[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 29 (Thursday, February 14, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1342-S1344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           The Green New Deal

  Madam President, on another subject, this morning, I challenge Leader 
McConnell to say that our climate change crisis is real, that it is 
caused by humans, and that Congress needs to act. Let me elaborate.
  The Republican leader fashions himself as someone who doesn't waste 
time with political stunts. I am not sure I could count the number of 
times he has shrugged off a piece of legislation by calling it a 
``futile gesture'' because the President will not sign it or because he 
thinks it would be a waste of the Senate's time.
  Yet, on Tuesday, the Republican leader announced he would bring up 
his Green New Deal resolution for a vote because he wants to make sure 
everybody has the ``opportunity to go on record and see how they feel'' 
about it, knowing full well his entire party will vote against it, 
including himself, and that it will not pass.
  Since Republicans took control of this Chamber in 2015, they have not 
brought a single Republican bill to meaningfully reduce carbon 
emissions to the floor of the Senate--not one bill. Republicans have 
controlled this Chamber for 4 years and have not brought a single bill 
to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
  We are supposed to conduct the business of the Nation. We are 
supposed to tackle our country's greatest challenges. Well, climate 
change is the No. 1 threat to our planet, yet not a single Republican 
bill that addresses climate change in a meaningful way has reached the 
floor--not a one. In fact, the Republican majority has spent the 
Senate's time on legislation that would make climate change even worse. 
In one instance, the Republican leader moved to repeal a commonsense 
and vital program to reduce methane emissions, and it failed only 
because a few brave Republicans joined all of the Democrats in voting 
no.
  Now, with amazing irony, the first measure to address climate change 
from the Republican leader--the first one in 4 years--will be one that 
he wants all of his Members to vote against. Let me say that again. The 
Republican leader announced he is going to bring up a resolution he 
intends to vote against.
  That is what the American people hate about Congress, the pointless 
partisan games. Next time you see congressional approval level hovering 
around 15 percent, don't ask why. This is why: Leader McConnell 
proposing resolutions so he can vote against them and never proposing 
anything on this subject, climate change, that is constructive.
  I hope the American people are paying attention because they need to 
see what is going on here. The American people need to see that this is 
all there is to the Republican plan to deal with climate change. This 
is all they can muster--a political stunt, not designed to make 
progress, not designed to move the ball forward. They are bringing a 
resolution forward so that they can all vote against it.
  This cheap, cynical ploy evidently represents the sum total of Senate 
Republicans' leadership on the vital issue of climate change, an issue 
that cries out for serious engagement by Members of both parties. But 
rather than seriously engage on the issue, our Republican colleagues 
are taking a page from President Trump's petty playbook, trying to make 
this a game of political ``gotcha.'' They are taking their lead from 
the President, a man who is so willfully ignorant and foolish that he 
thinks he is clever by ridiculing the global scientific consensus on 
climate change whenever it snows.
  Well, the American people are not laughing. They weren't laughing 
when a U.S. Senator brought a snowball to the floor of this Chamber to 
mock climate science. They weren't laughing when President Trump called 
climate change a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. The rest of the world 
isn't laughing either, not when basically every country in the world--
including Syria, North Korea, and Iran--is working together to reduce 
carbon emissions while the Trump administration has forced the United 
States to sit on the sidelines. I would say to our Republican 
colleagues that this is no game, and it is no joke. Climate change is 
deadly serious, and the time for all of us to treat it that way is now, 
before it is too late.

  So when the Republican leader says he wants to bring the Green New 
Deal resolution up for a vote, I say: Go for it. Bring it on. You think 
it might embarrass Democrats to vote on a nonbinding resolution that 
some of us may support but not others. Trust me, we will be fine 
because the American people know that our entire party actually 
believes that climate change is happening and it is caused by humans. 
We actually believe the consensus of the worldwide scientific community 
that climate change is an existential threat to this planet, one that 
threatens not only our children and our grandchildren but all of us 
right now.
  We actually believe that we need to do something about climate 
change. Do Republicans believe that? Do Republicans agree with the 
overwhelming consensus of the scientific community? Does Leader 
McConnell? I seriously want to know, and so do the American people.
  So today, I am issuing a challenge to the majority leader. I don't do 
this often, and my colleagues know I would rather work in a bipartisan 
way on climate change, but this stunt--his cynical stunt--demands a 
response.
  I challenge Leader McConnell to say that our climate change crisis is 
real, that it is caused by humans, and that Congress needs to act. That 
is what two-thirds of the American people agree with--two-thirds.
