Sheldon Whitehouse
Senator for Rhode Island · Democratic · United States
“We can now connect climate change to specific individual events. In the case of the L.A. fires, scientists from the World Weather Attribution and Imperial College London found that climate change made the weather conditions that drove these fires 35 percent more likely. This kind of analysis is called climate attribution.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“Each time faced with well-documented truths about sea level rise or wide-ranging climate economic fallout, Republicans have objected. Well, climate change isn't stopping or slowing down, and I won't either. So today's simple truth is that climate change is making wildfires more frequent, more intense, and more destructive.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“And as we go through those different stages from climate risk to insurance to mortgages to property values, unfortunately, Florida led the country last year in lost property values, which is at least, in part, I think a function of this risk and how it is hammering Florida homeowners.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“This is a pretty longtime chart in this instance. This is now. So how does it work? What does that heat do to drive wildfires? Well, warmer air draws more moisture out of the soil, out of plants, out of bodies of water. There is a scientific name for this. NOAA calls the phenomenon evaporative demand or sometimes atmospheric thirst.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“They are running at about $14,000 already in insurance costs for homes in Florida. Double that--not double it, add 200 percent and add 300 percent. That is actually tripling and quadrupling. You can see how that begins to hammer the home's value. And here, you see a similar problem.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“You might want to start the shot clock on how long it takes for the fossil fuel goons to get in there and change the website. Climate change makes droughts last longer. The Forest Service reports that what was once a 4-month fire season now lasts 6 to 8 months. So there are more opportunities for any spark to start a dangerous blaze.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
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“They are running at about $14,000 already in insurance costs for homes in Florida. Double that--not double it, add 200 percent and add 300 percent. That is actually tripling and quadrupling. You can see how that begins to hammer the home's value. And here, you see a similar problem. This isn't just a cost problem; this is a nonrenewal problem. It is going to end up costing you more money once you are nonrenewed--absolutely. But you also have to go through the immediate hassle and worry and anxiety of finding out how the heck you are going to insure your home once your insurance company has nonrenewed you. And you can see the focus of nonrenewal is along these coastal areas, very heavily in Florida, and then in some of these wildfire areas that we talked about out in California. So this continues to come at us.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“And as we go through those different stages from climate risk to insurance to mortgages to property values, unfortunately, Florida led the country last year in lost property values, which is at least, in part, I think a function of this risk and how it is hammering Florida homeowners. So you don't really get away from this kind of a general risk. The insurance industry is not lying to everybody. They are not leaving customers who pay their premiums because they don't like the customer. They are leaving customers who pay their premiums because the property is no longer insurable. And what we are seeing here across the United States is massive predictions in insurance rate increase, and Florida is really at the epicenter of that. This dark band is a 200-percent to 300-percent increase, and you see it all along the Florida coast.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“And that same cascade of risk that I talked about--starting with climate risk, hitting insurance security, moving into mortgage availability, clobbering property values, and then leading to recession--is well underway in Florida. Some have called it the great climate insurance collapse, and in that very difficult situation, Florida is first and worst into that danger. Climate risk first; insurance collapse, second; mortgage market suffering, third--all of those things are happening. Indeed, the chief economist from Freddie Mac, who is not a green guy--he is a finance and mortgage guy--warned there was a coastal property values crash coming.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I am looking forward to the day when the Senator from Florida and I can be working together on these issues. As he knows very well, the University of Florida teaches the science of climate change. They have courses like Managing for a Changing Climate, Climate Change and Health, Climate Change Science and Solutions, Oceans and Global Climate Change, and many, many others. And it would be great if the science that the University of Florida teaches were also respected and reflected here on the Senate floor. It is more than just the University of Florida getting it right. This also lands in Florida in big ways because while wildfire may not be an issue in the good Senator's State, flooding sure is.