Motion to Discharge
Floor Speech
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Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, Build Back Better invests in families, the foundations for our families to thrive--in education, in childcare, in healthcare, and in housing. So much is needed. It makes huge investments critical to taking on the biggest challenge facing mankind: climate chaos.
Earlier this summer, the U.N. climate panel released a report they called ``code red for humanity'' because the science shows what a dire path we are on right now.
Another report, this one coming from Save the Children and published in the journal Science, titled ``Born into the Climate Crisis,'' shows how much harder life is going to be for our children. Let me say it again: for our children--not our children's children, not our grandchildren's grandchildren; our children. On average, they will experience 2\1/2\ times more droughts than we did, three times as many floods, three times as many crop failures, twice the number of wildfires, and so forth. This is the dangerous and unforgiving world we are willfully leaving our children if we do not act now to control methane and carbon dioxide that are heating up our planet and causing these catastrophes. This is a collective effort of humankind, but America has to act and help lead the world to action.
Now, some say we simply cannot afford the investments, but the truth is, we can't not afford to act. Last year alone, America confronted 22 separate billion-dollar disasters. That came with a $95 billion pricetag to the American people. Winds and flooding and severe storms accounted for $35 billion. Hurricanes over the last 5 years cost $400 billion. Those numbers don't account for the droughts, the wildfires, the impact on sea life, ocean ecosystems, the fishing industry. They don't account for any of that.
We are facing massive economic disasters if we don't act on climate, and the way we act: We pass Build Back Better. We set ourselves on that path to net zero in the next 30 years, reducing our emissions over the next decade to half of what they were in 2005, ensuring that 80 percent of our American electricity is carbon-free by 2030, and ensuring that half of America's auto fleet is electric by the same time. We have the tools. We have to have the political will to act. So we must pass Build Back Better.
Thank you, Madam President.
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