{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=49df754a-fd25-44ab-b7cd-cda6b013c461", "Thune, McCaskill Call on U.S. Negotiators to Hold Line on Aircraft Emission Taxes", "2013-11-05", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\tU.S. Senators John Thune (R-S.D.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) sent a letter urging the U.S. delegation to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to protect U.S. passengers and airlines from the harmful effects of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) as EU leaders consider how to apply the ETS going forward. ICAO\u2019s 38th General Assembly recently rejected unilateral approaches to addressing aviation emissions, and the U.S. law authored by Thune and McCaskill directs the Secretary of Transportation to hold U.S. operators harmless from the EU ETS.\r\nLast Congress, Thune and McCaskill led an effort to provide the U.S. Secretary of Transportation with the authority to ensure that U.S. air carriers are not penalized or harmed by the EU\u2019s controversial and unilateral emissions scheme. The bipartisan legislation, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act, was signed into law in November of 2012 and requires that the U.S. government must \u201chold operators of civil aircraft of the United States harmless from the emissions trading scheme.\u201d The legislation also directed the Secretary of Transportation and other government officials to use \u201ctheir authority to conduct international negotiations to pursue a worldwide approach to address aircraft emissions\u201d that would be based on consensus rather than the Europeans\u2019 ill-conceived unilateral approach.\r\nIn response to the legislation that was signed into law last year and strong opposition from other foreign governments, the EU postponed collecting taxes on international flights into and out of Europe for one year to allow for negotiations at ICAO\u2019s 38th General Assembly that was held in Montreal, September 24th through October 4th. Under the terms of the one-year postponement that expires early next year, the EU has been considering ways to impose certain portions of their controversial ETS tax scheme on foreign air carriers, which runs counter to the agreement reached by the General Assembly.\r\nA copy of letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and other officials is attached.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=49df754a-fd25-44ab-b7cd-cda6b013c461"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8782478980720043, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}