  My strong suspicion, unfortunately, however, is that McConnell can't 
say that and won't. Leader McConnell has voted six times against sense-
of-the-Senate resolutions that climate change is real and human 
activity has contributed to it. He has dodged the issue time and again, 
but maybe his opinion has changed. So when Leader McConnell brings his 
Green New Deal resolution forward for a vote, we Democrats demand our 
own amendment votes. Let's see if anything has changed since 2015, when 
only five brave Republicans were able to vote yes on a resolution 
saying climate change is real and caused by humans. Two of them aren't 
even here anymore.
  If Leader McConnell blocks amendments, we will know where he and his 
party stand: against science, against fact--ostriches with their heads 
buried in the sand as the tide comes in.
  If Leader McConnell allows amendments, allows an actual, real debate 
on climate change, we will see which of our Republican friends are 
finally ready to admit that climate change is real--is happening right 
now--and are ready to act on it. Unlike what Leader McConnell is 
proposing, that would be actual progress.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, let me start by thanking Leader 
Schumer for his incredible remarks this morning. There is a surge of 
energy around this issue. He has represented that surge of energy very 
well. He challenged the other side of the aisle to bring it on. Let me 
sign up right now as the proud member of the ``bring it on'' caucus. 
Bring it on. We are looking forward to this conversation on our side.
  It is clear that the people of America want action. The polling is 
immensely strong on this issue. It is clear that the people of America 
see this issue in their daily lives. This is not academic theory any 
longer. They see the wildfires. They see the droughts. They see the 
floods. They see the sea level rise. They see the fish moving about. 
This is in their lives now, and the polling shows that.
  A vast majority of Americans say they are--and this is the word in 
the poll--``worried'' about climate change. The world has reported they 
see this as the No. 1 issue facing the world's security.
  Against that backdrop of an active, engaged, and knowledgeable 
American population and a world that is looking for the United States 
to lead, the city on the hill, what--what--do we get from the 
Republican majority in the Senate? We get a bill, a measure brought to 
the floor--the first time, as Leader Schumer pointed out, that the 
Republican-controlled majority has brought any meaningful legislation 
related to climate change to the floor--that they intend to vote 
against.
  Who brings a bill to the floor that you intend to vote against? How 
is that possibly sincere or serious, and what is

[[Page S1343]]

your alternative? If you don't like the Green New Deal, what is your 
plan? Where is there one?
  The fact is, since the Citizens United decision and since the fossil 
fuel industry powered up its political efforts, there is now no 
Republican Senator in the Senate who has cosponsored any serious bill 
to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. They stay away from 
this issue like the plague.
  The world has changed around us. The 2020 election has already begun, 
in many respects. Voters are alert to this. A Democratic House is ready 
to produce real legislation, meaningful legislation. With any luck--
actually on the House side, somewhat bipartisan legislation, and here 
in the Senate, the blockade continues, and the only measure brought to 
the floor is a trick vote that its sponsors will actually vote against. 
That is a pathetic statement of where our friends on the other side are 
on this.
  I hope this actually turns into a breakthrough moment in which there 
are some serious conversations on the other side to say this is not 
tenable; this is ridiculous; we are going to be embarrassed by this; 
but on our side, we say bring it on.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Scott of Florida). The Senator from 
Hawaii.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, our friends on the other side of the 
aisle--the Republicans--are misreading the moment. The planet is in an 
emergency situation, and instead of coming to the table with ideas on 
how to fix it, they are running the same play they always run; that is, 
that they take a popular idea--investing in clean energy, maybe making 
college more affordable, making the Tax Code more fair--and they try to 
characterize it as a liberal project so people put on their partisan 
uniforms.
  Our ideas are popular, and what they have done recently is, they have 
taken a batch of our ideas and have said: Socialism. You are going to 
turn into Venezuela if you do all of these things. I know you think you 
want affordable college. I know you think you want climate action. I 
know you think you want to not get ripped off by the Tax Code, but that 
will cause you to be Venezuela.
  This is the play they run every time, and they run it with cover from 
the Wall Street Journal's editorial board and FOX News to try to trick 
the American people into opposing ideas they actually like.
  That is what is happening with this nonbinding resolution that 12 
Senators have cosponsored. Republicans are trying to take frequently 
asked questions--a document that was posted on the website of a new 
Member of Congress, and then subsequently taken down and disavowed, and 
make you believe this is what Democrats want to do when it comes to 
climate action. They want you to believe we want to take away ice cream 
and aviation and everything that is good in the world because they know 
their position on climate change is absolutely untenable.
