Senator Coons’ statement on reports of Deputy AG Rosenstein’s plans to leave DOJ

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the co-author of the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, issued the following statement in response to news reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may be stepping down from his position in the coming weeks.

“I’m deeply concerned by news reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has overseen Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, may leave his position in the coming weeks once a new Attorney General is in place,” said Senator Coons.  “Mr. Rosenstein is widely respected by Republicans and Democrats alike, and his presence at the Department of Justice has been reassuring to many of us who are concerned about the independence of the Special Counsel’s investigation. 

“This makes the hearing next week for President Trump’s Attorney General nominee, Bill Barr, even more important. It’s critical that Mr. Barr make clear during his hearing that he is committed to the rule of law and that he will not allow President Trump to interfere with the Mueller investigation.”

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[VIDEO] Sen. Coons: “This President has trouble hearing yes. Democrats are saying yes, we want to invest in border security and find a fix to our immigration system.”

Sen. Coons on the Mueller investigation: “We need to move forward with protecting Mueller investigation particularly with what is happening at the Department of Justice with an acting attorney general.”

Sen. Coons on President Trump’s address: “I hope to hear from the President tonight some empathy for the hundreds of thousands of American families who work for the federal government who are going to be impacted by this shutdown.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees, today joined CNN New Day to discuss the government shutdown. 

“What I am unfortunately hearing from President Trump all of the time and is reflected in some of the Vice President’s misleading use of statistics is that there is an attempt to create the mistaken impression that we are facing a flood of terrorists across an open southern border and that Democrats somehow welcome or support that. None of that is accurate,” said Senator Coons.

“This President has trouble hearing yes. Democrats are saying yes, we want to invest in border security and find a fix to our immigration system, but demanding a border wall and threatening to use his executive powers to do so is no way to accomplish his goals,” said Senator Coons.

Audio and video available here. 

Excerpts from the interview are below:

Sen. Coons on his comments on Fox News: Well, John, I said that it is a minor step and in the next sentence what I clarified was saying that the biggest challenge of anyone trying to negotiate with President Trump is that he is going to take one step forward and two steps back. Take the Syria example first. Just two weeks ago or three weeks ago, the president made an abrupt and ill-conceived public announcement that we would withdraw the troops from Syria, and it has taken weeks and the resignation of his Secretary of Defense to persuade him to change that to a lower and condition-based withdrawal and just last night, he undermined his own national security adviser by saying, no, no, I have not changed anything. And he has done the same thing on his campaign promise of the concrete border wall to be paid for by Mexico when his departing Chief of Staff John Kelly, former Secretary of Homeland Security, several weeks ago said that ‘We gave up on a concrete border wall months ago and we are serious about steel slats – more effective.’ The President the next day said that ‘We have never changed our mind on concrete wall.’ So, I frankly don’t expect him to hold to that position for more than a few minutes let alone an entire day, so I was accepting that steel slats are preferred by the Department of Homeland Security over a concrete wall. I was not saying that I think that we should be pouring billions of dollars into a border barrier. We should instead prioritize real border security investments at the land ports of entry which is where the vast majority of our challenges really are.

More on the shutdown: I will tell you what is a crisis is 800,000 federal employees, including 40,000 law enforcement officers, corrections officers, who will be going without a paycheck. We have a problem with a broken immigration system and with border security and like every other Democrat in the Senate, I have voted to spend more and to invest more on improving border security, but frankly, if the President tries to reach out and extend his executive power and try to get our military to build the border wall, declaring this a national security emergency, I think that he is going to face a significant and likely successful challenge in court. 

