Gerry Connolly

There is efficacy in action. There is continued madness in inaction.

At some point the madness must end in America, and action must be taken.

We're delighted that we have a piece of legislation we can act on and we begin somewhere, and this is our somewhere.

There have to be economic incentives built in and that's what this legislation does.

But on the other hand, there are some--you know, you do not get to destroy the planet because you decide economically I want to exploit this unique resource that affects everybody, not just me.

So is it my absolute right as a sovereign nation if something is entirely within my sovereign territory to destroy it, even if it has planetary consequences, and that's an unanswerable question at this time.

The current leadership in the Brazilian government, led by President Bolsonaro, has not really developed a reputation for being passionate about protecting the Amazon.

The climate crisis affects us all, and particularly, the most vulnerable and those with the fewest resources.

We need to think creatively about how the United States can further our national security objectives while also tackling global challenges like deforestation in the process.

That is why I was proud to introduce AMAZON21 in the House last November.

Steny Hoyer has always been a leader in this area and has been an inspiration and a model for so many of us here in Congress.

Thank you so much for being here and for showing us the way.

I also want to thank Chairman Meeks again for holding today's hearing and for cosponsoring this legislation with me.

I want to thank Mr. Westerman. I do not know Mr. Westerman very well.

I inform the House I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

I have no further speakers on this side. I reserve the balance of my time.

I think this is an important piece of legislation in trying to contain the malign activities of the Iranian Government especially in a critical region, critical to us and critical to the world. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support…

I thank my friend again for his leadership and bipartisanship on this bill. I think it is a very important bill because Russia is spreading its malign influence all over the world, and it is having a particular impact in the African…

I thank my friend for his support. And I think it is very important that there be a clarion statement from this Congress, not only about Ukraine, but about other nations that are threatened by Russian aggression; Georgia and Moldova are…

So maybe one could say people who say they do not want a nuclear Iran but are opposing the revival of a nuclear agreement... might actually unwittingly... be achieving the very opposite is what is desired.

They did not, that's a fact. They met the terms of the agreement.

Did they allow inspections, including unannounced inspections of facilities that the monitoring group felt they needed to inspect?

They were required to reduce the enrichment of uranium to 3.67 percent?

Iran says yes, we'll do this, understanding that it pushes them further away from the development of a nuclear weapon.

Would it be fair to say that perhaps, some causation, because of that 4 years' sustained effort by the U.S. Government under the Obama Administration, Iran might have been motivated to come to the negotiating table that ultimately led to…