On the recordSeptember 19, 2019
I thank the gentleman for leading this discussion about climate. What I really love about so many of our freshman Members, like Congressman Levin, is that they say how urgent the need is right now to act, a sense of urgency. I am on the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, and we had a hearing yesterday. We had nice people testifying, but we still heard, particularly from our Republican colleagues, that it is a decision between jobs and a clean environment. Are you kidding me? We have known about this crisis, which it is, for decades. We knew about it even in the Johnson administration, long ago. We have had this debate about jobs and environment as if you have to pick one or the other. As Representative Levin went over and over, about how good for the economy, how good for workers, how good the jobs are, we are now wasting time in addressing this problem. It was really frustrating to me that we continue to go over this. In the meantime, the forests are burning in California. The fields are flooding in Illinois, where I am from. The hurricanes are destroying islands, Florida, and all up and down the coast--except for Alabama, not really. It is really so important that we are listening to the children. Yesterday, we had this amazing young woman, Greta Thunberg, who is from Sweden. She is 16 years old, but she is also a veteran fighting worldwide, an international figure calling for us to act.…
