WASHINGTON, DC (June 11, 2015) – A provision added into the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (H.R. 644) would effectively remove the ability of the United States to include obligations in free trade agreements to address climate change in trade deals. Following action early this morning by the House Rules Committee, the BlueGreen Alliance issued the following statement from its Executive Director Kim Glas:

“This change undercuts America’s ability to address global climate change. Making H.R. 644 worse in order to try to attract votes for the larger, and also flawed, Fast Track effort, is the wrong thing to do. Fast track is already a bad bill that would just be made worse by this change, and we urge lawmakers to vote both it and H.R. 644 down.

“Climate change is a huge concern globally—as the recent G7 agreement on climate action shows—and addressing it must be a consideration in any trade negotiations.”