Sen. Coons on Vice President Pence: What I am unfortunately hearing from President Trump all of the time and is reflected in some of the Vice President’s misleading use of statistics is that there is an attempt to create the mistaken impression that we are facing a flood of terrorists across an open southern border and that Democrats somehow welcome or support that. None of that is accurate. At land ports of entry, which are the legal points of entry where we have got, you know, tractor-trailers and cars coming in and out of the United States every day, we have a problem. We have not invested enough in securing those ports of entry and that is where the vast majority of folks with some criminal background have passed into the United States. We should do that, there is bipartisan support for that. The idea that there are thousands of potential or real terrorists flooding across the desert between the United States and Mexico in Arizona for example or Texas is just not accurate. Most of the folks cited in that brief clip who came to the United States who are people of interest came in through airports. We should work together, we should reopen the government, I hope to hear from the President tonight some empathy for the hundreds of thousands of American families who work for the federal government who are going to be impacted by this shutdown. I hope that I will hear some movement towards recognizing and I don’t expect him to fully capitulate, but I expect him to compromise. He is the first American president to lead a shutdown of his own government. A shutdown that started while Republicans controlled the House and the Senate. This President has trouble hearing yes. Democrats are saying yes, we want to invest in border security and find a fix to our immigration system, but demanding a border wall and threatening to use his executive powers to do so is no way to accomplish his goals.

Sen. Coons on Mueller: That is right. I do. And one of the positive pieces of news out of Washington today, John, is that Senators Tillis and Graham will join Senator Booker and me in reintroducing our Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. This is a bill that we worked on together and introduced in the last Congress to make it harder for the president to fire without cause Special Counsel Mueller. We often were told in the last Congress that we would never get a hearing, we did, that we not get a vote on Committee, we did. It got out of Committee with a number of senior Republicans voting for it, but Majority Leader McConnell refused to give it a vote on the floor, and even when Senator Flake joined me three times in forcing a floor vote which McConnell objected to. The biggest criticism that we faced is that the House would never take it up and pass it, now we have a Democratic-controlled House where the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler said it is his top priority. We need to move forward with protecting Mueller investigation particularly with what is happening at the Department of Justice with an acting attorney general. 

More on President Trump: I can’t speak to the President’s mind. He certainly has lots of advisers capable of providing him with factual and detailed briefings, one of the things that we have heard repeatedly and widely covered in the administration is how he just does not read briefing materials of any depth or detail and he spends a lot more time watching cable TV news than he does reading the intelligence briefings and meeting with his own senior advisers and that concerns me greatly, because the job of president is one of the most complex, most difficult, most demanding jobs in the world. And having a government full of seasoned and nonpartisan professionals who can advise him on things like national security is so that he would listen. My hunch is that he is choosing to hear more of what is broadcast on a few news outlets than what is provided for him from the professionals from the intelligence community. 

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Sens. Graham, Coons, Tillis, Booker re-introduce the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) this week will re-introduce the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. 

The legislation would protect Special Counsels from inappropriate removal or political pressure. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last Congress with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 14-7. 

The Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act:

• Codifies existing Department of Justice regulations to ensure that the Special Counsel can only be fired for good cause by a senior Justice Department official, and the reason must be provided in writing. 
• Provides the Special Counsel a 10-day window in which he can seek expedited judicial review of his removal to determine whether the firing was for good cause.  If the firing is ultimately determined to have violated the good-cause requirement, the removal will not take effect.   
• Preserves the staffing, documents, and materials of the investigation while the matter is pending.

“I have every confidence Mr. Mueller will be allowed to finish the job.  However, there needs to be institutional protections for special counsels both now and in the future.  Our bill allows judicial review of any decision to terminate a special counsel to make sure it’s done for the reasons cited in the regulation rather than political motivation. I think this will serve the country well. I look forward to working with my Democratic and Republican colleagues on this legislation,” said Senator Graham.

“This is a time when Republicans and Democrats need to stand up and protect the rule of law in this country,” said Senator Coons. “This bipartisan bill is the best way to ensure that Special Counsel Mueller, and future special counsels, can complete their work without interference, and to make clear that no one is above the law.”

“When we introduced the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act last year, I stated that I do not believe President Trump intends to remove Special Counsel Robert Mueller. I still believe that is true. However, I also believe this bipartisan legislation is good government policy with enduring value across the current and future Administrations,” said Senator Tillis. “This bill’s protections will help ensure that our Justice Department will have the independence it needs to conduct fair and impartial investigations with appropriate reporting to Congress. This will, in turn, reaffirm the American people’s confidence in our nation’s rule of law and the principle that no one is above the law. We were able to build a bipartisan base of support for this legislation last year, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to build the additional support required to advance it through the Senate.”

