[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2103]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
            TERRORISM THREAT NOT ON PAR WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, in the administration's 
national security strategy unveiled last week, they went as far as to 
identify climate change as a threat on par with terrorism and weapons 
of mass destruction.
  I agree that we need to continue to be cognizant and attentive of the 
impacts of the climate, but it is downright dangerous to equate the 
issue to the very real and direct threats that terrorist organizations 
and networks around the world pose to the lives of American citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans saw firsthand and will never forget the 
horrors of September 11, 2001.
  Mr. Speaker, I also believe that thousands of U.S. troops who have 
fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the families and friends of the 
thousands of Americans who have paid the ultimate price, would 
respectfully disagree with the President.
  Mr. Speaker, just this morning, the White House circulated a proposal 
to Congress to authorize military action to fight Islamic State 
terrorists--a day after it was confirmed that an American aid worker 
had been killed by the terrorist group.
  This is a clear indication that the threat of terrorism has posed and 
continues to pose a much more immediate challenge to our national 
security and the safety of every American than climate change.

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