress and the Federal Government, in-
cluding the Trump administration— 
(A) have a duty to constrain any govern-
ment actions that harm young people’s lives 
and deprive them of their fundamental constitu-
tional rights only to those actions strictly nec-
essary to achieve a compelling government in-
terest; and 
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(B) should institute an intergenerational 
system of governing that ensures equal treat-
ment of children by no longer discounting the 
lives of children and future generations; and 
(3) all energy and climate laws enacted by Con-
gress and Executive orders, regulations, and prac-
tices issued by the executive branch with long-term 
impacts on the climate system and human commu-
nities should be consistent with— 
(A) 
protecting 
children’s 
fundamental 
rights to life, liberty, and property, which in-
clude rights to the pursuit of happiness, dig-
nity, personal security, family autonomy, bodily 
integrity, the ability to practice cultural and re-
ligious traditions, and a stable climate system 
necessary for children to exercise these rights; 
and 
(B) putting the United States on a trajec-
tory consistent with reducing atmospheric car-
bon dioxide to less than 350 parts per million 
by 2,100. 
Æ 
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