Political Quotes

“I am pleased that the fiscal year 2020 appropriations bill for the Department of State and Foreign Operations was reported unanimously by the committee earlier today. There is a great deal in the bill that the American people can feel good about, as the summaries released by both the majority and minority indicate. However, as is always the case with bipartisan legislation, there are also things that I wish were not in the bill, and there are things missing from the bill that I wish had been included. I want to speak about one of those. I deeply regret that the bill does not even mention the words ``climate change.'' That is remarkable, or perhaps a better word is ``appalling,'' when one considers the existential threat that climate change poses for every living thing on Earth. If Democrats were in the majority, funding for programs to combat global warming and adapt to climate change would be a priority in the bill. Instead, it is completely missing. An example is the Green Climate Fund, GCF, which was created in 2010 with the active participation of the United States. Its mission is to respond to climate change by investing in low-emission and climate- resilient development. The GCF was established to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and to help vulnerable societies adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. The United States contributed a total of $1 billion in the first 2 years of operation of the GCF.…”