Sens. Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Young Kim Demand Investigation into California’s Unconstitutional Involvement with Beijing to Undermine U.S. Foreign Policy

This press release from Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) was published on 2026-08-19 and titled "Sens. Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Young Kim Demand Investigation into California’s Unconstitutional Inv".

Sens. Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Young Kim Demand Investigation into California’s Unconstitutional Involvement with Beijing to Undermine U.S. Foreign Policy

NAPLES, Fla. - Today, U.S. Senators Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Marsha Blackburn, and U.S. Representative Young Kim sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, calling for an investigation into the state of California's numerous climate agreements with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The members wrote, "If Governor Newsom would like to assume foreign affairs authorities constitutionally vested in the federal government, that option, however quixotic, ill-conceived, and downright laughable, is theoretically available to him. As it stands, however, he is likely violating the Constitution, serving as China's useful pawn while destroying the pocketbooks of millions of hardworking Americans." The Compact Clause of the Constitution gives the federal government authority over foreign affairs, and the Supreme Court has upheld that even state action with a mere "direct impact upon foreign relations" [1] may be unconstitutional. Dating back to former California Governor Jerry Brown, the state has an extensive history of circumventing Congressional approval and entering into agreements with CCP conduits, including: California China Climate Institute Founded in 2019 by Governor Jerry Brown and the CCP's longtime global climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, the goal was to shape U.S. and subnational climate policy and advance the goals of the Paris Agreement. The California China Climate Institute was codified into law by Governor Newsom. China-U.S. ZEV Policy Lab Agreed upon by the University of California-Davis and the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, the China-U.S. ZEV Policy Lab committed both sides to speed the commercialization of electric cars. Read the full letter HERE or below: Dear Attorney General Blanche and Secretary Rubio: We write to urge the Department of Justice, in consultation with the Department of State, to open a formal investigation into whether signed agreements and other institutionalized engagements between the State of California, including its regulatory agencies and the University of California (UC) system, and organs and entities of the People's Republic of China (PRC or China) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China's dominant political institution, constitute agreements or compacts with a foreign power prohibited by, or requiring congressional consent under, Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution, and whether they unlawfully intrude on the President's conduct of foreign policy. [2] The National Association of Scholars' latest report, Behind the Climate Curtain , documents an alleged years-long pattern in which Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom tied California's climate regulators to Beijing's Party-State, embedded PRC-linked institutions inside the state's regulatory apparatus, and deliberately structured these arrangements to circumvent President Trump's decisions in climate diplomacy. [3] These individuals appear to have engaged in unlawful, unconstitutional activity, and their efforts to support Communist China's strategic aims - at the expense of America's - must be confronted. Article I, Section 10 prohibits any state from entering any "Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation" and bars any "Agreement or Compact" with a foreign power absent congressional consent. Chief Justice Taney, writing for a plurality, explained that the Framers chose the broadest possible words in order "to cut off all connection or communication between a state and a foreign power[.]" [4] The Supreme Court has interpreted the Compact Clause to require Congressional consent for arrangements tending to increase state power in ways that "encroach upon or interfere with the just supremacy of the United States[.]" [5] Critically, the U.S. State Department applies this test in the context of state arrangements with foreign powers. [6] The Court has also stated that "[p]ower over external affairs is not shared by the States[,]" [7] and that even state action with a mere "direct impact upon foreign relations" [8] may be unconstitutional. Similarly, in Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council, [9] the Court unanimously struck down a state law that compromised the President's capacity for effective diplomacy called for in a federal statute, and in American Insurance Association v. Garamendi [10] , the Court reaffirmed that "at some point an exercise of state power that touches on foreign relations must yield to the National Government's policy," which may even include foreign policy embodied in executive agreements rather than statute. [11] In these and many other cases, the Court has regularly emphasized the importance of federal supremacy in foreign affairs. Instead of recognizing its own limitations under the United States Constitution, however, California's pro-CCP state leadership decided to dig in and engage more closely with our foremost national enemy. California has routinely employed the instrumentalities of its state government, including its university system