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“You can't get a mortgage on your home. And if you are the kind of person who bought your home with a mortgage and needs somebody with a mortgage to buy it from you when it is time to sell, that crashes the value of your home. It destroys its worth. Well, in the face of those facts, the traditional response of the fossil fuel industry is to try and hide the truth, but there is truth, and the truth is climate change is making wildfires more frequent, more intense, and more destructive. And I really hope that we are able to agree on that. Mr. President, so notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“We can now connect climate change to specific individual events. In the case of the L.A. fires, scientists from the World Weather Attribution and Imperial College London found that climate change made the weather conditions that drove these fires 35 percent more likely. This kind of analysis is called climate attribution. The National Academies recently released a comprehensive report on the current capabilities of climate attribution, including on wildfires. To no one's surprise, the fossil fuel industry and its allies are already out to discredit this work. In the face of tens of thousands of Americans losing their homes to wildfires, millions more facing skyrocketing insurance premiums as wildfire risk becomes either unavailable or unaffordable, and the risk of crashing home values--because when you can't insure your home, guess what.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“You might want to start the shot clock on how long it takes for the fossil fuel goons to get in there and change the website. Climate change makes droughts last longer. The Forest Service reports that what was once a 4-month fire season now lasts 6 to 8 months. So there are more opportunities for any spark to start a dangerous blaze. And climate changes make drought conditions worse; that is, drier; that is, with more flammable material. So those fires that do start in that longer season are more likely to become severe. In January of 2025, a collection of wildfires in the Los Angeles metro area burned through over 15,000 homes and businesses, killed more than two dozen people, and poisoned the air with toxic pollution. Mr. President, 2026 is already on track for one of the worst wildfire seasons on record.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“This is a pretty longtime chart in this instance. This is now. So how does it work? What does that heat do to drive wildfires? Well, warmer air draws more moisture out of the soil, out of plants, out of bodies of water. There is a scientific name for this. NOAA calls the phenomenon evaporative demand or sometimes atmospheric thirst. But you don't have to use scientific language to understand it. You just watch a puddle dry up on a hot day. That is what you are seeing. NASA, NOAA, and the Forest Service call drought conditions like these fire weather--fire weather. According to NASA's website on wildfires and climate change, ``human- caused climate change [is] the main cause for increasing fire weather in the American West.'' Now, it is about a quarter of 6 this evening when I read that quote from NASA's website.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“Each time faced with well-documented truths about sea level rise or wide-ranging climate economic fallout, Republicans have objected. Well, climate change isn't stopping or slowing down, and I won't either. So today's simple truth is that climate change is making wildfires more frequent, more intense, and more destructive. My question is, can we not all agree on that? Here is some background. This chart from the National Interagency Fire Center shows that average U.S. acreage burned annually by wildfires has almost tripled in the last three decades, and the upward drift of the chart is pretty obvious. The science proving that climate change makes wildfires worse is both clear and straightforward, and it has been well-known for decades. It is not new. In fact, wildfires are part of a climate upheaval that Big Oil itself predicted.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I am here with another unanimous consent request, and I appreciate the Senator from Florida, Senator Scott, for being here to participate in this exchange. I keep coming here to try to reinforce the obvious, scientifically clear point that climate change is real, that that is a simple scientific fact. The way this has gone is that I came to the floor earlier this year and asked my colleagues to agree on that simple scientific fact: Climate change is real and, frankly, our fossil fuel emissions are causing it. Well, I guess it is no surprise, but my Republican colleagues would not agree to that fact. So I have returned to the floor, time and again, in hopes that my Republican colleagues could agree to some of the simpler truths contained within that truth.”
