Constitutional Opinions: From Kosovo to Kansas

...The Clinton administration also signed an amorphous Convention on Biological Diversity in 1993 and here, too, declined to submit it to a suspicious Senate...

...Last year, it attached appropriation riders prohibiting the EPA from spending money even on planning efforts for the implementation of the unratified Kyoto treaty...

...The aim is to build up a business constituency with a sunk investment in this treaty regime, which will then lobby for Senate ratification of the treaty sometime in the future...

...Something like this procedure seems to be required in trade negotiations where it is very hard to get dozens of trading nations to commit themselves to particular concessions if other participants can alter the details of agreements after the main bargains have been struck...

...Last spring, the House passed a measure that would restrict U.S...

...So while the Clinton administration has opposed this legislation and warned that it would undermine U.S...

...pollution laws...

...The problem for Congress is that, even in the environmental area, domestic constituencies often care a lot about the outcome of international negotiations—and environmental advocacy groups aren't the only ones with a serious stake...

...Congress is already making this point in the main forum for trade negotiations...

...But in the meantime, the United States is participating in the drafting of a follow-on protocol, under this treaty, that will define "biosafety" standards for international trade...

...There are a number of proposals now to stiffen constraints on the executive in this area...

...Meanwhile, Congress is showing impatience even with the implementation of existing treaties when they threaten to intrude into domestic affairs...

...The American Land Sovereignty Act was provoked by anger in Congress at a UNESCO committee that urged the United States to halt a mining operation outside Yellowstone National 44 Does this experience prove that Congress must leave the executive a freer hand in international negotiations...

...leadership" in "international environmental efforts," it stands a good chance of passing in the Senate next year anyway...

...So Congress has responded by trying to thwart such backdoor political maneuvering...

...It has also been encouraging American firms to take more ambitious initiatives to limit their fuel use, with the promise of government-sponsored rewards for such efforts in later years, when the Kyoto Protocol does become binding policy...

...Just not now...

...But Europeans say, with some justice, that the United States can't expect to exert great The American Spectator • November 19 9 9 influence in such negotiations when it has not fully committed to the underlying treaty...

...David McIntosh demonstrated in subsequent oversight hearings, the EPA still undertakes much the same sort of activity simply by calling it different names...

...sites will be registered with international programs, at a time when international agencies are taking a much more aggressive stance in defining adequate "protection...

...Perhaps the opposite lesson should be drawn...

...This convention was duly ratified by the Senate in the 1 970's but now there are second thoughts about leaving it to the president to decide which U.S...

...The administration has been trying to persuade negotiators from Europe and less developed countries not to impose overly constraining standards that could choke off trade in bioengineered products —which otherwise offers great opportunities for American exports...

...There is no majority in Congress that can agree on the terms for such an authorization, because some constituencies are determined to include environmental and labor standards in the new trade agreements and others are just as determined to oppose agreements that include such commitments...

...Proposals to authorize fast track have twice been voted down in recent years...

...Does this experience prove that Congress must leave the executive a freer hand in international negotiations...

...It might be just as well if foreign leaders were given a refresher course in the American Constitution, as it has been a long time since they first learned of its importance when putting too much trust in President Wilson...

...participation in a series of international conservation programs, unless the particular sites involved had been separately approved for such participation by Congress...

...But when there is no political consensus, it may not be a bad thing for Congress to hold the president back from negotiating commitments that can't be honored or enforced...

...current ventures are on such a scale or of such a nature that administrations can hope to bide their time and embark on a long process of constituency building— outside of Congress— before a treaty is actually brought up for a vote in the Senate...

...But as Rep...

...Park on the grounds that the mine might do environmental harm to the park and thereby violate U.S...

...It certainly would be better if Congress and the executive could agree on the basic stance to adopt in a number of complex and important international negotiations...

...But President Clinton is the first president in 40 years to enter a new round of global trade talks without such fast track authority...

...In a few years, Congress may be willing to give more latitude to a president more trusted than Clinton...

...S uch tactics do not sit well with Congress, where many members remain skeptical that any serious warming threat exists and even more skeptical that the Kyoto treaty can actually control worldwide emission patterns enough to make a difference...

...If it is dangerous to string along our trade partners, it may be better to put them on notice—in advance—about what Congress (and therefore, the United States) can expect...

...Since the early 1960's, Congress has periodically committed itself to a "fast track" procedure under which presidents could negotiate tariff reduction agreements on a range of goods and services and Congress would then enact (or reject) the resulting agreements in a single package...

...Over the past two years, the Environmental Protection Agency has been busily constructing programs that would limit carbon dioxide emissions under aggressive interpretations of existing U.S...

...obligations under the Convention on the Protection of World Heritage sites...