Tpp will pass during the lame duck

Bilateral Investment Treaty

The plan causes a political explosion and directly trades off with the TPP

Climate Coop

Climate change coop causes aggressive GOP backlash

Congress views bilateral agreements between China and the US as problematic because of lack of Chinese credibility, it ensures backlash

China’s pollution also produces an American problem. Pollution emitted in China reaches the United States, sometimes at levels prohibited by the Clean Air Act. China is also the most common antagonist in American debates about climate change. Members of Congress routinely make two arguments about China as a basis for opposing federal climate change legislation or international climate change treaties. The first argument claims that the United States will lose jobs to China if we internalize the costs of emitting greenhouse gases but China does not. The second argument insists that it is unfair for China to be allowed to continue to emit greenhouse gases if the United States is obliged to cap its emissions. Moreover, many American politicians note that the environment itself will suffer if the United States reduces its emissions but China does not. Such concerns persuaded the Senate to vote 97-0 in 1997 to ratify a resolution proclaiming that “the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions “unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliance period.” Numerous Senators pointed to the forthcoming Kyoto Protocol’s treatment of China as justifying the American refusal to endorse that agreement. The United States never did ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and similar concerns about China continue to animate congressional opposition to a new international climate change agreement.

US-China agreements on climate change cause backlash in Congress

If those numbers sound familiar, they should: this INDC is a reiteration of the landmark U.S.-China bilateral agreement on climate change, in which China matched the U.S. pledge with its own commitment to peak its emissions in 2030 and dramatically increase the amount of electricity it generates from non-fossil fuel sources. While the ultimate goal thus is nothing new, its presentation highlights several key factors that still underline the tricky path ahead in hitting this deadline. As The New Republic’s Rebecca Leber points out, the INDC focuses a lot of attention on how much action President Obama has taken without specific congressional approval. Executive actions and orders, which find their legal foundation in older pieces of legislation such as the Clean Air Act, are at the center of the U.S. contribution to combating climate change. This should come as no surprise, given Congress’s failure to pass any significant legislation (the Waxman-Markey bill, also known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, would have established a national cap-and-trade program, but it was defeated in the Senate in 2009). The Obama administration shifted focus in 2013, rolling out its initial plans for the EPA to regulate carbon emissions, instead of relying on Congress to push through the necessary legislation. Those EPA regulations are the subject of intense congressional opposition, and lawsuits challenging the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions in the way its Clean Power Plan envisions. Managing these threats to his signature climate initiative is a crucial test of the inside-out game that Obama must play for the remainder of his term. U.S. credibility on the international stage, which has been strengthened by these executive actions, will mean less if they cannot withstand domestic scrutiny, and may encourage other nations to reduce their ambitions (on this point, see especially Senator McConnell’s statements on congressional resistance, warning that “our international partners should proceed with caution before entering into a binding, unattainable deal”). Likewise, domestic support for climate action must be buttressed by concerted international action—many activists and analysts were excited by the U.S.-China agreement, which occurred in no small part because the Chinese knew the United States was committed to serious action.

Green Tech

Green tech and renewables cooperation between the US and China is viewed as utopian by Congress

The agreement between the U.S. and China doesn’t just benefit the planet, it’s a smart economic bet, particularly for China, which is the largest producer of clean energy technology today. The commitment to double down on pollution reductions and renewables will assuredly bolster the ever-growing clean technology and renewables sectors in both countries. Climate advocates are hopeful that this agreement, quietly crafted over the past nine months, will galvanize international efforts to develop a badly needed global climate strategy by the end of 2015 and encourage other major emitters, such as Japan, Brazil, South Africa, India, and even Russia, to set similar goals. But it won’t be smooth sailing. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has already criticized the U.S.-China agreement as “unrealistic,” tying it to what he believes is Obama’s ideological war on coal. For the next two years, Obama will face resistance at every turn for any attempt to advance climate policy as the GOP remains as staunch as ever in its opposition of environmental protection. While the agreement with China needs no congressional ratification, there are plenty of ways that Congress can undermine efforts to reach emissions reduction targets. From a climate standpoint, political stalemate would feel like a blessing compared to the alternative—complete overhaul of environmental safeguards, particularly considering that Congress’ most notorious climate skeptic, Jim Inhofe, author of “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future,” is expected to head the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee.

Nuclear Coop

Nuclear cooperation between China and the US is unfavorable in congress and mirrors the risks associated with the Iran deal

It seemed like a typical day for President Obama. He taped a TV interview on trade, hosted the champion NASCAR team on the South Lawn and met with the defense secretary in the Oval Office. Not so typical was something that didn’t appear that day on the president’s public schedule: notification to Congress that he intends to renew a nuclear cooperation agreement with China. The deal would allow Beijing to buy more U.S.-designed reactors and pursue a facility or the technology to reprocess plutonium from spent fuel. China would also be able to buy reactor coolant technology that experts say could be adapted to make its submarines quieter and harder to detect. The formal notice initially didn’t draw any headlines. Its unheralded release on April 21 reflected the administration’s anxiety that it might alarm members of Congress and nonproliferation experts who fear China’s growing naval power — and the possibility of nuclear technology falling into the hands of third parties with nefarious intentions. Administration officials are using arguments similar to those deployed in the debate over Iran. They say the negotiations over the 123 agreement persuaded China to go a “long way” and agree to controls on technology and materials that are tighter than those in the current accord. Congress can vote to block the agreement, but if it takes no action during a review period, the agreement goes into effect. Congress isn’t convinced yet.

Science/Tech Coop

U.S.-China cooperation on STEM causes backlash in Congress

Space Coop

China has empirically been barred from collaboration on space because Congress views them as a threat to national secuirty

Something similar is true of the International Space Station (ISS), the biggest, coolest, most excellent tree house there ever was. Principally built and operated by the U.S., the ISS has welcomed aboard astronauts from 15 different countries, including such space newbies as South Africa, Brazil, The Netherlands and Malaysia. But China? Nuh-uh. Never has happened, never gonna’ happen. China has been barred from the ISS since 2011, when Congress passed a law prohibiting official American contact with the Chinese space program due to concerns about national security. “National security,” of course, is the lingua franca excuse for any country to do anything it jolly well wants to do even if it has nothing to do with, you know, the security of the nation. But never mind. Few people in the U.S. paid much attention to the no-Chinese law, but it’s at last taking deserved heat, thanks to a CNN interview with the three Chinese astronauts—or taikonauts—who flew China’s Shenzhou 10 mission in 2013. The network’s visit to China’s usually closed Space City, which will air on May 30, is a reporting coup, especially because of the entirely familiar, entirely un-scary world it reveals: serious taikonauts doing serious work with serious mission planners—every bit what you see behind the scenes at NASA or Russia’s Roscosmos.

Congress is not willing to cooperate on initiatives with China on space

Plan costs political capital

There's a growing debate over whether China and the Unites States should cooperate in space, and the dialogue now appears to focus on how to create an "open-door" policy in orbit for Chinese astronauts to make trips to the International Space Station (ISS). Discussion between the two space powers has reached the White House, but progress seems stymied by Washington, D.C., politics. Specifically at question is how to handle a 2011 decree by the U.S. Congress that banned NASA from engaging in bilateral agreements and coordination with China regarding space. It will take presidential leadership to get started on enhanced U.S.-Chinese space cooperation, said John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at The George Washington University's Space Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. "The first step is the White House working with congressional leadership to get current, unwise restrictions on such cooperation revoked," Logsdon told Space.com. "Then, the United States can invite China to work together with the United States and other spacefaring countries on a wide variety of space activities and, most dramatically, human spaceflight."