Barbara Mikulski

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Will the gentlelady yield for a question?

Ms. MIKULSKI. Because I was listening to what she said. Senator Reid proposed a 60-vote threshold on amendments to our appropriations bill. It was rejected. OK. The Senator said now she wouldn't object----

Ms. MIKULSKI. On all amendments? Could the Senator clarify?

Ms. MIKULSKI. In other words, the Senator does want a 60-vote threshold or is it----

Ms. MIKULSKI. So the Senator would want----

Ms. MIKULSKI. Sure.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, we bring to the floor our fiscal year 2015 spending bill, but before the Republican leader leaves, as the Senator from Maryland, I too would like to join with great respect in condolences for Master Sergeant Torian's family. For all of us who are Senators who have constituent families where people have died, we have to be in this together. These are times when we are not the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. We are not red or blue. We have to be red, white, and blue. From this side of the aisle to that side of the aisle, Godspeed to his family, and I thank the Senator for bringing this wonderful young man to the attention of the Senate. Those remarks were quite poignant and moving. We have to stand by those families--the widow, the children who will need an education, and let's do it shoulder to shoulder.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, today we bring to the floor on a bipartisan basis the annual appropriation bills of the Commerce- Justice-Science bill, the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and also the Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration. I wish to thank all of the members of the Appropriations Committee for their tremendous work on these bills. First, I wish to say a special word about my vice chairman Richard Shelby, who has done the hard work and the due diligence of helping move the entire process but also moving, in particular, our bill that funds the Commerce Department, Justice Department, and the science programs, such as our space program. In terms of transportation, we have the able leadership of Senator Murray, with her vice chairman Senator Collins; and on agriculture, chairman Mark Pryor and, again, his vice chairman Roy Blunt. This process is about moving America forward. This legislation we are putting before the Senate today puts America's middle-class families first, creating opportunity by creating jobs today. With investments in physical infrastructure in the transportation and housing bill, we are building roads and bridges, repairing them, and updating transit lines and rail lines, so we literally and figuratively can keep America on the move. At the same time we are also meeting America's compelling human needs with our investment in home ownership as well as in housing and in urban and economic development. We also create jobs tomorrow with investments in research and discovery. What we do in these important science agencies is drive innovation, leading to new products and new jobs. And guess what. Science saves lives. When we look at Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations, we see that we fund the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--a lot of words with a lot of alphabet, synonyms and acronyms and so on. At the end of the day, we fund the weather service. What does the weather service do? They predict weather. They predict immediate weather, such as is it going to rain this afternoon, and they predict weather emergencies, whether we are going to have a tornado. Our hearts go out, again, on the other side of the aisle, to the people of Kansas, where they were hit by a double tornado--an unprecedented weather event. They are calling it the twin sisters, referring to what happened in Nebraska. They were the ugly sisters, but they were made less ugly because of the way the weather service could help alert the people in that community. That is what we fund. We protect the American people by making sure we fight crime and terrorism by funding Federal law enforcement; by making sure our medicines and medical devices are safe by funding the Food and Drug Administration; and we meet compelling human needs, whether we are talking about affordable housing or affordable food. While we do it, we are also reforming the agencies. Sure, people talk about appropriators as spenders, but we have a sense in this committee on both sides of the aisle--and I must say that Senator Shelby has helped lead this--that we need to be a more frugal government. We need to get value for our dollar, demonstrating that we need to be able to save money or use money. We are going to spend very wisely. It has been 3 years since we were able to bring an appropriations bill to the floor. I am not going to go into all the reasons why. ``Why'' doesn't get the job done. What we need to do is return to regular order. So what does that mean? Today we have these three bills pending. It means we want to enact all of our appropriations bills by October 1. We want to keep government operating not on autopilot, not on shutdown, nor on lavish spending. We have to reduce our Federal deficit, but we also have to reduce other deficits, particularly in the area of deficits related to innovation as well as the fact that our crime rates are on the rise in many cities and we need to reduce them. The American people today want to make sure we have a government they can count on. But they need to count on the fact that not only are we open and doing business but that when we are, we are smarter about it. Vice Chairman Shelby and I have been working on a bipartisan basis. We have been working on a bicameral basis. That means hands across the aisle, hands across the dome to restore regular order and civility in this process. I look forward to moving this bill. I would say to my colleagues who are listening, many of my colleagues saw a few months ago the way Senator Lamar Alexander, Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Richard Burr, and I moved a bipartisan bill on the child care and development block grant. That had not been reauthorized since 1996, but we showed we could do it. We cleared 18 amendments. We actually had votes on amendments. We had an open process where amendments could be offered, discussed, debated, and at the end of the day voted on because we had a process that worked. As Senators who worked together, we were able to pass that bill. Senator Shelby and I are providing leadership today to be able to do that. So we ask our colleagues to support us in coming to an agreement on the motion to proceed so that we can move ahead on this bill. We are making progress. There are several bills we have already moved out of the committee, and we will be moving more. But right now, today, we want to move these three bills and do it in a way that we are proud of what we do, we are proud of our process, we are proud of our conduct, and we are proud that we did it in the right way, with debate, discussion, and the votes that are required. