'This Is Not A Distant Worry': Jared Huffman Warns Colleagues 'We Are Living Through' Climate Crisis

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) spoke about climate change.

Transcript

00:00The Chair now recognizes Ranking Member Huffman for his opening statement.

00:05Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to begin, as I will do at every opportunity for the rest of this

00:11Congress, by talking about the climate crisis. While some of my colleagues want to ignore it,

00:17the reality is we are living through it right now. Wildfires are raging across the West,

00:22choking communities with toxic smoke, threatening lives and homes, record-breaking heat waves are

00:28overwhelming public health systems. Critical infrastructure from drinking water systems

00:33to power grids is straining under climate stress, exposing Americans to increasingly unsafe conditions.

00:40The ocean, which we're going to be talking about today, is no refuge. There, too, temperatures are

00:46soaring, pushing marine ecosystems to the brink. Now, this is not a distant worry. It's not something we

00:53can dump off on our kids and grandkids, like the majority did recently with the debt and the

01:00deficit. This is a present emergency. And yet, instead of rising to meet the crisis,

01:06House Republicans are dragging us further backward and deeper into the crisis, using this committee

01:13to dismantle the very laws that protect clean air, clean water, biodiversity, and our future.

01:19And today's hearing is a prime example. Just the latest installment of what I call Team Extreme's

01:24extinction agenda. At the center of the hearing is the so-called reauthorization of the Marine Mammal

01:30Protection Act. Wouldn't that be nice if we were just here to talk about reauthorizing the Marine Mammal

01:36Protection Act, or maybe improving it, strengthening it? One of the most successful conservation laws that

01:43we've got, but instead we are here with Republicans taking a sledgehammer to it. This bill

01:49amounts to a death sentence for many marine mammals and one of Team Extreme's most dangerous proposals

01:54yet. Let's be clear. The Marine Mammal Protection Act has been a cornerstone of ocean conservation for

02:00over 50 years. It is science-based, has a precautionary approach, and that's why we now have healthy

02:07populations of humpback whales, elephant seals, and sea lions in my district. It's the reason not

02:13a single marine mammal species has gone extinct in U.S. waters since 1972, as the ranking member noted in

02:19her opening. And it's amazing, a major reason why we can proudly boast of the world's most sustainable

02:27fisheries. But this bill doesn't build on that legacy. It attempts to unravel it. It guts science-based

02:34decision making. It rewrites critical definitions to downplay them. It fast-tracks industrial permits and

02:41eliminates key safeguards, all to benefit the oil and gas industry primarily, but also a few other

02:47commercial interests. It's a gift to polluters. It is a direct threat to vulnerable species like the

02:53southern resident killer whale, which has just 73 individuals left and cannot survive. With an

02:59additional 5 to 10 deaths every year under this bill, several more deaths annually would be brushed off

03:06as negligible by the standard that is being proposed. That's not a path to recovery. It is a path

03:12to extinction. This legislation doesn't exist in a vacuum. Ocean temperatures are rising. Arctic ice

03:20is disappearing. Species are shifting, starving, or dying. And yet this bill abandons the precautionary

03:26principle that has served so well. Guided marine conservation for decades, precisely at the time when we

03:33need it most. Species like rice's whale and the North Atlantic right whale, already teetering on the

03:38brink of extinction, will have no chance if this legislation is enacted. Are we really comfortable

03:45letting these iconic species go extinct on our watch? That's the question we should be asking. But

03:51incredibly, this bill even rolls back the wildly popular and effective dolphin-safe tuna protections

03:58from the 1980s. Republicans apparently are betting that the American people won't care

04:04if thousands and thousands of dolphins are slaughtered to bring us fish fillets. I think the

04:10American people will care. If the majority were serious about improving the MMPA, we'd be working

04:16in a bipartisan manner on legislation to ensure that NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service have the

04:23resources they need to monitor and manage marine mammal populations, to strengthen protections for

04:28endangered species and to respond to emerging threats from climate change and industrial activity. But

04:34this pro-extinction agenda doesn't even stop there. We're also considering H.R. 180. Legislation,

04:41my Republican colleagues claim, is about transparency and government accountability. But in reality,

04:47it is just a playbook for the mining and logging interest to dismantle endangered species protections.

04:53This bill would impose onerous reporting and disclosure requirements for ESA implementation and

05:00litigation, creating new bureaucratic hurdles for scientists, while unsurprisingly exempting industry

05:07from any equivalent requirements. So yes, I'll keep reminding my colleagues on this committee

05:12what's at stake, because while Team Xtreme works to overturn science, the American people are starting to be

05:19increasingly concerned about the climate crisis and all of these other consequences. Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.

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