Senate23 September 2026Source ↗
“I ask for the yeas and nays.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 532, S.J. Res. 187.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, with that, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“Well, I am sorry that we can't agree on this particular provision because we are working together on so many things so well. But I will have to confess I have real doubts about whether EPA is really trying to put this together, as deadline after deadline slips and slips and slips. So perhaps we will see what happens. But if, for some reason, this CRA should fail, perhaps we can come back again after EPA slips the deadline again and perhaps has baked in some goodies for the PFAS industry along the way. And if we can't do it today, then soon send a bipartisan message to the EPA to knock it off and get about their business with PFAS. ____________________”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“So I ask unanimous consent that Senator Capito be recognized and that, at the conclusion of her remarks, I be recognized to go through the parliamentary steps necessary for the vote.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“This isn't regulation; this is reporting public information that is being scrapped and extended. I would hope because of the fact that the PFAS contamination danger falls across red and blue States alike that we could send a bipartisan message today, through this Congressional Review Act, back to the EPA, saying: No, you don't get a second delay. Start the reporting right now. If you want to come back and weaken the standard, we will fight you on that, but that is a separate fight. At least let's get the reporting on PFAS contamination out there. So I urge my colleagues to support this Congressional Review Act. I understand that the distinguished chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee would like to respond.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“But it is important to get that information out so that people can understand where the exposure is to these toxic PFAS chemicals. Well, just before--like 4 days before--that reporting window was supposed to open and require the reporting of PFAS exposure, Trump's EPA announced a new interim rule with a delay of the reporting requirement until next year. They delayed it once. That delay ran out. This is the second delay. First of all, I don't think there is any need for a delay. Second of all, there is every reason to believe that the chemical industry is behind weakening PFAS protections during the delay period. That would be consistent with the Trump EPA's favoritism toward any pollutant and any polluter all the time. So here we are with a deadline for reporting.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I am here to take us into the upcoming vote, the Congressional Review Act vote, with respect to an EPA rule related to PFAS. For those of you who aren't following this, PFAS is a dangerous and toxic substance that, I think, Republicans and Democrats alike see as a dangerous and inadequately regulated substance. Unfortunately, it is particularly prevalent in military installations, and particular exposure has been faced by veterans and also by folks who are in our emergency response community--firefighters. Airports get a lot of it because of the firefighting drills that they have to have. It is a very significant problem. There was a rule that required the reporting about PFAS use. Manufacturers and importers just have to say: Here is what we are doing.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“Blanche's willingness to sit in a room with us should not matter more than how he treated us once he was there. Both of you have records of standing with survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault. A vote to confirm Todd Blanche would be a vote against those survivors. It would reward someone who has refused to take responsibility for the harm they've caused, failed to provide meaningful answers and shown no credible commitment to pursing the full truth. We urge you to vote no on Todd Blanche's confirmation.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“During Todd Blanche's meeting with survivors, survivors asked direct questions about how these redaction failures happened and whether he would purse the investigative leads that remain. Survivors received an hour of deflection, interruption and gaslighting. Todd Blanche showed no remorse for the horrific release of materials that exposed survivors' identities and images. He also gave no indication that he believed there were investigative leads worth pursing, or that he intended to seek accountability beyond Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Senator Tillis, when you urged Todd Blanche to meet with survivors, we believed you expected a serious and meaningful conversation. What occurred was a box-checking exercise arranged only after his confirmation was put at risk.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Dear Senators: We write to you as survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's sex-trafficking operation to urge you to vote no on Todd Blanche's confirmation as attorney general. We understand that both of you remain open to opposing his nomination, and we are asking you to stand with survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault at this critical moment. Under Todd Blanche's leadership, the Justice Department released survivors' names, identifying information and images while the names of alleged abusers and enablers remained hidden. More than a thousand women and girls were abused, yet no one beyond Epstein and Maxwell has been prosecuted.