“One of the core principles of our justice system is that nobody is above the law,” said Senator Booker. “Our bipartisan bill defends that fundamental principle by protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and future special counsels, from political interference. It’s a common-sense, bipartisan bill that provides the appropriate and necessary checks and balances on Presidential power in order to avoid a constitutional crisis.”

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Sen. Coons’ statement on tomorrow’s elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

WILMINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement ahead of tomorrow’s long-delayed elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

“I call on the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo ensure that long delayed elections take place as scheduled tomorrow, December 30 and that the Congolese people are able to participate freely. Security forces, candidates, and their supporters must refrain from violence and commit to the rule of law and transparent, accountable governance.

“The people of the DRC, a country the size of Western Europe, have suffered enough in recent years due to pervasive corruption, attacks by armed groups, and a lack of basic services. The current and recent outbreak of Ebola in the east compounds these challenges. Congo’s 81 million people have never known the leaders they deserve. The election tomorrow represents an opportunity to turn over a new page in the country’s history.

“But the conduct of the pre-election environment has not been encouraging. This election should have been held at the end of 2016 under DRC’s constitution. The Saint Sylvestre political agreement of December 2016 provided a one-year extension, which authorities again failed to respect. Most recently, a mysterious fire that destroyed some eight thousand voting machines, which were apparently to be used in the capital of Kinshasa (an opposition stronghold), caused an additional one-week delay. Finally, the electoral commission decided unilaterally this week that some 1.2 million people in Beni, Butembo, and Yumbi (also known for supporting opposition candidates) will not be able to vote on Sunday, due to the Ebola outbreak as well as recent violence. These delays are concerning. 

“I am also disappointed by the electoral commission’s refusal to accept independent election observers from the European Union or the U.S.-based Carter Center. DRC authorities have also disrupted and forcibly prevented opposition rallies and campaign events, repressing the rights of free assembly and expression in violation of the government’s commitments under Saint Sylvestre agreement.

“I condemn successive election delays and enduring political restrictions. These attempts to repress the will of the people of the DRC must stop.

“As the people of DRC head to the polls tomorrow, I call upon the security forces of the DRC to protect the vote and act with restraint. Simply put, the government’s security forces must back off and let the people exercise their democratic rights. Regional organizations such as the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, as well as the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO, must help ensure that people can cast their votes in peace.

“If we again see the security forces attack civilians peacefully exercising their rights, there will be consequences. I am determined to work with the Trump Administration to impose targeted sanctions against high-level officials responsible for further violence or repression.

“The people of the DRC have waited years for this moment. They deserve a peaceful, credible election, followed by necessary anti-corruption measures and governance reforms.”

Coons, Blunt bill to protect victims of child abuse passes House, is on its way to the President’s desk

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Chris Coons (Del.) and Roy Blunt (Mo.), co-chairs of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, announced that their bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCAA) passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support and is on its way to the president’s desk. The legislation provides funding for Children’s Advocacy Centers that serve child victims and help law enforcement hold perpetrators accountable.

“Children’s Advocacy Centers protect children in Delaware and all across the country, and I’m very glad that Senator Blunt and I have been able to work across the aisle to move forward a reauthorization of the Victims of Child Abuse Act,” said Coons. “This legislation will ensure that law enforcement, along with health and other service providers, have the resources they need to care for children who have been abused and quickly prosecute the perpetrators of these horrific crimes.”

“Every year, Children’s Advocacy Centers protect thousands of our state’s most vulnerable children,” said Blunt. “By reauthorizing funding for this critical program, Child Advocacy Centers and law enforcement will continue to have the tools they need to coordinate the investigation, treatment, and prosecution of child abuse cases. I thank Senator Coons, our colleagues in the House, and advocacy groups across the nation for their help in getting this bill to the president’s desk.” 

