Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the Blumenauer amendment. In business, we are always fighting the tendency of the long term giving away to the short term, the important giving away to the urgent and the immediate. I am deeply disappointed that this budget for climate research has been cut by $30 million. Now is not the time to cut climate research. From the floods in Houston to the drought in California, shifts in climate over the next few decades will cost American companies and American communities hundreds of billions of dollars. NOAA has the ability to do advanced forecasting predictions certainly for weather- and for ocean-related phenomena, but they also have it for climate short- and long-term change. This ability is crucial to support the future of our businesses, coastal cities, and environmental health. This Congress has repeatedly affirmed that climate change is real. We may have different ideas about the cause of climate change and certainly what we can do to combat it, but it makes no sense to slash the very research which will enable us to find effective, bipartisan solutions. We must robustly fund climate science research, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.”