Ocasio-Cortez reads entire Green New Deal into congressional record

by J. Edward Moreno - 02/26/20 5:37 PM ET

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) read the entirety of the Green New Deal on the House floor Wednesday, marking over a year since she first introduced the resolution.

Republicans have sought to weaponize the ambitious climate proposal against Democrats, and the measure has failed to advance through either chamber.

“But throughout this entire year, as we’ve discussed the Green New Deal, I’ve noticed there’s been an awful lot of misinformation about what’s inside this resolution, a tremendous amount of wild claims: everything from saying we’re seeking to ban airplanes to ending ice cream,” Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor.

“And, as a consequence, I’ve realized that many of my colleagues have never even read the resolution that they’re speaking on,” she added. “They haven’t opened a single word of it — and it’s actually only about … just 14 pages long. So I have decided that since 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.”

“Many of my colleagues have never even read the resolution that they’re speaking on. They haven’t opened a single word of it.”

Taking note that some colleagues may not have read the #GreenNewDeal, @RepAOC @AOC reads the entire resolution — WATCH FULL: https://t.co/CQKAv97Xyl pic.twitter.com/LsEA2xWJ0k

— The Hill (@thehill) February 26, 2020

The Green New Deal seeks to move the U.S. toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions while putting a focus on “good, high-wage jobs.” It offers a wide range of policy proposals, including an entirely renewable energy-driven power grid, investments in high-speed railroads and support for family farming.

Ocasio-Cortez prefaced her reading by pointing to data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations research group that has released catastrophic projections on the unchecked effects of man-made climate change.

She noted that the issue was not brought up once at the Democratic presidential primary debate in South Carolina on Tuesday night.

“As I was preparing for this evening, I would be remiss but to say that last night we had a national Democratic debate and not a single question was asked about our climate crisis,” the New York Democrat said.