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“There are hundreds of other reasons to vote against this most reprehensible Attorney General nominee in American history, but the very specific ones about his complicity in the Epstein files screwup and coverup, his being the first senior Department of Justice official in the history of the United States to face a fraud on the courts inquiry, where the judge already decided that the proceeding was a sham and that the parties were in collusion with each other and that the whole thing was done in bad faith, and that that is not an isolated incident--that is part of a pattern of incompetence and dishonesty out of the Department of Justice that has never before happened in the United States of America. If my Republican colleagues want to get behind that--if they are cool with an Attorney General who has that record--that is on you.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“Where that really hits the road is with something called the presumption of regularity. You might not know what the presumption of regularity is, but it is a benefit that the government enjoys--that as a matter of policy, the Federal judiciary has determined that the Federal Government is generally so honest and competent that its proceedings will be given the presumption of regularity that the benefit of the doubt will go to the Department of Justice lawyers and to the government Agencies involved. Unless the adversary can prove otherwise, courts will presume that the government has done the right thing. And over and over again, we have seen judges say that presumption of regularity is now shot because there is so much dishonesty and incompetence coming out of the Department of Justice. That is unprecedented.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“Last, there is a group called Just Security, which keeps track of what goes on in Federal courts. This is a binder of the cases that they have put together in which a Federal judge is harshly criticizing the integrity or the competence of the Department of Justice. This binder, frankly, should not exist. This is two-sided, by the way. These many cases--it is just astounding. I am not going to ask that this all be put into the Record. But I will note that if you look at justsecurity.org, you can look at their report published on March 19, 2026. It gets regularly updated. And if you want to go through it, you can see truly appalling criticisms by Federal judges of every appointment background against incompetence and dishonesty by the Blanche Department of Justice.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“The DOJ's national-security division has expertise that most prosecutors lack, in handling classified information and charging complex statutes. They sift through dozens of FBI referrals and decide which to pursue. ``What feels real versus which ones are idle chatter? When is the right time to disrupt a plot? Do we go now? Prosecutors learn that only by working these cases over many years,'' says one who left last year. Fewer resources mean less enforcement in some domains. White-collar defence lawyers remark how work has slowed. Last year the number of financial-fraud indictments out of DOJ headquarters and the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan fell by 30% from the ten-year average. Indictments are a lagging indicator of enforcement activity.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“And then this isn't just a problem in American legal communities. There is a global magazine called The Economist magazine, which, by the way, does not run liberal. It is a fairly conservative publication. The cover story in the July 18 The Economist is a picture of the Department of Justice logo and the title ``Degradation in progress.'' I ask that The Economist magazine article--there are actually two. One is the opening article that they lead with before they get to the main article; and the second is the main article--the two articles about the degradation of the Department of Justice under Todd Blanche be added to the Record as well. I ask unanimous consent that the articles entitled ``Degradation in progress'' and ``The rule of one'' be printed in the Record.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“A DOJ spokesperson called the Blanche case ``nothing more than a politically motivated bar complaint, filed by partisan activists who disagree with this Administration's policies.'' Brito did not respond to a request for comment. In Rhode Island, McElroy referred DOJ lawyers to a review board for possible discipline for their handling of the hospital investigation. ``As citizens, we trust that federal prosecutors, when wielding this awesome power against a state, a company, or certainly against vulnerable children, will play fair and be honest with its counterparts and the judiciary,'' McElroy wrote. ``DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case.''”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“``I think the judges are trying to stand up for the legitimacy of their branch'' Just Security, an online law and policy journal, has been tracking cases in which federal judges have admonished Trump's prosecutors, including those involving the presumption. ``We're witnessing a breakdown in the ways in which any administration ordinarily carries out its responsibilities, through the Justice Department in particular,'' said Ryan Goodman, Just Security's co-editor-in-chief. Erosion of Trust, Ethics Inquiries The erosion of trust from the federal bench comes as Trump has profoundly shifted priorities at the DOJ to align with his political platform: ending civil rights and diversity programs, deporting immigrants and stripping away environmental protections. Those who deal with DOJ lawyers have noticed the difference in court.