text: 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.
target: 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.
feat_title: Small Business, Family Farms, and Constitutional Protection Act