“The funding that the CAC of Delaware receives through the Victims of Child Abuse Act is critical to the continued operation of our three CAC’s here in Delaware,” said Randy Williams, CEO Child Advocacy Centers of Delaware. “We rely on federal and private grant funding for over 43% of our annual revenue. We very much appreciate Senator Coons’ unwavering efforts to ensure that CAC’s nationwide have the financial resources required to provide essential services for victims of child abuse.” 

“National Children’s Alliance (NCA) is grateful to Senator Roy Blunt, Senator Chris Coons, and Representatives Jim Costa and Ted Poe, for championing the cause of America’s children in introducing the Victims of Child Abuse Act Reauthorization Act of 2018,” said Teresa Huizar, Executive Director, National Children’s Alliance. “As the national association and accrediting body for Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), NCA knows that this Act, funding the only federal program solely dedicated to developing CACs and improving the services they provide to kids that have been abused, is critical to the more than 330,000 children our member CACs serve each year. Once again, Congress shows, by reauthorizing and updating the Act, that it values the impact of the CAC model. Sen. Blunt led the effort in Congress to give our movement the continuity crucial to our provision of healing mental health services to more than a million children over the past decade. Thanks to the 115th Congress, and especially our champions for children, Sen. Blunt, Senator Coons, Rep. Costa, and Representative Poe, for their leadership in making this program one that children can rely on.”

Coons and Blunt introduced the bill in May 2018. They previously introduced similar legislation, which was signed into law in 2014, to reauthorize the Victims of Child Abuse Program through 2018.

Children’s Advocacy Centers employ a multi-disciplinary team of trained professionals to conduct forensic interviews of children who have been victims of abuse. These interviews are designed to be admissible in court while also preventing children from being re-traumatized by having to tell their accounts multiple times. Use of Children’s Advocacy Centers leads to faster criminal charging decisions in sexual abuse cases, increased felony prosecutions of child sexual abuse, and lower average per-case costs.

In addition to Coons and Blunt, original Senate cosponsors include U.S. Senators Todd Young (Ind.), Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Bob Casey (Pa.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) and Dick Durbin (Ill.). U.S. Representatives Ted Poe (Texas) and Jim Costa (Calif.) introduced similar legislation in the House.

The bill has garnered widespread support from the nation’s top advocacy groups, including the National Children’s Alliance, National Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, National Association of Police Organizations, National Sheriffs’ Association, Fraternal Order of Police, and National District Attorneys Association. The bill is also backed by the Major County Sheriffs’ Association, the North East Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, the Midwest Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, the Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the National Children’s Advocacy Center, and the Southern Regional Children’s Advocacy Center. 

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[VIDEO] Sen. Coons: Trump’s Syria decision “a great big Christmas gift to the Ayatollah Khamenei, to Vladimir Putin, and Bashar al-Assad”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this morning joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

“For us to unilaterally withdraw and abandon the Kurds to an almost certain advance by either the Turks or the Iranians or both, I think is just, why would anyone stand alongside us and fight in such an important conflict as our work against ISIS in the future if this is how we treat our partners, the Kurds in this important fight against ISIS? So, you’ll see a lot of effort today to try to persuade the president to reverse this decision,” said Senator Coons.

Video and transcript available here.

Excerpts from the transcript are below:

Sen. Coons on Syria: That’s right. I couldn’t disagree more with this decision. It’s a terrible decision, both in how the president made it and in what he’s decided to do. I only pray that our president will reconsider, because he managed to unite all of us in the Senate in the last two days. First, we had a very positive day where we all came together and passed a big bold bipartisan criminal justice reform bill and managed to avoid a government shutdown, so the mood was pretty positive yesterday. And then just like a shot of electricity, the message that the president in a tweet announced he was going to withdraw from Syria and hand a great big Christmas gift to the Ayatollah Khamenei, to Vladimir Putin, and Bashar al-Assad of Syria I think unified our Senate in concern, even outrage. You’ve played earlier in this segment the statement from a wide range of senators. I’ll add my voice to them. I pray our president reverses this terrible decision that simply cedes the ground of Syria to ISIS, to Iran, and to Russia. Just a terrible decision.

