{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://ansari.house.gov/media/press-releases/seec-alarm-on-us-absence-cop30", "Ansari, Pelosi, SEEC Leaders Sound Alarm on U.S. Absence at COP30 Negotiating Table", "2025-11-13", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "House", "AZ", "Yassamin Ansari", "A000381", "ansari.house.gov", "ansari", "https://ansari.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, members of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) \u2014 Reps. Yassamin Ansari, Sean Casten, Kathy Castor, Maxine Dexter, Jared Huffman, Doris Matsui, April McClain Delaney \u2014 and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi spoke at a press conference blasting President Donald Trump for the federal government\u2019s absence at the key international climate negotiations in Belem, Brazil (COP30) this week. These members were part of a federal delegation set to go to Belem but were waylaid by President Trump\u2019s government shutdown. Even as Trump fails to show leadership at home and abroad, SEEC and millions of Americans remain clear-eyed and committed in the midst of the global fight to build a more affordable, clean, and healthy future for America and the world.\n\nWATCH: The full press conference here.\n\n\u201cExactly 10 years ago, I was preparing to go to my very first COP, COP21 in Paris, when I was serving as an advisor to former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's climate team. I can tell you firsthand that without the leadership of the United States, the Paris Agreement would\u2019ve never happened. What has happened since then, with Donald Trump leading the charge with oil and gas companies, is an absolute disgrace and an abdication of the United States\u2019 responsibility to the world,\u201d said Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari. \u201cIt is a disgrace that there is no federal presence representing the United States of America on the world stage when every other country in the world is present. But as we always do, we will continue the work on the ground here. We will come back stronger than ever. We will make sure to end the corruption that is making life so much more expensive for the American people.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen I became Speaker for the first time, my flagship issue was the climate crisis because I saw it as a health, economic, security, and moral issue,\u201d said Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. \u201cIt is so sad that the United States of America, one of the biggest economies of the world and one of the leading emitters of the world, is not there in Brazil to protect God\u2019s creation. I do believe this planet is God\u2019s creation and we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of it for the benefit of our country and for our children.\u201d\n\n\u201cFolks behind me would have been a fantastic congressional delegation to the Belem climate conference this week. That\u2019s where we were supposed to be. The world still needs and wants American leadership. And unfortunately, the consequence of Donald Trump pulling the United States delegation out at the federal level is just that China is going to get a few more of these amazing opportunities that the United States ought to be leading on,\u201d said Ranking Member of the House Committee on Natural Resources Congressman Jared Huffman. \u201cWe\u2019re not going away, just like the climate crisis is not going away. Climate action leadership at the national level is not going to stop. Even in Brazil, we\u2019re super proud of what\u2019s happening at the sub-national level, with states and local governments, tribes, so many leaders in the United States are carrying the message to Brazil this week that America is still in and we will do our part to do that as well, even though Donald Trump and our Republican colleagues are going to try to stop us at every turn.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is the year that marks the 10-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement, the agreement where just about every country on the planet agreed to cut climate pollution in order to avoid the worst impacts and the escalating cost of the heating climate,\u201c said Congresswoman Kathy Castor. \u201cHouse Democrats \u2014 and especially the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition \u2014 most states, most local communities, businesses large and small, environmental justice organizations, scientists, religious organizations, all remain committed to that goal, even in the face of Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress turning a blind eye to the growing costs and escalating catastrophic events that are impacting us.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor the first time in history, the Trump Administration did not send a federal delegation to the UN climate change summit, instead choosing to boycott this critical global summit. Let me be blunt: this is a national disgrace. When the United States doesn\u2019t show up, we cede leadership to other countries,\u201d said SEEC Co-Chair Congresswoman Doris Matsui. \u201cSEEC Institute helped put together a powerful Congressional Delegation to meet with other countries and with civil society to show, plainly, that America has leaders who will rise to meet the challenge. That is what responsible leadership is all about: to show up, negotiate, build coalitions, and deliver solutions that lower costs and preserve our future. America will return. The question is not if, but when. And when we do, we'll come back stronger and more determined than ever to lead the fight against climate change.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis group of people here, plus Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, would have been the entirety of the U.S. federal presence in COP,\u201d said Congressman Sean Casten. \u201cWe did not have a budget from the House to travel for that trip. We did not have money from the State Department. We did not have the kind of diplomatic support that normally happens when you travel as a representative of the government. And yet everybody here was committed to going, because we knew how important our voice would be, because this is an enormously important COP.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://ansari.house.gov/media/press-releases/seec-alarm-on-us-absence-cop30"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.75892498716712, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}