House subpanel advances spending bill with commitment to Paris climate agreement

The House Appropriations Committee Thursday introduced a spending bill that would allow the U.S. to resume contributions to a global fund that helps emerging countries deal with climate change.

The bill advanced to a full committee vote Friday. The legislation funds the Department of State and other international programs and activities.

The State and Foreign Operations Funding Bill, backed by Democrats, would remove a funding prohibition on the Green Climate Fund imposed by Republicans last year. The new legislation also prohibits the use of congressional funds to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.

{mosads}President Trump in 2017 promised to pull out of the landmark international emissions accord and immediately halt contributions to the Green Climate Fund, which provides billions of dollars to help developing countries meet their Paris agreement commitments. The U.S. pledged billions of dollars during the Obama administration.

Trump’s decision to withdraw also slashed U.S. contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (D) in 2017 pledged to spend up to $15 million of his own money to mitigate the lost U.S. contributions to the two areas. He has so far donated $10 million.

The climate language in the appropriations measure is similar to that of a House-passed bill from last week — the first climate bill to pass the House in nearly a decade — that would bind the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement and direct the president to determine how the country would meet its emissions goals.

That bill, known as the Climate Action Now Act, passed on a 231-190 mostly party-line vote but is unlikely to advance in the Republican-led Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said it “will go nowhere,” indicating that any climate language in an appropriations bill could face a big challenge to pass in the Senate.

This story has been updated