Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker is pressing the the Obama administration to reveal its plans for the international climate change accord that nations hope to reach in Paris late this year.
“Longstanding Constitutional precedent as well as current law requires the Executive branch to engage in meaningful consultations with the Senate on the form that a significant and far-reaching international agreement such as the Paris Agreement will take,” Corker says in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.
In the letter obtained by National Journal, Corker asks whether the administration plans to treat the hoped-for accord as a formal treaty that would be submitted to the Senate for approval -- and for the reasoning if the answer is no.
The Sept. 22 letter also asks a series of other questions about the legal obligations that the pact may or may not create.
For instance, Corker asks: “The Paris agreement may contain both legal and political commitments, but it is my understanding that the core of the agreement will establish legal obligations. Does the Administration consider the expected Paris agreement to be an agreement that legally binds the U.S. under international law or a non-binding political document?”