Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. BROWN. Madam President, think about what we just heard, first from Senator Markey talking about a fossil fuel lobbyist in the year 2019 being chosen to head the EPA--a fossil fuel lobbyist--when there has not been a bill on this floor or any motion coming from Senator McConnell to deal with climate change, to deal with one of the greatest if not the greatest moral issue of our times--nothing on this floor. You heard what Senator Markey said. This administration has done nothing to address this issue, and President Trump selects a fossil fuel lobbyist to be head of the EPA. It is the same thing over and over again.

We have to take aggressive action to protect our planet and protect our future now. That means accelerating our transition to carbon-free power. It means investing in technologies that make our manufacturers the most energy efficient in the world. It means creating jobs in clean energy all around the country.

I have always, as a House Member living in Lorain, OH, and as a Member of the Senate--for years, I have always refused to accept the idea that you have to choose between good environmental policy and good-paying jobs. We have proved that is simply not true. We have proved it in my State, where we have lots of wind turbines, made usually with American-made steel. We have proved it in Toledo, where we have one of the biggest solar energy manufacturers in the country. We proved it in the auto industry, where the auto industry has generally had a pretty good decade making more fuel-efficient cars. We put Americans to work, and we can change course on climate change before it is too late.

Mitch McConnell and President Trump seem to think climate change-- that is notwithstanding what Senator Whitehouse said--is a joke. I have news for them. Climate change is not something to play political games with; it is a crisis we need to confront and set an example around the world. It is a crisis we need to confront and to set an example for our partners around the world.

It would be shameful enough to have no ideas and no plan to confront our biggest threats. But not only do President Trump and Leader McConnell have no plan, not only are they denying the problem, and not only are they standing in the way of solutions, but they are actually working to make climate change worse. It is just despicable.

They are spreading lies and stacking the administration with shills for the fossil fuel industry. They stacked the administration with Wall Street cronies to do bank regulation. They stacked the administration with fossil fuel cronies and shills to do energy and climate and environmental regulation.

We got news this week that the White House is going to use your taxpayer dollars to set up a panel to promote junk science and spread the debunked conspiracy theory that climate change is a hoax.

This week we will vote on the President's nominee to head the EPA, a lobbyist who would be overseeing the same special interests who have paid his salary. Andrew Wheeler is just the latest in a long line of cronies from the fossil fuel industry who President Trump has put in charge at the EPA and the Department of the Interior.

Climate change is not a future problem. It does damage to this country right now. It is threatening thousands of Ohio workers who rely on Lake Erie for their livelihood, whether it is tourism or other industries that rely on clean water.

Climate change makes algal blooms worse. Off the shores of Toledo, it contaminates our lake, threatens our drinking water, and hurts small business. Nobody on that side of the aisle seems to give a darn.

I have talked to farmers who have been farming in the Western Lake Erie Basin for decades. They tell me they are experiencing heavier rain events more often and with greater intensity compared to even 15 years ago. Hotter summers and shorter winters will only make this problem worse.

It is time for the President of the United States to stop sabotaging the country he is supposed to lead. It is past time to rejoin the Paris Agreement, to restart the Clean Power Plan, and to implement aggressive fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. It is time to create new jobs in clean energy and energy-efficient manufacturing. It is time for the United States to be the leader the world looks to. It is time to take this threat seriously to preserve our country for our children, and their children, and their children's children before it is too late. S. 311

Madam President, yesterday we saw yet another attempt by Republican politicians to put themselves in the middle of the sacred doctor- patient relationship and to take away the freedom of women to make their own healthcare decisions. Supporters of this bill, including President Trump, have spread lies and they spread misinformation.

This bill is about intimidating doctors. It is about making it harder for women to get comprehensive care, and they simply don't care. It is despicable.

That is why doctors and medical experts oppose this bill. Let me give you a few: the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Women's Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and the Association of Physician Assistants in Obstetrics and Gynecology. The list goes on and on.

Yet President Trump and most Republican politicians--most Republican Members of the Senate--think they know better than you and your doctor. It is nothing new. We have seen it over and over. Washington politicians--most of them men--are obsessed with trying to insert themselves into women's private healthcare decisions. They just can't help themselves. But those decisions should be and are between a woman and her doctor--period. That is why we defeated this bill yesterday. It is why I will always support women's freedom to make their own healthcare decisions.

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