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I thank the vice chairman for his remarks. I think he makes excellent points. We had a tough top line to meet. The CBO score--these budgets speak words that people are trying to follow. The Congressional Budget Office actually says how much things will cost, and when they took a look at what our FHA program and certain mortgage rates would cost, they found out we overestimated revenue by $4 billion. That is a lot of money even by Washington standards. So we had to adjust accordingly, and it has not been easy. I will tell my colleagues that we are now coming down to talk about where we really are now--what are the agencies we want to fund, why we want to fund them at the amount we do, and what problems they actually solve for the American people. The American people have a right to ask at the end of the day not ``did you spend money'' but ``what did you spend it on and what did we get for it? Are we a stronger country? Do we have a better economy? Do our children have a brighter future? Are we meeting compelling human needs?'' I think in these three bills the answer is yes. When we look at Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations, we want to tell our colleagues what we have done. It really funds several different agencies, and it comes to a total of $51.2 billion. It is consistent with the CJS allocation, and it is $398 million less--I want to say this clearly. What we are doing in the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, we are spending less money than we did last year, but we think we are getting more value for the dollar. We are $398 million below what we spent last year, but at the same time we have kept our communities safe, we have promoted jobs, and we have promoted innovation. We used our spending to guide Federal decisions from Federal law enforcement to space exploration. The CJS bill provides $28 billion for the Justice Department. This is $260 million more than 2014. We did this because we believe the Justice Department is an agency that people in local communities feel they need to be able to count on. It keeps America safe from crime and terrorism. It protects communities at the local level. It protects families against domestic violence and sexual predators. And the job of the Justice Department is to administer justice fairly. This bill funds key law enforcement and prosecution agencies. What do we mean by that? Federal law enforcement is made up of the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. attorneys who actually prosecute the bad guys or the bad gals for everything from mortgage fraud, to cyber terrorism, to drug dealing and drug cartels, so they can keep us safe from all of this, protecting us against gangs, drug dealers. Why is it important? Federal law enforcement goes after gang activity, fraudsters trying to be more predatory. What is the result in this funding? We have done a lot. In my own home State of Maryland, over the last year our Federal law enforcement has arrested 280 violent fugitives. Federal law enforcement brought down child pornographers and traffickers, bank robbers, and took a big whack at the heroin trafficking rings. I am really proud of them. I am proud of what they do in Maryland, and I am proud of what they do around the world. Look at how our FBI, working with our special operations, brought to heel and brought into our custody one of the men who killed our Embassy personnel in Benghazi. Let's do a big hurrah for the FBI and special ops, but let's do our hurrah not only with words but putting the money in the Federal checkbook so they get to be able to continue to do the job of keeping America safe. There are many other aspects of this bill that are important. This is why we look out for our State and local departments. We have also put in an important investment in the Violence Against Women Act. We are spending $430 million to give grants to prevent and prosecute domestic violence and also to be able to deal and help with rape victims. This bill puts money in the Federal checkbook to put more police officers on the beat. But I like the fact that we are actually protecting them with more bulletproof vests and being able to do other work. This bill also addresses the backlog of sexual assaults, making sure we test no matter where they are. We have seen time and time again that evidence is gathered and that somehow or another it is in some box in some lab or some police department. Rape victims cannot be dually assaulted--one by the predator who attacked them and then by a lackluster prosecutorial system. If you gather the evidence, test it and use it to make sure we have the right predator. Prosecute the predator. See if they are a serial predator. Let's not doubly assault the victim by not only what happened to them on the street but also what happens to them in the criminal justice system. So we are doing a lot. I feel very strongly about this, but I also feel very strongly about the need to create jobs. This bill provides $8.6 billion for the Department of Commerce, which helps them protect our patents, promotes trade and economic development. It helps our coastal economies with sustainable fisheries and healthy oceans. It exports American goods and services and supports more than 11 million jobs. This bill does a lot by putting our Commercial Service officers-- those who actually work in embassies--to work, with business to be able to help them. And we make sure they are not only in Europe but they are