Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to help our communities deal with changing climate. In the last 2 years alone, our country has dealt with destructive wildfires in the West, flooding on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, a devastating hurricane in the Northeast, and the worst drought since the Dust Bowl. Climate change preparation and adaptation is about risk management. As Ben Franklin said: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Spending a small amount now saves us much suffering; and we understand, this is going to happen again and again. Because climate change is real, we are going to address this over and over and over again on this floor. Some people might say there is no such thing as climate change. Well, you can say that water is not wet, but it doesn't make it so.