The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Earth Day (Executive Session)” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S2140-S2141 on April 26.
More than half of the Agency's employees are engineers, scientists and protection specialists. The Climate Reality Project, a global climate activist organization, accused Agency leadership in the last five years of undermining its main mission.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Earth Day
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, as Lady Bird Johnson said, ``The environment is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.''
This quote from when she served as First Lady of the United States during President Lyndon Baines Johnson's time in office, from 1963 to 1969, still resonates with us today as we commemorate Earth Day 2022 and reflect on our relationship with nature and the world we share with each of us every day.
April 22, 1970, marked the first annual Earth Day, which led to the formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency--the Agency that is responsible for implementing environmental regulations and standards.
We have made great strides in protecting the environment and public health through the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act, but the data and science surrounding the harmful effects of climate change are alarming. Climate change is harming our ecosystems, waterways, forests, wildlife, and our general environment.
This year's sustainable development goals theme and call to action is
``Invest in Our Planet.'' The question for climate action is no longer
``if'' or ``when'' but ``how much?'' if we want to have a healthy, habitable Earth.
Strong policies that protect our water resources, fisheries, and wildlife and address the challenges of climate change are a top priority of mine in my role as a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
I applaud President Biden for setting forth ambitious but attainable climate-friendly goals, driven by science, to help preserve the health and safety of our planet and the public. I applaud President Biden's Executive actions in January of 2021 to reverse steps President Trump took that weakened Federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. I applaud President Biden's commitment to conserving 30 percent of America's lands and oceans by 2030, also known as the America the Beautiful Initiative.
With the understanding that we need to meet the moment on climate change and preserve our planet, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which President Biden signed into law last November. This historic legislation serves as a significant downpayment on our future as we seek to strengthen resiliency and mitigation measures against flooding and sea level rise; shift towards greener, cleaner energy and technology; and form meaningful habits to clean up the world around us by recycling, composting, and disposing of waste products properly.
The threat of sea level rise and warming temperatures is already detrimental to our coastlines and ecosystems, especially along the Chesapeake Bay. With numerous and successful restoration efforts underway, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorizes an additional $238 million to the Chesapeake Bay Program to make even bigger reductions in nutrient pollution to improve water quality in the surrounding tributaries.
In partnership with local jurisdictions, stakeholders, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the bipartisan infrastructure act will deliver
$37.5 million in Federal funding for the Mid-Chesapeake Bay Island Ecosystem Restoration Project. The purpose of the project is to rebuild the declining James and Barren Islands in Dorchester County and provide a substantial increase of habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife species by repurposing dredged material from the shipping channels for the Port of Baltimore. This is beneficial use of dredged material to keep our channels at the necessary depth for commerce but do it in a way that restores our environment. Wetlands provide natural flood control solutions as climate change brings increasingly frequent and severe weather events.
We only have one planet, which is why every decision and every failure to act matters.
I would like to thank our Federal workforce this Earth Day for its efforts to maximize this window for action on climate and environmental justice. The Biden administration has directed each Federal Agency to take strong action when it comes to dealing with our climate and environmental justice. Many civil servants are working around the clock to promulgate rules, strategy documents, and much, much more. For example, White House officials this month announced equity action plans for more than 90 Federal Agencies designed to combat systemic barriers to opportunities in underserved communities.
Each day of COP26 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow explored a new topic. Our Senate delegation had an opportunity to attend on the day that was devoted toward Nature Day. I mention that because our nature depends upon us dealing with the climate agenda.
I would just call to my colleagues' attention the series that is hosted by former President Barack Obama, ``Our Great National Parks.'' Take a look at how important it is in preserving our environment for the species around us, which affects not only their ability to live but our ability to live.
The month of April represents the opportunity to celebrate other related environmental and nature-focused holidays, such as Arbor Day, which falls on April 29 this year. My home State commemorated Maryland Arbor Day at the beginning of the month, on April 9. This year, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day. The goal of Arbor Day is to celebrate nature within our communities by organizing tree planting or trash and litter cleanups. As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt remarked, ``A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.''
The bipartisan infrastructure law also provides $275 million grant funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Post-Consumer Materials Management Infrastructure Grant Program, which the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act established. This program will help prevent plastic waste from entering our environment in the first place. The program will provide grants to States to improve local waste management systems, including municipal recycling programs, and to improve postconsumer materials management and infrastructure to reduce plastic waste in our waterways and oceans, ultimately protecting our planet.
I agree with Paul Hawken, who said this in a commencement address at the University of Portland in 2009:
At present, we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other [is called] exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.
Protecting our planet is a collective and ongoing effort. While we still have much to do, I am encouraged by the legislative and administrative progress we have made so far. I urge my colleagues to take the next step and pass the Build Back Better Act--transformative legislation for a clean energy economy.
This Earth Day, let us heed Paul Hawken's comments: ``Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.''
With that, Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