in Asia and Africa, where the new opportunities are. Our dynamic Secretary of Commerce has focused on bringing foreign investments to the United States, and we have seen what they have meant to Maryland and what they have meant in Alabama and what they have meant in America. We also, through the Commerce Department, help with our weather bureau. I am going to say more about it, but what I want to talk about right now is the National Science Foundation--one of our other main agencies--because it does the basic research in science, technology, and engineering. Then there is NASA. I am going to say more about NASA later. I know we have others waiting to speak. For NASA, actually, we have done more than what the President wanted to do because we wanted to have a balanced space program. We have particularly emphasized human space flight, a reliable transportation system, and space science. We have here where we are creating jobs, we are protecting people in their communities, and we are laying the groundwork for jobs of the future. There are many other issues I will talk about as the bill unfolds. Senator Shelby and I have worked very closely with Senator Coburn. Everybody knows Senator Coburn prides himself on being a watchdog on Federal spending. And you know what. He has been. I love some of his ideas; some give me a little pause. But we actually met. We actually met to see what we could do to be able to reform our government so we could get more value for the dollar. I am going to have a separate speech just on that so the American people know, when they say ``Watch what you spend, Barb,'' I really am doing it. So is Senator Shelby. So are the members of our committee. I yield the floor.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I yield to the majority leader.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I know Senator Collins and Senator Murray are leaving to go to the DOD to meet with Secretary Hagel, and we both look forward to their return this afternoon, but I want to acknowledge the great role they played in putting together the appropriations and transportation funding for the entire United States of America, as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development. We are going to talk more about transportation because it literally keeps America rolling, whether it is the kinds of problems we solved with the issues around safety, congestion--they are absolutely crucial. But also what they talked about in their bill is housing and urban development and how--it is also the famous HUD bill--it does not only do urban development. I know the Presiding Officer is from the State of North Dakota, whose terrain and challenges are very different than my State, a coastal State. But the Presiding Officer would be interested to know--because she has been hit by some bad weather--that when Hurricane Sandy hit, my State was hit by two things: a hurricane--a hurricane on my Eastern Shore, in which a whole town was underwater and literally people had to be rescued by Zodiacs, by boats, and so on. Then out in western Maryland, our mountain counties, people were hit by a blizzard. It was so bad that regular snowplows, local government, and the private sector weren't working. The Governor had to bring in the National Guard--and God bless our State troopers and first responders. They were bringing out senior citizens on snowmobiles and things strapped to their chests to get them to safety because the free zone was there. I tell that poignant story because while we looked to FEMA to rescue, it was really the Community Development Block Grant money that helped local communities come back. FEMA was there for readiness, so we were ready to respond. It was ready to respond. But the big job of rehabilitation always comes through CDBG. I am going to talk about it because it is a lot of letters--one more agency with a lot of letters-- but it is also a big impact. What we need to be able to focus on is this is Federal spending with local decisionmaking. It is money that comes to local communities to eliminate blight and to create jobs. Blight can come from a natural disaster or communities that are aging with that kind of impact. We hope we have support for the bill, but, gee, they did a good job and they did it with diligence, civility, collegiality and common sense, as is characteristic. I would point out we have tried to use common sense too. Working with Senator Shelby, as I have said, I am going to emphasize the word ``frugality.'' How do we make sure we get value for the taxpayers' dollar. It is something in which I strongly believe. My colleague has been a Federal watchdog. He, like I, believes in the funding of these agencies. These watchdog agencies are absolutely crucial. The Appropriations Committee, under my chairmanship but with the strong concurrence of the vice chairman, believes in the inspectors general. Congress can hold an investigation and we can pound our chests and put glasses on our noses and ask tough questions, but we need the kind of truly drilling down to know what agencies are doing and are they making sure we avoid boondoggles, waste, stupidity, and at the same time terrible cost overruns. Thanks to working on a bipartisan basis, we have insisted that inspectors general be at every hearing. This has been a new innovation of the leadership of Senator Shelby and me. We want the inspectors general to be part of our official record so we know the top 10 issues they brought to our attention to stand sentry, and we put money in the Federal checkbook to fund them. We funded the Commerce Department IG at $30.6 million, $600 million above 2014 for Justice to make sure grant programs were well administered for NASA, to avoid techno-boondoggles, and for the NSF, so they too keep an eye on it. We are going to talk more about the problems they identified and the problems we solved, but I note on the floor Senator Pryor from Arkansas, who has chaired the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, an important subcommittee that is part of our overall bill today. I yield the floor for Senator Pryor.