2025 CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION

CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING CHILDREN’S FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS TO LIFE AND A STABLE CLIMATE SYSTEM

A new congressional concurrent resolution was introduced on July 16, 2025, by Senator Merkley and Representatives Schakowsky, Jayapal, and Raskin. The resolution supports the principles underpinning Lighthiser v. Trump, a new federal constitutional climate lawsuit brought by 22 youth plaintiffs challenging the Trump administration’s anti-clean energy and anti-climate science Executive orders. Children and future generations, especially those that have borne the brunt of climate change, deserve a livable planet without being burdened by a lifetime of hardship.

The Children's Fundamental Rights to Life and a Stable Climate System resolution recognizes a health and safety emergency disproportionately affecting the fundamental rights of children due to the Trump administration’s directives that unleash fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, block a clean, renewable energy transition, while suppressing Congressionally-mandated climate change science.

The resolution calls on Congress to:

  • Support the youth climate movement and children on the frontlines of climate change - Black, brown, Indigenous, and low-income children;

  • express opposition to the unconstitutional executive orders and demand that the executive branch comply with congressional statutory mandates, reverse ongoing implementation of the orders, and restore climate science resources;

  • recognize that Congress and the Federal Government have a duty to constrain any government actions that harm young people and discount the lives of children; and

  • demand that all energy and climate laws enacted by Congress and practices by the executive branch be consistent with protecting children’s fundamental rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, including a right to a stable climate system, and put the U.S. on a trajectory consistent with reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to less than 350 parts per million by 2100.

  • In the weeks leading up to the introduction of the resolution, youth from across the country met with lawmakers during Youth Hill Days, co-hosted by Capitol Hill Academy and Zero Hour, to share powerful personal stories of physical and mental health harms caused by worsening climate conditions, all intensified by Trump administration directives. On June 25, 2025, nearly 100 Hill interns, staff, and youth partners packed the room for the first ever Youth Climate Rights Hill Briefing to hear from the Congresswoman Schakowsky, the Capitol Hill Academy, Our Children’s Trust, and youth plaintiffs from the new federal constitutional case and learn how to directly support the congressional resolution.

  • On July 16, 2025, in a historic moment at the Senate Swamp at the U.S. Capitol, Senators Jeff Merkley, Ed Markey, Ron Wyden, and Congresswomen Pramila Jayapal and Mary Gay Scanlon spoke alongside Lighthiser v. Trump youth plaintiffs Eva L., Lander B., and Joseph L., Layla H. v. Virginia’s lead plaintiff Layla, Our Children’s Trust attorneys Mat dos Santos and Liz Lee, and Lake Liao, of the Capitol Hill Academy, to introduce a powerful resolution recognizing children’s fundamental rights to a livable climate.

    200 supporters spanning multiple generations, including 50 high school students, gathered for a bold, youth-powered press conference calling for climate justice and constitutional accountability. The event was co-hosted by Capitol Hill Academy, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, 350MoCo & chapters, Third Act DC & VA, Zero Hour, and partners.  

    Nine Senators, including Senators Booker, [Blumenthal cosponsored the next day], Blunt-Rochester, Markey, Sanders, Schiff, Van Hollen, Welch, Whitehouse, and Wyden, along with 43 Representatives, including Representatives Ansari, Castor, Chu, Frost, Huffman, Khanna, McGovern, Nadler, and Ocasio-Cortez, joined the four leads as original cosponsors.  

    Watch a recording of the press conference: FB bit.ly/res-fblive, IG bit.ly/res-iglive 

take action. support the resolution.

  • *Contact your legislators TODAY and urge them to cosponsor this vital resolution by visiting our action page here. 

  • *Amplify the resolution by using our social media toolkit here.

  • Visit Congress.gov to learn more about S.Con.Res.18 and H.Con.Res.44.

  • Download the resolution text and fact sheet here. 

  • Check out the up-to-date list of more than 55 cosponsors and more than 100 organizational endorsements of the resolution here.

Endorsements

Join us! If you are part of an organization, ask your organization to endorse the resolution here.

We are grateful for endorsements from 100+ leading green, youth-led, environmental justice, health, educational, faith, business, and intergenerational organizations: Action for the Climate Emergency, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, Capitol Hill Academy, Center for Biological Diversity, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, DNC Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis, Earth Guardians, Elders Climate Action chapters, Extinction Rebellion Portland, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, Interfaith Power & Light chapters, Mothers Out Front, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Port Arthur Community Action Network, Third Act DC, VA and chapters, 350.org and chapters, Youth v. Oil, and Zero Hour.

Check out the up-to-date list of endorsements here.

Next Steps

If you are a legislator, learn more about how you can support this congressional concurrent resolution and other ways to support the Lighthiser 22 here.

Learn more about the Lighthiser v. Trump plaintiffs here. 

For more on Our Children’s Trust youth plaintiffs on Capitol Hill, watch these short videos: a special 2024 Earth Day Episode of the Ed Markey Podcast video and the Juliana v. United States plaintiffs’ visit to Congress during DC Climate week in this video from The Years Project. 

Questions? Contact Liz Lee at liz@ourchildrenstrust.org for more information about the resolution and our government affairs work.