The U.S. House delegates at the 27th U.N. climate change conference in Egypt issued a determined message Friday saying that they will continue to fight the climate crisis and the Republican Party if the GOP wins the House majority.
“We still have to do more, to achieve a clean, sustainable future,” Chairman for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Frank Pallone, said Friday. “Regardless of what happens in the consequences of the last election, I just want our global partners to know that Democrats are prepared to fight any Republican attempts to undermine these gains.”
Pallone said that GOP candidates vying for majority control of the House have made it clear they will seek an “extreme agenda that favors fossil fuel and corporate special interests” over the American public and U.S. international allies.
“Democrats here to make it clear that we’re going to aggressively oppose any proposal that would guide or weaken our hard-won climate achievements,” he added.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi hit the ground running Thursday and set the tone by accusing the GOP of treating the climate crisis like “a hoax.”
Her position was echoed by House Democrats Friday, as they sought to maintain a united front as amid an uncertain future as midterm election results loom.
“The most substantive offering, as it relates to Climate Change, in the history of the world has been done by the Democratic Party,” Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Richaed Neal said. “We decided that we were going to proceed based upon Joe Biden’s assertion that these items were achievable and doable and we have reacted accordingly.”
WHO WON THE HOUSE? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WHY IT MIGHT TAKE ‘WEEKS’ TO BE SURE
The Democratic lawmakers championed not only the policies Congress has pushed through under President Biden, like the infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but also Pelos’s leadership.
Neither Republicans not Democrats have claimed victory in either Congressional chamber as three Senate seats remain at play and 32 House seats have been unclaimed as ballots continue to be counted across the U.S.
But Republicans have inched towards victory in the House, securing 211 of the 218 needed to obtain a majority rule, and Democrats appear ready for a fight with the GOP.
“I’m grateful again to join this delegation, along with Speaker Pelosi that she’s put together, to make sure that the word goes out that we are going to say this planet,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks said. “We will not be silent.”
“We’ve all got to work together,” he added.