Political Quotes

“Part of what happened was that they danced through a lot of different hoops to try to make sure that they didn't have to have it be a treaty. If they could at least make the argument that it was not a treaty, because they knew they couldn't get Senate confirmation. And, in fact, the Democrat champion, Senator Pell, who was the chairman at the time of the appropriate committee, actually put in their committee report that should there later be a conference--and they were talking about the original conference that we had entered into, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which this is not an extension of--many people say it is, but they had to adopt all new rules and all new aspects, because they knew they couldn't just add this on to the original one. But Senator Pell says, ``The committee notes that a decision by the conference of the parties''--referencing the U.N. commission--``to adopt targets and timetables would have to be submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent before the United States could deposit its instruments of ratification for such an agreement.'' Now, the Paris accord, the Paris treaty, ostensibly says that there are targets and timetables. But even the Democrats recognized in 1992 that if you were to put in targets and timetables, you had to have that document submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent.…”