Alan Lowenthal: “First, I want to say that I stand with you, and I'm so glad that you've raised this issue about the crisis that is…”

“First, I want to say that I stand with you, and I'm so glad that you've raised this issue about the crisis that is occurring to working families in America, and, as was just pointed out, the tremendous crash and burden on the middle class, who are rapidly becoming low-wage workers because of our policies in this country. I agree completely that the first step that we have to do is to raise the minimum wage and have that discussion and really provide and demonstrate that this Congress really cares about working people in America. That's our first thing. But I'm also glad that you've given me an opportunity this afternoon to talk about one other issue that is not really directly related to this issue, and that has to do with environmental issues. I just want to report to my colleagues that later this month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the leading international climate science body with over 195 member countries, is going to be releasing a report which will predict that the planet's average global temperature will increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius over the next century. Not only does this report issue new warnings about continued warming, but it asserts that the scientific community can now claim with 95 percent certainty that the warming is a byproduct of human activity. Yet in this House of Representatives, the majority party continues to ignore the warnings of the scientific community.…”