In case you missed it, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) and Climate Power held a virtual ‘Finish the Job’ press conference today with House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Chair Kathy Castor (FL-14), Congressman Joe Neguse (CO-02), Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06), Center for American Progress chair and founder and Climate Power co-founder John Podesta, and LCV’s Tiernan Sittenfeld. 

WATCH the full recording here.

Chair Castor, Rep. Neguse and Rep. Casten just returned from COP26 where they reiterated the United States’ commitment to combating the climate crisis alongside Speaker Pelosi. Ahead of Congress’ return to Washington, D.C. next week, the speakers highlighted the urgent need to pass the Build Back Better Act and invest in climate, clean energy, justice, and jobs at the scale that science and justice demand. Their message was clear: Congress must finish the job and show the world we are leading on climate by passing the Build Back Better Act next week. 

LCV’s Tiernan Sittenfeld made clear, “We can and we must seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity for climate, jobs, and justice. And when we do, when the Build Back Better Act becomes law, in the years ahead we’ll save $500 a year on energy bills, send our kids off to school in clean electric school buses, drive affordable electric cars, breathe clean, healthy air, suffer less from health problems caused by polluted air and water, and stave off even more devastating, costly extreme weather and other catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.”

Center for American Progress Chair and Climate Power co-founder John Podesta said, “The stakes couldn’t be higher for our planet. We have the opportunity to get this right, we need to deliver the promise of a habitable world, our voters and our future are demanding it and we are demanding it. We need to finish the job.”

Chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Kathy Castor (FL-14) said, “We are committed to doing the hard work necessary to Build Back Better. That’s why we have worked for many months, actually several years, to hammer out those pathways for a clean energy future. It’s one where consumers and families will save money on their electric bills, it will create millions of jobs across America. This next step on Build Back Better that we intend to pass next week is absolutely vital. It is the hallmark of us being able to deliver on President Biden’s pledge to cut pollution by 50% by 2030.”

Congressman Joe Neguse (CO-02) said, “The time to do something is right now and the solution is a clear one: It is passing the Build Back Better Act, which we certainly intend to do in the coming days in the House, and we trust in our colleagues in the Senate will recognize the urgency of the moment and do the same. When we are able to get that across the finish line, we will have secured over a trillion dollars in climate investments, a transformational investment in our country’s history, and one that ultimately, I believe, will meet the moment as we do our part to save our planet.”

Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) said, “The way that we say not only is the United States focused on what is scientifically necessary but we actually deserve to be in a position of leadership. Because we are going to show not by our words but by our feet that we are committed to this. The way that we do that is by passing the Build Back Better Act. And we will then be at a point where we can look ourselves in the eye, much as the rest of the world is looking themselves in the eye after COP, and say that we in the US have now made the single biggest commitment to tackling climate change in our history.”

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