Schumer Vows to Defund ‘Fake’ White House Panel on Climate

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate’s top Democrat vowed Tuesday to block the creation of a proposed White House panel of scientists to re-evaluate climate science.

New York Senator Charles Schumer said if the White House moves forward with the plan to create a “fake climate” committee, Democrats will introduce legislation to defund it. However, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who hails from the coal state of Kentucky, is unlikely to allow such a bill to come to the Senate floor for a vote.

“It is long past time for President Trump and Republican leaders to admit that climate change is real, that human activity contributes to it, and Congress must take action to counter it,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.

“This is beyond willful ignorance,” Schumer said. “This is intentional, deliberate sowing of disinformation about climate science by our own government.”

Administration officials met Friday to discuss establishing a presidential committee that would assess the consensus of both scientists and the Pentagon that climate change poses a national security threat. No decision to set up the panel was reached during that meeting and additional meetings are expected, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Wendy Benjaminson

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