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I note that the distinguished Senator from Arizona is on the floor, and we want to be sure he has an opportunity to speak. I do have a housekeeping matter to take care of and just a few words--about three sentences--about ag, but I want the Senator from Arizona to be heard. Madam President, I wish to comment on the Agriculture bill, but I will keep that for later on in the day. I will be on the floor along with Senator Shelby trying to move this bill in a way that we could complete the motion to proceed and that we could move to amendments. Right now, I wish to compliment both the Senator from Arkansas and the Senator from Missouri, Senators Pryor and Blunt, for the excellent way they have moved the agriculture FDA bill. They have worked on a bipartisan basis. They have met compelling human needs--in other words, feed America first; see how we can feed others in need around the world; look out for everyone from the family farm to also food safety because now so much of our food is also imported. At the same time, they have supported the Food and Drug Administration. That is an agency located in Maryland that is responsible for oversight of the food supply but also our pharmaceuticals, biotech, and medical devices. My colleagues have spoken eloquently about exports, particularly with food. I will speak later today about the exports of pharmaceuticals, biotech, and medical devices because there are countries around the world that want to look out for their own people, but they don't have an FDA. So when we have products--life science products--that save lives or improve lives and they have been stamped by the FDA as safe and effective, then countries know they can buy them with confidence. This means those areas of endeavor are not only good for jobs in this country, great for improving the lives of people in our country, but they are also a major source of the new American export economy. I think they did a great job, and I will say more about it. But right now, unless Senator Shelby has something to say, we can go to our Senate colleague from Arizona.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, we have been on the motion to proceed to our three appropriations bills since 10 a.m. this morning. It has almost been 4 hours, and it is true, under the cloture, there is 30 hours of debate. We could let this go on until 11 p.m. tonight--we could. Actually, Members have had an interesting day speaking about issues related to Iraq and to immigration, but we would like to focus on the bills beforehand: agriculture, FDA--how do we feed people in our own country, save the family farm, and be able to export food. We would like to bring up a bill that funds FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, that looks out for food safety, but also the safety and efficacy of life-science products such as medical devices, biotech products, and pharmaceuticals, which I know are important to the State of the Presiding Officer. We want to be able to bring up Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development. The highway trust fund is going to run out. In my own home State we need the transportation money. We need it for the formula funding that will be important to roads, but we also need the money in there that looks out for small airports, such as the Hagerstown airport, the Frederick airport, which the President's plane needs to get to Camp David. Right up the road is the Hagerstown airport, for which there is a growing manufacturing hub, of which there is small manufacturing employing 300 to 400 people. Some make trucks, some make the heavy-duty equipment to be sold, that are also export products. One company actually puts in the avionics to the airplanes guarding our border. If we put all that together, it is close to 900 to 1,200 jobs. Hello, this is what we are talking about--public investment that creates private sector jobs and does public safety. So we are saying to those who are considering how we could move ahead, we encourage them now. I suggest we follow the model when we were on the floor 3 years ago. That was the last time we had these appropriations on the floor. We had an amendment process. The managers of the bill, such as my vice chairman Senator Shelby and I, worked with Members on a defined list, some we could actually take. There were some excellent ideas where Members wanted to improve on what we had done. For those who have concern about spending, they can actually come and offer cuts or they can offer replacements. This is the place where if you want government to work your way, it is your day and you do it through the amendment process. Most Americans don't understand that in order to debate a bill on the Senate floor, you have to first file a motion to proceed. That is asking permission to come to the floor to take up the bill. So we had to have a cloture vote on it. OK, it passed 95 to 3. I think it is the will of the Senate to get it going, and let's get these amendments--get it on with the amendments. Are there anxieties on both sides about the nature of those amendments? Sure. But that is what amendments are. Some we can take, some we need to debate. We are the greatest deliberative body in the world. We have to start deliberating. I say to my friends who are pondering how to proceed, the best way to proceed is look at the agreement we had in 2011 that allowed for amendments, a regular order, a methodical process for considering those amendments, and then we would be able to get on them, be able to debate them. My suggestion would be that we would alternate sides, a Democratic amendment, a Republican amendment--hey, maybe even a bipartisan amendment. I hope we do not spin our wheels and spin the clock for 8\1/2\ more hours, because the American people know that after all is said and done, more gets said than gets done. I am suggesting--really--let's follow the regular order. The process I am recommending is not new. There are no surprises, there are no stunts. It is a process we have followed in the past. I am suggesting, along with Senator Shelby, the exact model we used 3 years ago, the last time appropriations were on the floor. There are those who say in this country we have a spending problem. If you think we have a spending problem, this is the time to come to the floor and debate. If you think we have a spending problem and we are spending too much on the Justice Department--if you think it is too much money on bulletproof vests for cops