[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.
____________________