  Over the last couple of days, I read some what we call very serious 
people in Washington, DC, sort of marveling at Leader McConnell's 
trolling exercise. This is supposed to be the world's greatest 
deliberative body. It is not Twitter. This is supposed to be where we 
solve the greatest problems facing the United States. This is not where 
we troll each other. This is where we are supposed to have the great 
debates.
  Senate Democrats have done all sorts of work on climate: the ITC and 
the PTC for solar and wind, conservation and efficiency, carbon 
pricing, fighting deforestation. So Republicans do not have the high 
ground here. They are trying to make this a partisan exercise, where 
you have several news organizations churning because they don't want to 
deal with climate change.
  If the Senate Republican leadership wants to bring up anything about 
climate, I echo the words of Senator Schumer and Senator Whitehouse: We 
have never been more fired up. We are going to take this opportunity to 
have a real debate about climate because Republicans do not have a plan 
to address climate change. That is not a rhetorical flourish. That is 
not an accusation. That is just an observation. They don't have a plan 
to stop climate pollution. They do not agree with 99 percent of the 
scientific community saying not just that this problem exists but that 
Congress must act.
  If you look at the last session of Congress, it is actually worse 
than that. I want to put this in context. The last session of Congress 
spanned two of the worst years of weather in U.S. history.
  In 2017, there were about 10 million acres that were burned by 
wildfires. There were Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. In 2018, we 
had the costliest and deadliest wildfires California had ever seen. In 
these two record-setting years, climate change cost the economy and the 
taxpayers billions of dollars. Communities all across the country 
struggled to rebuild and recover. People lost their lives, their homes, 
and their livelihoods.
  In these 2 years, the number of pieces of legislation that 
Republicans put forward to address climate change--even if I thought 
they were inadequate, even if I thought they were the wrong approach, 
even if I thought they were half measures or too private sector-
oriented, whatever the criticism might have been, I can't even make 
criticisms of their climate policy. They have no climate policy other 
than to make things worse.
  They have allowed coal companies to leak dirty water and waste into 
streams without having to clean it up. They voted to make it easier for 
oil and mining companies to pay foreign governments. They allowed the 
President to start the process of pulling out of the Paris accords. 
They allowed him to begin the process of rolling back your fuel 
efficiency standards, to repeal the Clean Power Plan, to prop up coal--
even though it makes no economic sense in a lot of instances anymore--
and they put climate deniers in top science positions in the 
government.
  They put Secretary Zinke in charge of the Department of the Interior, 
and the first thing he did was to open up lands for oil and gas leases. 
They put Scott Pruitt in charge of the EPA, and when he finally proved 
to be a political liability--not for his climate policy but because of 
his personal habits--they replaced him with someone with the same 
policies, Andrew Wheeler, who is literally a coal lobbyist.
  If you wrote all of this into a screenplay, people would say: That is 
a little too on the nose. That is a little too obvious. This is 
ridiculous. This is not actually how Washington works. They wouldn't 
put a coal lobbyist in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency, 
would they? They did. They did.
  It is not just that Republicans don't have a plan to make things 
better, it is that the Democratic approach is to treat this like the 
emergency it is and invest in clean air, clean water, and smarter 
infrastructure, and the Republican approach is to put polluters in 
charge to actively, aggressively, and proudly make climate change 
worse.
  I have seen the right approach work in Hawaii. For decades, since the 
demise of the sugar plantation, we relied on imports of fossil fuels 
for our energy needs. As recently as 2010, we got more than 90 percent 
of our electricity from burning oil, which is the dumbest way to do 
things. It is very expensive and very dirty. Less than a decade later, 
we are well on our way to 100 percent clean energy.
  We have addressed the legitimate concerns, we ignored trolls, and we 
moved forward together. We have quintupled clean energy, lowered 
electricity rates, and created tons of jobs. Clean energy is the future 
for Hawaii, and it is the future for the United States. This can be 
done. Do not be afraid.
  If Republicans think the Democratic ideas are no good, fine; then 
offer a different plan. They are the only major political party in the 
developed world that doesn't even believe climate change is a problem. 
There is no other issue where the majority party denies that the 
problem exists at all, not cyber security, not healthcare, not even 
income inequality. This is not tenable.
