Climate Change

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, President Trump's hypocrisy and his diving into mistruths over and over again reared its ugly head once again. We can't become used to it because it is such a bad thing for a President to be so abjectly dishonest about so much of what is happening and so much of what he does. It happened again.

Today, amazingly enough, President Trump tried to claim credit as a leader on environmental protection, of all things. This is laughable. The same President who pulled us out of the Paris Agreement, who has filled his administration with oil and coal cronies, who has slashed protections for clean air, clean water, and protections for public lands, and who has denied basic science now wants to call himself a leader on the environment. Give me a break.

Try as he might say otherwise, President Trump has proved himself probably the staunchest ally of the worst polluters of any President we have ever had.

On climate change, the President's record is particularly egregious. In 2 years, his government has gutted oil, coal, and pollution standards, has erased climate data from government websites, and even censored words like ``climate change'' from appearing in official government documents. This is somebody who is a leader of environmental protection? How gullible does he think the American people are? Even Trump supporters may agree with him on this issue, but to say he is protecting the environment is ludicrous.

Some of these things are just the tip of the iceberg. Would someone who is a leader on environmental protection hire oil and coal lobbyists to run the EPA and Department of Interior and cripple the National Climate Assessment? He completely caves to the oil and gas industry. Every time they say jump, he says how high. Now he has the temerity-- the gall--to say he is the leader of environmental protection. Again, give me a break.

To be fair, President Trump's speech does have one silver lining. The mere fact that he even spoke today on the environment forces us to an unavoidable conclusion: Climate change is real. It is a serious problem that deserves action, including action in this Chamber.

The Republican majority, Leader McConnell, could take action on this issue at a moment's notice, but, for now, they are happy keeping their heads in the sand. They have not brought a single measure to the floor that would deal with the issue of climate, even as their views grow increasingly out of step with most Americans.

They cannot continue to keep their heads in the sand as our planet faces serious problems today and even far more serious problems for our children. It is an issue that can't wait a day longer, and yet the masters of this legislative graveyard refuse to act. I fear the majority in this body will refuse to act until either they are no longer the majority or, even worse, it is too late.

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