article: 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.