More on Syria: I don’t. My strong impression from other senators I spoke with last night was that none of the relevant senior senators had been consulted or informed before this decision was announced. I think it was announced on Twitter. It’s possible because I haven’t spoken to every senator that there were some that he consulted with but the idea that it was Senator Rand Paul and Senator Mike Lee who are cheering this and other 90 senators I expect will denounce it, question its wisdom and the process and say this was a grave mistake tells you something about the ways in which President Trump who ran as an unconventional candidate, our only president with no military or elected experience before getting into office has made a decision here that is uniformly condemned by the United States Senate. It shows a lack of consultation. I’m more concerned if he made this decision in direct opposition to advice from the senior levels of our armed forces and our intelligence community who I strongly suspect advised him urgently against making this brazen and ill-considered move. 

More on Syria: Joe, you’ll hear today very strong, very unified messages to the president begging him to reconsider this decision before he heads off for his two-week golf vacation at Mar-a-Lago. He put out a video as you referenced earlier citing those who fought and sacrificed and died in the conflict against ISIS and my hunch is you’ll hear voice from our armed forces, from the Congress, and from the general public saying that the war against ISIS is not won, and that we should best honor the sacrifice and service of our men and women at arms by not ceding this ground, not paving a highway of control of Syria for Iran and bringing this threat right to the threshold of our vital ally Israel. We have the world’s most powerful military for a reason. The fight against ISIS was an important and noble and significant effort where we pulled in dozens of other countries. The United States did manage to bring some measure of stability to a part of a country that was destroyed by ISIS, but that fight is not over and not won. For us to unilaterally withdraw and abandon the Kurds to an almost certain advance by either the Turks or the Iranians or both, I think is just, why would anyone stand alongside us and fight in such an important conflict as our work against ISIS in the future if this is how we treat our partners, the Kurds in this important fight against ISIS? So, you’ll see a lot of effort today to try to persuade the president to reverse this decision. 

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Sen. Coons’ statement on President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on the Trump Administration’s surprise announcement that it intends to quickly withdraw U.S. forces from Syria:  

“I am alarmed by the Administration’s abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. The Administration must clearly explain to the American people why a withdrawal serves our national interests, strengthens our allies, prevents the re-emergence of ISIS, and counters the expansion of Iranian influence in the Middle East. 

“Just a few weeks ago, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued that the United States needed to remain in Syria to train local partner forces, continue stabilization efforts, and decisively defeat ISIS. Surprise announcements and rash decisions make for bad foreign policy.

“In April, I led a bipartisan letter to President Trump, urging him to sustain a U.S. force presence in Syria and work with Congress on a comprehensive strategy. The Trump Administration has supposedly made countering Iran the centerpiece of its Middle East strategy. Yet this decision will allow Iran to increase its influence in Syria, threaten Israel, and increase risks to our Arab and Kurdish partners. 

“The Administration owes Congress and the American people more information about this decision, and I look forward to getting briefed by top administration officials soon.” 

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Congress Passes Carper, Coons, Blunt Rochester Bill to Fix Coastal Barrier Resources Map Affecting North Bethany Beach Homeowners

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Delaware’s Congressional Delegation, U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons, and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (all D-Del.), celebrated the passage of the Strengthening Coastal Communities Act of 2018, which included legislation they led in the House and Senate that adjusts the boundary maps under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) for Delaware’s North Bethany Beach map unit. The Strengthening Coastal Communities Act also adjusts maps in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, helping coastal homeowners qualify for disaster aid and setting aside thousands of acres for wildlife conservation.

Specifically, the legislation will implement a recommendation made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) following its discovery during a recent digital mapping pilot project that a portion of the North Bethany Beach unit, which encompasses the South Shore Marina development, was included by mistake when the map was created in 1990. This change to the map may only be made through Congressional action.

“This common-sense fix will help protect both Delaware homeowners and our natural resources,” said Senator Coons. “Severe storms will continue to threaten our coast, and it is important for Congress to make these updates as our mapping technology improves. I am pleased that we were able to advance legislation that ensures Delaware homeowners can access the federal flood insurance program.”

