Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the House floor Wednesday to call out some of her Republican colleagues for failing to read the Green New Deal resolution she introduced over a year ago--and then read the entire 14-page proposal into the public record.
Introduced by Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in February 2019, the Green New Deal resolution (H.Res. 109/S.Res. 59) is now backed by over a hundred members of Congress across both chambers. None of them are Republicans.
The resolution (pdf) states that "it is the duty of the federal government to create a Green New Deal," which would involve 10-year national mobilization plan to "achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition," create millions of jobs, invest in infrastructure, secure a safe and sustainable future, and address the oppression of "frontline and vulnerable communities."
Speaking on the House floor, Ocasio-Cortez said that "throughout this entire year, as we've discussed the Green New Deal, I've noticed that there's been an awful lot of misinformation about what is inside this resolution--a tremendous amount of wild claims, everything from saying we're seeking to ban airplanes to ending ice cream."
"I realized that many of my colleagues have never even read the resolution that they're speaking on," she said. "So I have decided that since my colleagues, some of my colleagues across the aisle, could not, for some reason, read the resolution, that perhaps this hour would be spent best reading it to them for the public record."
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In her floor speech, Ocasio-Cortez also noted that moderators of Tuesday night's Democratic presidential primary debate in South Carolina failed to ask about the climate crisis. The congresswoman has endorsed the current frontrunner in the race, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is an original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal resolution and has put forth a related plan for his 2020 platform.
