Jared Huffman: “Today the House of Representatives will take a historic vote to roll back one provision of the Republican tax law that…”

“Today the House of Representatives will take a historic vote to roll back one provision of the Republican tax law that was rammed through the last Congress on a party line vote. In addition to the tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and multinational corporations, there was a provision that mandated oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Today we will take up bipartisan legislation to repeal this drilling mandate, protecting, not just the Arctic Refuge, but the wildlife and the indigenous people who depend on this sacred natural landscape. I introduced H.R. 1146 earlier this year with my Republican colleague Brian Fitzpatrick because we believe, as do 182 other cosponsors of this bill, that there are some places that are simply too important, too special, too sacred to be spoiled by oil and gas development. This is the same basic proposition that we were presented with yesterday when the House passed bipartisan legislation to protect our coasts from offshore drilling. Because the north coast of California is too special to have its fisheries and coastal economy put at risk for the profit of big oil. Because places like the Lowcountry of South Carolina are too special to be spoiled by oil spills. Today we are here to show that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the largest wildlife refuge in the United States is also too special.…”