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“``Judges simply don't believe the representations that are being made by United States attorneys, assistant United States attorneys and the like,'' said John E. Jones, a former federal judge for the District of Pennsylvania, appointed by President George W. Bush. ``I don't think in the annals of the Department of Justice, in the history of jurisprudence in the United States, we've ever seen anything close to this.'' In Rhode Island in May, Trump-appointed federal Judge Mary McElroy rebuked federal prosecutors' conduct--saying they withheld information and misrepresented facts--as she quashed their requests for a subpoena in their investigation into a hospital's care of transgender children.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“And with respect to this litany of criticism of the honesty of the Blanche Department of Justice, I would like to add a ProPublica article entitled ``Federal Judges Chastise Trump's Justice Department for `Unlawful,' `Unethical' and `Unseemly' Conduct,'' whose first sentence begins: Across the country, federal judges are calling out Department of Justice lawyers, questioning in unprecedented ways whether they can be trusted to tell the truth or uphold centuries-old legal norms. I ask unanimous consent that the article entitled ``Federal Judges Chastise Trump's Justice Department for `Unlawful,' `Unethical' and `Unseemly' Conduct'' be printed in the Record.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“With respect to the destruction of the Department of Justice that he has wrought, I would also ask that we add George Will's column called ``Against Todd Blanche.'' I ask unanimous consent that the article entitled ``Against Todd Blanche'' be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: [From the Washington Post, July 24, 2026] Against Todd Blanche (By George F. Will) What benefit of norms is owed to someone who disdains norms? There are many sufficient reasons to oppose confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general. Presidents generally are owed some deference in selecting Cabinet members, but ``some'' implies limits, lest the Senate's advice-and-consent duty be drained of responsibility. And not all presidents are equally owed.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“There could have been a reboot, internal office discipline of what is going on with this case. But when a judge says that the government's argument is disingenuous, when the judge says that the government's argument is a pretext for something else, when the judge says that the government has engaged in bad faith, each one of those is a four-alarm fire word. In medicine, there are things that they call never events, things that should never happen in a hospital that you protect against, these are never event words coming from Federal judges. And yet they are commonplace in the corrupted Department of Justice run by Todd Blanche. As to his complicity in the Epstein files coverup, I ask unanimous consent that a letter from Epstein survivors to Senators Tillis and Cornyn be printed in the Record at the end of my remarks.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“There is still every reason to believe that Blanche may be found culpable for putting a fraud on the court together to cook up the slush fund tax amnesty scheme. That is pretty unheard of. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon in this Blanche Department of Justice. There is a cascade of criticism from Federal courts about misconduct by this Department of Justice--misconduct that is unprecedented. I will tell you that I was the U.S. attorney for the District of Rhode Island. If judges had used words like this about my attorneys' conduct in their courtrooms, there would have been consequences. At a minimum, there would have been staff meetings. There could have been referrals to the Office of Professional Responsibility. There could have been apologies required to the court.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“He used that interview to extract exculpatory comments from her about Donald Trump. Oh, that he was a perfect gentleman. And the next thing you know, she is rewarded with a transfer to a Club Fed-type prison. What is the excuse for that? Oh, she was at risk. We felt she was in danger. Well, look, I have been around law enforcement for a long time, and this is the first time I have ever seen a prisoner allegedly in danger be transferred to a less secure setting to solve the problem of danger. Right? You move the prisoner to a more secure setting, not a less secure setting. It makes no sense. So in the Epstein files, Todd Blanche's fingerprints are all over the screwup and the coverup.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I am here today to join the chorus of opposition to Todd Blanche's nomination as Attorney General of the United States. Things that Republicans have purported to care about are disastrous with this guy. Pam Bondi put the blame directly on Todd Blanche for the Department of Justice's foulup with the Epstein files. That foulup was pretty deadly serious for the women who were victims, who had managed to keep that fact private until Todd Blanche and the DOJ fouled that up and put out their names, put out their addresses, put out their photographs, and in some cases put out photographs with very little clothing on--complete disruption of the lives of the victims of Epstein's depravity, complete incompetence from a document- production point of view. And on the other side, this guy actually participated in the Epstein coverup.”
