Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I am on the floor with my colleague Senator Portman to join him in urging the House to take prompt action on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which passed with such a stunning bipartisan vote in the Senate.

As Senator Portman has pointed out, years of careful preparation went into the drafting of this bill. There were five separate national hearings held in Washington with people from all over the country. This is a very polished and carefully developed piece of legislative work that has the support not only of the addiction and recovery community but of the law enforcement community and many others.

Senator Portman has been very diligent about coming to the floor to press for action from the House of Representatives. My view is that since the House of Representatives is under Republican control, they are more likely to be attentive to the urgings of a Republican Senator--particularly one who has served in the House of Representatives--than they are to me.

But I want to make sure the record is clear that I fully support rapid passage of this bill, whether it is something that is close enough that we can quickly get it through conference or whether it is our bill, to which they are free to add things as they wish over time, but can get to the President now--the reason I think it is important that it get to the President now is we are in the appropriations process. The appropriators for these accounts need to know what they are appropriating to. So time is of the essence, not just because of the lives that are being lost day-to-day and month-to-month out there but also because our appropriators need to know.

I urge my colleagues in the House of Representatives, Democrats and Republicans alike, to listen to the distinguished Senator from Ohio. Let's try to get this done.

With that, I yield to Senator Portman with my thanks and appreciation.
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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I am on the floor I guess just a few moments ahead of the ranking member of our Senate Foreign Relations Committee, my friend Ben Cardin, who is on his way but has authorized me to proceed with a few remarks on the topic that he and I, and perhaps others, would like to address, which is tomorrow's signing in New York of the Paris climate agreement.

Over 160 nations around the world are going to be participating in signing that agreement that will move many of them immediately into their program of compliance and signify for others a statement of intention to join. I think it is the largest international agreement, in terms of the number of countries involved, ever, certainly the biggest one I can think of. So it is very significant in that respect.

One other thing about Paris that I think was also very significant is what took place in America's corporate sector in support of a strong Paris Agreement. The President and groups like Ceres, with particular leadership from companies like Unilever, got together and created a remarkable American corporate coalition with more than 150 companies, including ones like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, Ford and GM, Nike, and VF industries, General Mills, Cargill, Apple, Google--a terrific coalition; kind of the who's who of corporate America. They got together to urge the countries of the world to be bold in Paris, to have it be a strong agreement, and to show their support for an international program to address climate change, which I think is terrific.

The distinguished junior Senator from Louisiana is presiding, and I can't think off the top of my head what Louisiana-based companies are part of that coalition, but certainly companies that are based in virtually every State we represent in the Senate--major companies: Walmart, for instance, out of Arkansas; Coca-Cola, out of Georgia; VF industries, out of North Carolina; some of our biggest electric utilities; the bulk of the property casualty insurance and reinsurance industry. It is very significant that America's corporate community came so strongly together. I hope very much that is a message that not only resonated in Paris but that will resonate in Congress as well because I would bet that every single one of us have a significant home State corporation that has signed that pledge, and some of us will have many significant home State corporations that will have signed that pledge.

So when you have gotten to the point where the leadership of America's corporate community has signed on to the fact that something needs to be done and that America ought to lead--that is our role in the world--that will begin more and more to have an effect in this body to counter some of the nonsense and mischief that a very small slice in the fossil fuel industry has been propagating at the expense of the broader American corporate community, which, by and large, has been pretty outstanding on this.

Let me also mention one other thing that has happened just this afternoon, which I am very encouraged by; that is, an amendment that has been filed by 10 Senators--bipartisan, 5 and 5. It is the Graham- Whitehouse amendment. The cosponsors on the Republican side are Senators Graham, Kirk, Ayotte, Collins, and Portman. On the Democratic side, they are Whitehouse, Merkley, Schatz, Markey, and Brown.

The amendment reads: Climate change is real, and human activity contributes to climate change. Climate change is already affecting the American people and poses an increasing risk to our health, security, economy, and infrastructure. Over 180 nations, including China, India, and Brazil, have made commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, creating opportunities for American workers and innovative private industry benefits from global clean energy markets. Therefore, it is the sense of the Senate that the United States should be a world leader in addressing climate change; that Congress is best positioned to address policies that leave a prosperous economy and healthy environment for future generations; that Congress has a responsibility to take actions that reduce emissions and combat climate change; and, finally, that Congress should support research and development to bolster clean energy technology.

In that latter regard, let me note the Mission Innovation Initiative that has come out of Secretary Moniz's Department of Energy and out of a significant group of major investors around the world. The deal basically is that countries involved will try to double our clean energy R&D, and in return these major investors from around the world, led by Bill Gates, will set up a significant fund that will take the emerging technologies that early R&D can discover and bring them through the various early investment stages of what investors and startup folks call the valleys of death on the way to becoming a sustainable company so those technologies can be brought forward on an accelerated basis.

So when you look at Paris, you not only see this enormous array of nations coming together in a common cause, you see right behind it virtually the entirety of the leadership of America's corporate sector coming right in with it and saying: This is what we want. This is what we encourage. We want it to be strong. You have the biggest investors in the world, most of them coming together and saying: We are going to have your back with investment into new types of clean energy funding. And then you have the governments of the world not only signing up for--not all of them but the ones participating in Mission Innovation-- signing up, in addition to the treaty, for this commitment to increase R&D and press innovation in this space forward.

So for all those reasons and more, tomorrow is a good news day for our country. It is a good news day for progress and innovation, it is a good news day for the enormous array of American corporate leaders who have supported and cheered on this particular occasion, and I think it is an occasion for pride on the part of the United States of America that the signing will be taking place in the United States in New York, that Secretary Kerry will be attending, that the Chinese leader will be attending, and that people from all around the world will be there not only recognizing the need to do this but recognizing America's leadership in getting us to this place.

I will close with a personal note of appreciation for a gentleman named Todd Stern. Todd was the climate negotiator for the Department of State for many years, and some of those were rather bleak years in which the United States was not showing leadership. So Todd had to hang in there and endure that frustration and keep his candle of faith burning until the day came when we finally began to kick in at last. His role was very important in getting us prepared for and through the Paris Agreement. He is retiring and has served his country well. So I will close with a word of good will for that particular public servant who has done right by his duty and done right by his country.

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