“The Coastal Barrier Resources Act saves taxpayers money, keeps people and their property out of harm’s way and conserves natural resources by restricting most federal expenditures and financial assistance for new construction on barrier islands. But a mistake made years ago has prevented South Shore Marina homeowners from accessing subsidized flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP),” said Senator Carper, top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. “This bill fixes that mistake and allows Delaware homeowners access to the National Flood Insurance Program.”

“Families along our coastline deserve the peace of mind that when disaster strikes, they will have the tools and resources at their disposal to rebuild their homes and pick up the pieces in the aftermath. Thanks to these critical updates to the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, the South Shore Marina Community will finally have access to those federal dollars,” said Congresswoman Blunt Rochester. “Our legislation makes technical corrections that have a big impact in improving the lives of coastal communities and protecting Delaware’s invaluable natural resources and wildlife. I am proud to have joined Senator Carper and Senator Coons in working to get this passed, and I look forward to the Administration swiftly signing this bill into law.”

In November 2016, FWS sent a report to Congress that included the results of the mapping pilot project, which was required by the 2006 Coastal Barrier Resources Reauthorization Act. Delaware was part of the pilot project, and the report contains the recommendation for this map change.

Enacted in 1982, the CBRA is a map-based law that recognizes that certain actions and programs of the federal government subsidize and thus encourage development on coastal barriers. However, coastal building, if done in the wrong places, contributes to the loss of natural resources and threatens human life, health and property. The CBRA system currently contains 859 geographic units in 23 U.S. states and territories along the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico coasts.  The CBRA units are depicted on a set of maps that is maintained by the Secretary of the Interior through FWS.

While CBRA does not prohibit or regulate development, it removes the federal incentives to build on these undeveloped, unstable and environmentally sensitive areas. As it reviewed digital mapping results, FWS consulted South Bethany Beach area property owners, as well as the state government, who all concur with the map change. 

Now that both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House have passed the Strengthening Coastal Communities Act, the bill is headed to the President for his signature.

Sens. Coons, Flake introduce landmark bipartisan legislation to put money in the pockets of working families by pricing carbon pollution

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) today introduced bipartisan legislation to pay a monthly dividend to every American family.  The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act places an increasing price on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, designed to drive down pollution, address climate change, and encourage market-driven innovation in clean energy technologies.  Revenues received will be returned directly to the American people in the form of a monthly dividend, protecting energy consumers and low- and middle-income households.  The legislation aims to help accelerate American innovation to advance clean energy solutions, incentivize our trading partners to lower emissions, and prevent thousands of pollution-related deaths annually. A related bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressmen Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), John Delaney (D-Md.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), and Charlie Christ (D-Fla.).

“Climate change is a serious threat to our economy, our security, and our way of life, and we need leadership from all parts of our society and government to tackle it,” said Senator Coons.  “Putting an economy-wide price on carbon and other greenhouse gases is a comprehensive way to reduce emissions, spur innovation, and create jobs.  I am proud to introduce this legislation with my good friend Jeff Flake, who has long been a champion of market-based climate legislation since his days in the House.  I am hopeful that we will continue to have bipartisan conversations about addressing this issue.” 

“With the administration’s recent climate assessment and skeptical response from the president, Republicans need to be at the forefront of addressing climate change,” said Senator Flake. “Sen. Coons and I have introduced bipartisan, revenue-neutral carbon tax legislation that provides an honest path to clean energy. This free-market solution will reduce carbon pollution and encourage American innovation.”

“We thank Senators Coons and Flake for demonstrating their commitment to ambitious carbon pricing that benefits Americans and our economy. Today’s introduction shows that well-designed climate policy is supported by both Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress, and it is gaining momentum. And this shouldn’t be surprising – Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers had more than 3,000 meetings with representatives and senators during this Congress, asking for this specific type of legislation. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act has the enthusiastic support of 100,000+ Citizens’ Climate Lobby supporters across the country,” said Mark Reynolds, Executive Director, Citizens’ Climate Lobby. 

A one-pager on the bill is available here. 

The bill text is available here. 

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Sen. Coons, colleagues celebrate passage of major, bipartisan criminal justice reform