or shelters for battered women, come on. If you think there is too much money in the space program, you don't like this rocket ship or that satellite, this is the place to come. Offer amendments. We are ready to debate. I speak for my two other subcommittee chairs, Senator Murray on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies, and Senator Pryor on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. We are already in consultation with the other side of the aisle. Senator Collins on transportation and Senator Blunt on agriculture are also ready to debate. I would hope we could move forward, have a method for moving forward that promotes regular order. If we do that, I think Members who haven't experienced too much--because of our gridlock and deadlock and the lock on amendments that we actually--I think they are going to like it because they like democracy. If you like the Constitution, if you like democracy, this is the place where we can put it into place today. Before I yield the floor, I note that the leadership from the Republican side is in conference with Senator Shelby. I hope that is good news. Then for those on both sides of the aisle watching the process on the floor, if you have amendments, start to gear up and get ready to bring them over. Senator Shelby and I are here. We are ready to receive them. We are ready to get ready to do them, we are ready to talk about them, and set the stage for hearing them. I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, before the Senator from Texas leaves-- and I know we have other matters to discuss--first I want to make a comment and then I have a question. I want to thank the Senator from Texas for that very compelling presentation. I might not agree with every sentence, but I think the Senator painted a picture of what is happening at the border. We do have a humanitarian crisis. As chair of the Appropriations Committee, I was made aware of this last year by Secretary Sebelius when they asked for more money to help. I said, yes, more money to help, but we needed to plan. What were we going to do with this? So now these numbers have surged, and what it has become is these children effectively function as refugees. This portrait the Senator has portrayed--the horrific sense of The Beast, and human beings, women and children, and boys, as well, being sold as if they were commodities? Commodities. It gives you goosebumps. The Senator has painted a very compassionate and compelling picture. My question, though, is we have to deal with the immediate crisis now. But as the Senator talks about the enforcement on the border, what would the Senator recommend we do? In other words, the pictures I have seen--and I hope I will go down and see this for myself--is the children come up to the border control guy, some as young as 4 and 5 years old and some go up to the early teens. Some teens carry their younger siblings. Is the Senator saying we should turn them away? These are not provocative questions. We have to work across the aisle to deal with this issue constructively, humanely, and effectively.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I thank the senior Senator from Texas, a former attorney general, as I recall. The Senator knows the law, he knows the border, and he knows what is going on. This Senator looks at this too as not only the chair of the Appropriations Committee but as a social worker. The care of the children even in our own country gives me pause. They were originally looking at a closed Social Security building to house these children, with no bathrooms except down the hall, putting them in little office cubicles. So we have a very serious problem. I want the Senator from Texas to know I agree with the holding that we need to have the strong and clear message in Central America, first of all, that these rumors are false. Today is not the day to do this. I thank the Senator for his compelling comments. I would like to work with the Senator from Texas and also continue to work with the administration to focus on this. But the message does have to go to Central America. I think we are fair game in Central America. From what I have heard, there are all these radio ads and so on that are truly exploiting this. There is violence, there is ghoulish, grim violence against children in Central America. Desperate mothers and grandmothers are trying to look for a way out. They are being exploited. I am going to work with the Senator in any way I can to stem the flow, deal with the humanitarian crisis, and get a long-range solution. I appreciate this conversation going forward.

Ms. MIKULSKI

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 18, 2014, at 2:30 p.m. in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Aggressive E-Cigarette Marketing and Potential Consequences for Youth''.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 18, 2014, at 10:30 a.m., in room SD- 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Finance Committee be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 18, 2014, at 10 a.m., in room SD-215 of the Senate Office Building.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 18, 2014, at 2:15 p.m., to hold a hearing entitled ``U.S. Policy in Afghanistan and the Regional Implications of the 2014 Transition.''

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 18, 2014, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``The Intelligence Community: Keeping Watch Over Its Contractor Workforce.''

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 18, 2014, in room SD-628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, at 2:30 p.m.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 18, 2014, at 3 p.m., in room 428A of the Russell Senate Office building to conduct a hearing entitled ``Growing Small Business Exports, Growing U.S. Jobs.''

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate, on June 18, 2014, at 2:30 p.m., in SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct an executive business meeting.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Oversight of the Clean Air and Nuclear Safety of the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 18, 2014, at 10 a.m., in room SD-406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Climate Change: The Need to Act Now.''