Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator. Senator Feinstein may remember, I came here in 2007. I was sworn in in January of 2007. In 2007 and in 2008 and in 2009, just what we would expect to be happening on an issue like this was actually happening in the Senate. By my recollection, we had four bipartisan climate bills, we had bipartisan climate hearings, and we had constant bipartisan climate conversations. This was an issue which was being taken seriously by this body through 2009, then in 2010 something happened, and all of that bipartisan work came to a screeching, dead halt. What happened was that the Supreme Court--five Republican Justices on the Supreme Court--issued a decision called Citizens United, which told big industries, big special interests like the fossil fuel industry: You can now spend as much money as you want in politics. There are no limits on what you can spend. That industry took off like a gunshot, like a runner from the start with that decision--I suspect they anticipated it--and instantly shut down all bipartisanship on climate change by virtue of the political spending and threats that Citizens United allowed them to do. If we could do it before Citizens United, we ought to be able to do it still now that we have a better understanding of what the threats are. This is a very real proposition to get something done, and I thank the Senator for her leadership over many years on this and many causes.”