Climate Crisis

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Casten for yielding. And thank you to Chair Castor, chair of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, for her leadership throughout this process. It really has been science-based and meaningful.

Mr. Speaker, as we work to build back better, we have not just the opportunity but the imperative to take bold climate action. By strengthening investments in climate-centric infrastructure, we can create good-paying jobs, reduce emissions, and support frontline communities.

Last month, I had this great opportunity. I got to ride on a new electric bus at Meadow Park Middle School in Beaverton, Oregon. Thanks to the Portland General Electric's School Bus Electrification Project, the Beaverton School District is working to electrify its bus fleet.

The electric buses are quieter; they are less expensive to maintain; and, importantly, they reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is good for the health of our children, our community, and our planet. We can and must help more school districts and transportation systems electrify not just in Oregon but across the country.

With the American Jobs Plan, we can create millions of good-paying jobs, combat the climate crisis, revitalize American manufacturing, and make long-overdue investments in our Nation's infrastructure.

As the House works to advance the American Jobs Plan, we can use as a roadmap the climate action plan from the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Our bold, comprehensive science-based plan includes investments in zero-emissions buses, transit, electric vehicle charging stations, and pedestrian and bike infrastructure, all to decarbonize our transportation sector.

Mr. Speaker, I want to give credit to Chairman DeFazio, my wonderful colleague from Oregon, for his leadership. He has included many of these provisions in his surface transportation reauthorization, the Investment in America Act. I look forward to supporting it when it comes to the floor in the coming weeks.

Mr. Speaker, I tell my colleagues that climate-resilient infrastructure is about much more than just roads and bridges. June is National Ocean Month, and as co-chair of the House Ocean Caucus and the Congressional Estuary Caucus, I want to highlight how the power of our ocean can and must be part of the solution, which is recognized in our plan for solving the climate crisis.

I recently led a bipartisan group of colleagues in calling for a $10 billion investment in coastal restoration and resilience projects in the American Jobs Plan, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to deliver these needed investments to coastal communities.

Addressing the climate crisis presents an economic opportunity, a tremendous economic opportunity. We can create millions of good-paying, high-quality union jobs that will help working families and displaced workers recover from the economic collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Speaker, the American Jobs Plan meets the moment to not only build back but to build back better. By advancing the American Jobs Plan, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild a resilient clean energy economy, create good-paying jobs to boost our economic recovery, and begin to repair the legacy of environmental racism and pollution that has disproportionately burdened low-income communities and communities of color for decades.

As we build the infrastructure of the future, we cannot repeat the injustices of the past. Instead, we must pass and implement comprehensive climate policies, such as those set out in the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis' climate action plan.

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