Democrats say there’s no time to wait on including climate in infrastructure

Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday said it’s time to tackle climate change through infrastructure as Congress moves toward action on two different proposals.

Speaking at The Hill’s “ESG and Corporate Responsibility in America” event, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) argued that “it’s up to the voters.”

“The voters clearly want something big. People see this is about climate,” Brown told The Hill’s Steve Clemons, adding that Republicans “are climate deniers and they are living in the last century.”

Brown, who is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, discussed how Democrats are planning to move ahead with both a bipartisan package that’s around $1 trillion, backed more so by moderate Democrats, and a much bigger Democrat-only bill to ensure climate issues are addressed.

“The bipartisan bill, it’s consequential but it’s very inadequate,” he said. “This is a two-step process … the bipartisan effort and the more partisan, only because Republicans don’t want to go along, even though the country does.”

.@SenSherrodBrown on the need to pass an infrastructure bill: “Democrats understand that we need to go big…we do that, and this country begins to deal to swipe away some inequality and begins to give people…more opportunity in life” #TheHillESG https://t.co/iG6KGxnaA4 pic.twitter.com/iQuewfRytZ

— The Hill Events (@TheHillEvents) June 30, 2021

At the event co-sponsored by Walmart and Environmental Defense Fund, Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), said he’s “not really waiting another decade for Republicans to decide ‘yeah, maybe we should group together climate change with infrastructure.’ ”

“You can get on board or you can not. But we’re going to do it, because it is pertinent and it is necessary,” said the first-term lawmaker, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

.@RepAuchincloss on the urgency to invest in addressing climate change: “I’m not really waiting another decade for Republicans to decide maybe yeah, we should group climate change with infrastructure” #TheHillESG https://t.co/iG6KGxnaA4 pic.twitter.com/58OtbyrYB2

— The Hill Events (@TheHillEvents) June 30, 2021

Lawmakers have yet to put either the bipartisan or the Democrat-only infrastructure proposal into legislative text.