John W. Olver: “I rise to strike section 623, an anti-environmental rider, which is meant to prevent any and all action to address the…”

“I rise to strike section 623, an anti-environmental rider, which is meant to prevent any and all action to address the climate change caused by global warming. Last week, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) and I offered this same amendment on the Agriculture appropriations bill which was graciously accepted by the Chair and adopted by voice vote. Less than 2 months ago, this House adopted a sense of the Congress relating to global warming, in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, and that sense of Congress pointed out that global climate change poses a significant threat to national security. And just this morning, the Chairman of the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, the gentleman from New York, removed this egregious language from that bill. I am extremely pleased to see that the debate on global warming, in the House of Representatives, is moving in the right direction. Regardless of the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, there is overwhelming, peer reviewed, sound scientific evidence that global warming is occurring, and substantially due to human influence--the National Academy of Science has very recently reaffirmed that fact.”