Senate5 August 2026Source ↗
“But if you want to take a look at what is real, you might want to consider going to the universities in Wisconsin--like the quite renown University of Wisconsin--to see that legitimate climate science is what is taught in Wisconsin's own universities, not the entertaining version that we just heard here on the Senate floor, but the real stuff, taught by the people who really know to students who want to know what the truth is. That is the choice Wisconsin made in its universities. They teach the real stuff, and there is no way you can reconcile the real stuff with the entertaining version of climate that we just heard from the distinguished Senator from Wisconsin. I yield the floor.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, just a few quick things. First of all, Medicaid, from the budget discussion this morning, is facing a trillion dollars in cuts. Second of all, that is being done by a redtape bomb being dropped on Medicaid recipients that will fall the hardest on the people least capable of the additional redtape and paperwork who have-- you know, are in addiction recovery, have severe mental health issues, have such disabling physical health issues that it is hard for them to take on the new project of keeping up with the Republican redtape and bureaucracy. And the question of whether it is real or not, you don't have to go any further than looking at the organizations, hospitals, doctors groups, nursing homes, that are having to prepare their finances for that cut.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“Climate- driven extreme weather is worsening, and the administration is taking down the capabilities for weather forecasting and warnings. Both are true. I hope that we can agree to this one. So, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further consideration and that the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 558. I further ask consent that the resolution be agreed to; that the preamble be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“If you have gotten a thunderstorm warning, a tornado warning, or a flood alert on your smartphone, that is the Weather Service and its hundreds of civil servants diligently doing the science, tracking the data, and putting out the warnings. Well, since President Trump took office and unleashed Elon Musk and his team of little DOGE boys, the Weather Service has lost about 600 employees--600. Half of those employees were meteorologists and hydrologists--the people who work on doing the forecasting and the warnings. As climate change-driven extreme weather continues to worsen these dangers, well, that spells trouble, and people need warnings. We can trace the impact of those DOGE losses to the Weather Service already.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“That happens because a warmer atmosphere, just as a matter of simple physics, holds more water. This chart shows that, from 1970 to 2025, average rainfall intensity increased by 28 percent. That is a lot more water, and it results in more frequent and intense extreme rainfall, which can occur far away from coasts. Ask Asheville, NC. So how can communities like Asheville know when floods like that are coming? Well, the answer is, government warning systems from our National Weather Service, which is part of the NOAA. Most of us use National Weather Service data every day because smartphones rely on Weather Service data to power the weather apps that we look at.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“Scientists have known this to be true for decades now. It has actually developed to the point where the National Academies could release a report just this month making clear that the attribution science--linking extreme weather to climate change to emissions--is advancing. It is now quite well established. So what do we know? We know that the fossil fuel industry is making extreme weather worse. Now we have an even better sense of how much worse; how it is attributable to those companies. I mentioned flooding. Climate change drives flooding in several ways: wetter hurricanes, for one; sea-level rise for another. And I say this as a Rhode Islander: It is not just our coastal communities that are at risk; climate change increases rainfall intensity--powerful rain bursts--that deliver unprecedented upland flooding.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“One, climate change-driven extreme weather events are increasing, and at the same time, the government is dismantling weather monitoring and alert systems. I will ask you to accept those two truths together. I don't think either one is subject to much debate, so I hope we can all agree on that. As I have explained repeatedly and as anybody knowledgeable in this space pretty well knows, climate change exacerbates extreme weather and disaster events. You can see on this chart the billion-dollar disasters from 1980 to today. It gets worse and worse. It includes winter storms, wildfires, hurricanes, and other severe storms; freezes, flooding, and drought. But to make the chart, it has got to be a billion-dollar disaster. Climate change increases both the frequency and the intensity of these events.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“So I came back to the floor and broke down the big question--the scientific fact that climate change is real--into some of its component truths, the smaller truths that make up the big truth that climate change is real. Each time faced with simple, well- documented truths, such as sea level rise and economic fallout from climate change, Republicans objected. Objectors have protested that they are not climate change deniers. Well, you would never know that from their willingness to consider solutions. Indeed, the objectors are stridently opposed to any--any-- climate solutions, and they have made their opposition clear. The problem is that that comes with consequences. So I will try another simple truth today. It is actually a pair.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, simple fact: Climate change is real. It is actually pretty widely known. I think it is a true statement that every person knowledgeable about climate science who is not on the payroll of the fossil fuel industry or its denial operation agrees with that. Actually, a lot of people knowledgeable about climate science who are on the payroll of the fossil fuel industry agree with that. In fact, scientists from Exxon, from Chevron, in a report for API 30, 40 years ago, acknowledged climate science, predicted the harms, and indeed quite accurately predicted the harms we are seeing now. Given that, I came to the floor to ask my colleagues if they could simply agree on that simple scientific fact--climate change is actually real. Well, unfortunately, to no one's surprise, Republican colleagues could not.”
