Brent Scher of the Washington Free Beacon highlights a meeting that did more than any news conference or press release to demonstrate the urgency of addressing climate change.
Congressional Republicans were able to put an end to a hearing on climate change organized by Democrats after only two members of the majority showed up.
The scheduled Natural Resources Committee hearing on climate denial was part of a “month-long series of hearings on climate change” put on by Democrats in their opening weeks in the majority. Despite the stated urgency of the climate change issue by Democrats, only two members of their caucus showed up, which allowed Republicans to call for and easily win a vote to end the hearing before it even got started.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R., Texas), who called for the hearing to be adjourned during his opening statement, told the Washington Free Beacon he motioned for the hearing to end because its subject matter was outside the jurisdiction of the subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
“Most of the hearing involved subjects clearly outside the jurisdiction of our Natural Resources subcommittee,” Gohmert said. “In fact, most of the Democrats found it so far down their priorities that they did not attend.”
“When even the bulk of the Democrats would not attend the hearing, it made no sense to continue the hearing about matters our committee was not allowed to fix, so I made the motion to adjourn,” Gohmert explained. “It passed because most Democrats did not attend.”
A spokesperson for committee Democrats did not respond to an inquiry into why a majority of its members decided not to attend the hearing.
