119-hconres44

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 44 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

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 
directives that unleash fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions that 
contribute 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. Velazquez, Ms. Barragan, 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 Environmental Protection 
 Agency in 1970 and enacted the 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 pollution that 
 harms human health and welfare and the natural 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 unleash domestic fossil fuel production, while inhibiting 
 the production of clean, renewable energy and electric vehicles, 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, including what President 
Trump calls ``beautiful clean coal'', and eliminate environmental 
protections while blocking the least expensive and cleanest forms of 
renewable energy, such as wind energy, solar energy, and energy storage 
technologies;

    (2) invoke emergency powers to support a false national energy 
emergency;

    (3) increase the already-excessive United States production 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 information;

Whereas President Trump's declaration of a national energy emergency is false 
 because--

    (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 experts agree that the United States has ample energy 
resources 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 development;
Whereas experts, including physicians and other public health experts, have 
 found that President Trump's Executive orders will increase air 
 pollution and cause at least an additional 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 children's fundamental 
 rights to life, liberty, and property, and equal protection of the laws;
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 cultural 
 and religious traditions;
Whereas the right to life, as the Framers of the Constitution intended, includes 
 the right of current and future generations to pursue happiness, 
 vitality, and a full lifespan;
Whereas there is overwhelming scientific consensus that human-caused greenhouse 
 gas emissions from the extraction 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 planet;
Whereas fossil fuel-induced temperature increases are dangerously 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 atmosphere, 
 continued heating of the Earth, loss of ice sheets 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, stabilizing the climate and 
 protecting the fundamental rights of children;
Whereas greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are causing a public health 
 emergency that disproportionately harms children, decreasing their 
 quality of life, and imposing 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, increasing 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--

    (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 destructive 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 
 disregarding the science and not protecting them from climate change, 
 all of which result in anxiety, post-traumatic 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 economic injustices;

    (2) are more likely to reside in areas close to fossil fuel 
infrastructure, increasing their exposure to air pollution, in the short- 
and long-term, and be disproportionately burdened by adverse health or 
environmental effects; and

    (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 government-supported scientific research and data 
 regarding climate change and its solutions;
Whereas the Trump administration has directed executive departments, 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 censorship;

Whereas the Trump administration's actions that suppress climate change science 
 cause irreparable harm to students--

    (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 knowledge 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 scientists' protected academic speech about 
climate change;

Whereas President Trump's directives to unleash fossil fuels interfere with 
 young people's ability to exercise their fundamental rights to life and 
 a stable climate system as recognized by State constitutions, for 
 example, in Montana 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 fundamental 
 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 President 
 Trump's Executive orders that unleash fossil fuels, 
 increase greenhouse gas emissions, block a vital clean, 
 renewable energy transition, and chill climate change-
 related speech; and
            (C) to demand the Trump administration--
            (i) comply with congressional statutory 
 mandates and reverse ongoing implementation of 
 the Executive orders that increase fossil fuel 
 production, block clean, renewable energy and 
 electric vehicles, and weaken protections for 
 children;
            (ii) restore the Environmental Protection 
 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, including the 
 Trump administration--
        (A) have a duty to constrain any government actions 
 that harm young people's lives and deprive them of 
 their fundamental constitutional rights only to those 
 actions strictly necessary to achieve a compelling 
 government interest; and
        (B) should institute an intergenerational system of 
 governing that ensures equal treatment of children by 
 no longer discounting the lives of children and future 
 generations; and

    (3) all energy and climate laws enacted by Congress and 
 Executive orders, regulations, and practices issued by the 
 executive branch with long-term impacts on the climate system 
 and human communities should be consistent with--
        (A) protecting children's fundamental rights to 
 life, liberty, and property, which include rights to 
 the pursuit of happiness, dignity, personal security, 
 family autonomy, bodily integrity, the ability to 
 practice cultural and religious traditions, and a 
 stable climate system necessary for children to 
 exercise these rights; and
        (B) putting the United States on a trajectory 
 consistent with reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to 
 less than 350 parts per million by 2,100.
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