On the recordJuly 17, 2019
Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon with a number of my colleagues because we are very concerned about the lack of legislating that is happening here in the Senate, particularly on the issue of climate change. As this poster shows, it has been 76 days since the House passed H.R. 9, which is the Climate Action Now Act. It is legislation that would prevent the President from using funds to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. We also have a Senate proposal, which is bipartisan legislation that I have sponsored, called the International Climate Accountability Act. It has been cosponsored by 46 Senators. Yet the majority leader has refused to bring these bills to the floor for a debate. It didn't used to be this way. Even in my time in the Senate, it didn't used to be this way. The Senate used to take up important issues, put them on the floor for substantive debate, and at the end of the day, work to pass legislation to improve the lives of Americans. Sadly, what we see now is that the Senate is turning into a legislative graveyard. Unfortunately, the International Climate Accountability Act is one of several proposals that the majority leader wishes to bury. Yet, without a doubt, climate change is the greatest environmental challenge the world has ever faced. At the end of last year, the U.S.…





