Obama Trying to Circumvent Senate in Paris Climate Talks, GOP Says

Republicans say President Barack Obama plans to go around the Senate to enact a climate change agreement at the meeting in Paris beginning at the end of this month, according to a report at The Hill.

GOP senators were unhappy after a recent Foreign Relations Committee subpanel meeting in which the State Department's top negotiator Todd Stern said that the deal would not need Senate approval – as required of treaties in the Constitution – if each country's contributions are not legally binding.

The administration is pushing for a deal that does not have binding targets, he said.

"Just like the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations framework convention on climate change, any agreement that commits our nation to targets or timetables must go through the process established by the founders in our Constitution," Sen. John Barrasso told Stern. "It must be submitted to the United States Senate for its advice and consent."

"The president has made clear that he doesn't see it that way, as was the case with the Iranian nuclear deal," Barrasso replied.

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