Senate4 August 2026Source ↗
“Being a Knicks fan in the `90s was an exercise in resilience. It taught us not to take anything for granted and I draw on those lessons today. Now, even without my dad, my family cheers because being a fan in New York is a legacy we are tasked with carrying on. A chance to be part of something bigger than us. Something to cheer for through pain. Go New York, Go New York, Go. Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“I'd cried big slobbery tears when they won the East. But the road through the finals was filled with moments of pure joy and camaraderie, the drama of an historic comeback, and a team so likeable you can't help but smile. It has felt like a balm on this open wound. I think it's healing decades of strife for fans with people who didn't live to see this victory. Karl-Anthony Towns said after winning the championship that he felt like his mom, who many fans know died in 2020, helped pull some strings for this win. ``Thank you, mama. I appreciate you getting me one,'' he said. Every lifelong Knicks fan has someone like my dad who didn't get to see this championship, but believes they might have helped pull some strings, too. I know my dad would not want our grief compounded by a Knicks loss.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“He taught us what it means to cheer through thick and thin, what it means to maintain hope, and that there is power in believing in something ``just for fun.'' I share the bond of fandom with friends who send me texts throughout every game even if we haven't spoken all year, and I thank my dad for bringing me into this community. The day he died, we told my dad that the Knicks were one game away from the Eastern Conference title that he'd waited 27 years to see. We told him that they looked like they were going to sweep. We told him the Knicks were honoring him at MSG. We told him the wait was over, we told him we loved him. You can't time grief. I know that writing this is an attempt to make sense of something that defies logic. I wondered if a Knicks win would exacerbate my grief, as many things seem to right now.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“And then, there they were, our childhood heroes: Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell, Larry Johnson, and all our favorite players, thirty years older, showing up to support this team that was, for the most part, not born when the Knicks last saw a division championship. It felt like they were coming together specially for my family. The whole city has awakened in a way only New Yorkers can-- with innovative watching parties, public joy, orange and blue bagels, and signature snark that makes the city into a home. My dad bestowed on my brother and me the gift of being part of the crowd.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“I walked the mile and a half home from the hospital checking the score on my phone, eavesdropping on conversations and shouts from inside bars where the game was playing, unsure of how to navigate all the emotions I was feeling: Devastation at my dad's condition; joy at the Knicks glory punctuated by pain that I couldn't share this with him; certainty that he'd want me to enjoy this; heartbreak that I wouldn't receive a ``Yeah!'' text at the end of the game. As I walked through Harlem, I stopped next to a group of four men on folding chairs who'd set up a projector to watch the game. I checked the score and complimented their set up. Being conversant in Knicks meant we could talk to each other with a certain level of familiarity.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“After he stopped responding to our voices in the hospital, my brother and I would put the Knicks game on in the room, both holding on to the hope that the sound of sneakers squeaking on the court, or the announcers calling the plays, or the chants of ``de-fence'' would get through to him--that those familiar sounds might just be powerful enough to wake him up. We'd stay until halftime, when visiting hours ended, watching, hoping.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