Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, my dear friend and colleague deserves a great moment of recognition today. We are all passionate about issues here in the Senate. But very few of us take to the floor each week to stoke the fire on a single issue and to inspire others to action. That is what Senator Whitehouse has done on one of the defining issues of our time--climate change.

Today's speech is the 100th such speech he has made on the floor of the Senate, pleading us to take meaningful action on climate change. It is the 100th time he has brought that now iconic poster to the floor. We can tell it is getting a little frayed. It is getting a little dented. It is the 100th time many of us have paused and said: ``It's time to wake up.''

One hundred is a significant number today for many reasons. The first rough calculations on the impact of human carbon emissions on the climate began over 100 years ago in the late 19th century. For decades we have been certain of the science connecting human activity to changes in the global climate. Yet these incremental changes in the climate did not spur us to act. As the good Senator from Rhode Island just said, the years of incremental change are over.

In my home State of New York, Superstorm Sandy was a wake-up call. Those who for years have been telling us that a changing climate and rising seas are figments of the imagination had to eat their words after Sandy--the third significant storm to hit New York in those 2 years. Those who continue to deny the real and very tangible evidence of climate change are like ostriches with their heads buried in the sand.

Senator Whitehouse is right, and whether he tells us it is time to wake up 10 times more or another 100, until we do something, he will continue to be right. I thank him for his leadership, his persistence, his eloquence, and his devotion to the cause. I hope for his sake and for all of our sakes that this body takes his words to heart.

I yield the floor.

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