  Whenever a Senate Democrat or a group of Senate Democrats come to the 
floor to talk about climate change, we usually have a good little group 
over here, and always--always--in my 7 years in the U.S. Senate, there 
is always an empty Chamber on the Republican side--empty. The only 
Republican I am ever talking to is someone who is maybe waiting to give 
a speech about

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something else or the Presiding Officer. That is because Republicans in 
the Senate have no plan at all as it relates to climate change.
  We have trillions of dollars in infrastructure that needs to be 
addressed over the next couple of decades. We could make those 
investments in ways that also address climate. We could offer tax 
breaks for clean energy. We should reenter the Paris accord, but they 
are pulling the same play they always do, to make this so partisan, to 
mock the issue itself so they can continue to do nothing. They are 
whistling past the graveyard.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, how do we make our communities, our 
States, our Nation, and our planet better for our children? How do we 
make it better for our children's children and their children? Isn't 
that the task we have in the U.S. Senate, to make things work better, 
not worse?
  We have this question before us: Do we have a carbon pollution 
problem? What is the answer, yes or no? I ask each of my colleagues, 
yes or no?
  Presiding today is a new Member of the Senate from Florida. I have 
been down to Florida. I will tell you that I heard about the rising 
seawater polluting the aquifers and creating freshwater supply problems 
for communities in Florida. I heard about coastal erosion. I heard 
about coral reefs being damaged and the fish offshore. I heard about 
the toxic red algae on the gulf side--so toxic it is killing fish and 
dolphins and turtles and manatees, and they are washing up on the shore 
of Florida on the gulf side.
  The people have two problems. The toxic algae is creating breathing 
problems, and then there is a stench arising from the dying sea life. 
People on the gulf side of Florida say: We have to take inland 
vacations.
  I know my colleague presiding today knows about these issues in his 
State because we see the impacts of carbon pollution and climate chaos 
in every single State. We certainly see it in my State. We see it 
through the more powerful forest fires--hotter, more acreage, and more 
destruction. We see it in the smoke affecting the communities and the 
economies throughout Oregon. Of course, we saw the devastating forest 
fires in California, wiping out the town of Paradise and afflicting so 
many other communities.
  It is not just the impact on the natural world; it is the impact on 
the people. When you affect the fisheries, you affect the fishermen. 
When you affect the forests, you affect the timber industry. When you 
proceed to produce conditions of more floods and more droughts, you 
affect the farmers and ranchers of America. It is the people of 
America.
  How about the Panhandle of Florida. It was wiped out by a more 
powerful hurricane, driven by those warmer ocean temperatures. What 
does one say to them--that there is not an issue; that we don't have a 
problem?
  The entire scientific community of the world has said you can see the 
facts on the ground, but we don't need them to see the facts on the 
ground. We see it through the everyday impacts on Americans, on our 
farmers, our ranchers, and on our communities plagued by smoke or wiped 
out by hurricanes.
  So we do have a problem. The answer is, yes, we do have a problem. If 
you say there is no problem, then your head is stuck in the tar sands, 
and you are failing your responsibility not just as a U.S. Senator, you 
are failing your responsibility as a human being. You are failing your 
constituents if you think there is no problem, while their lives and 
their economy are being so dramatically impacted by this issue.
  I ask my colleagues, did you come here to fail your constituents, to 
fail as a Senator, to fail as a human being to address this issue? Did 
you come to fail, or did you come to take on the issues that face us 
and build a better world for your children?
  If you believe there is a significant challenge, what are you doing 
about it? What actions are you planning? Because if you believe there 
is a problem and you are not putting forward a plan to address it, then 
your leadership is a failure.
  So we have a choice on the Republican side of the aisle. Is it that 
you are too obsessed with the power of the Koch Brothers to address the 
needs of the citizens of the United States of America, that you have 
your heads stuck in the tar sands? Is that the issue, or is it that you 
want to sit on the sidelines? You know there is a problem, but you want 
to sit on the sidelines and do nothing, in which case you are a failed 
leader.
  So how about reject ignorance, and how about reject failed leadership 
and come together to make a better world for our children. That is what 
we need to do, all of us, together, because the impacts we see from 
carbon pollution and climate chaos--those are not impacts affecting 
blue America or red America; they touch the lives of every citizen, no 
matter which political party they belong to. It is going to affect 
every child we have now and every child born in the future, whether 
they register as a Democrat or a Republican. We have already wasted 
decades in getting at this issue. Let's waste no more time.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.