[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 110 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 GROWING CLIMATE SOLUTIONS ACT OF 2021

  Mr. COONS. Madam President, today has been great day for the American 
people, a great day for our democracy and for bipartisanship. Some of 
you may know that just hours ago, over at the White House, a determined 
group of Republicans and Democrats, led by Senator Kyrsten Sinema, 
Senator Rob Portman, Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Susan Collins, and a 
number of others, announced a deal on an infrastructure package with 
the White House that represents the largest investment in 
infrastructure in a generation.
  This is a big accomplishment that I will talk about in a few moments, 
but I also want to bring attention to something that happened earlier 
today on the floor here that may just go overlooked because of the 
other important news of the day.
  By a vote of 92 to 8, this Senate passed the Growing Climate 
Solutions Act, introduced by my friend and colleague from Michigan 
Senator Debbie Stabenow, the chair of the Agriculture Committee, and my 
friend and colleague from Indiana Senator Mike Braun, who is my cochair 
of the Climate Solutions Caucus.
  This bill, the Growing Climate Solutions Act, is a great example of 
how we can bring everyone to the table to find common ground on 
solutions that will protect our environment, help create jobs, and 
combat climate change.
  It will help farmers and foresters in Delaware, in Michigan, in 
Texas, across our whole country, and we will benefit from changes in 
the way that they care for their land or forests, and it will help them 
to participate in carbon credit markets. It will provide a framework 
for rewarding America's farms and forests, and those who tend them, for 
climate-smart practices.
  This is a commonsense, broadly bipartisan bill that will help us 
create a more sustainable future for our communities, our country, and 
our planet, with our farmers and our agriculture community taking the 
lead.
  It reminds me of another signature moment that happened just at the 
very end of last year when, in December, the bipartisan Energy Act of 
2020 was passed. Senators Murkowski and Manchin shepherded that into 
law late last year, and it modernizes our country's energy policies 
across a dozen different major areas.
  Each of these bills--the Growing Climate Solutions Act and the Energy 
Act of 2020--were, in part, fostered by the bipartisan Senate Climate 
Solutions Caucus. Founded in 2019, this caucus has held more than 30 
events and meetings, including many focused on natural climate 
solutions such as the Growing Climate Solutions Act.
  Every Member, all 14 Members, of this bipartisan caucus cosponsored 
the Growing Climate Solutions Act, and I applaud Senators Stabenow and 
Braun for building a significant coalition here in the Senate to 
support it, a coalition that ranged from some of the most engaged and 
active environmental groups to the American Farm Bureau, one of the 
strongest voices for America's agricultural community.
  Our work on climate is far from done. Members of the Climate 
Solutions Caucus have introduced a whole series of bipartisan bills 
that would promote natural climate solutions. Senator Portman and I 
have the Tropical Forest and Coral Reef Conservation Reauthorization 
Act; Senator Shaheen is leading the Forest Incentives Program Act; 
Senator Rubio, the Restoring Resilient Reefs Act; and many more.
  We should advance these and many other bipartisan bills that every 
Member of our caucus supports and on which we are taking the lead. Let 
me be clear. I support bold action on climate. I support President 
Biden's climate agenda. And there are many more things we can and 
should do, but I think it is possible for us to both move ahead on 
those things that have enduring bipartisan support in this Chamber and 
across the country and to move ahead on those things that perhaps do 
not yet enjoy bipartisan support but where the need to act is urgent.

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