WASHINGTON — On Capitol Hill, lawmakers examined climate change and its impacts on national security at a Senate Budget Committee hearing Wednesday.

What You Need To Know

  •  The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing Wednesday titled "Budgeting for the Storm: Climate Change and the Costs to National Security"

  •  Democrats on the Committee said climate-related severe weather events are causing billions of dollars in national security costs

  • According to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Wednesday marked the 17th Senate Budget Committee hearing focused on climate change this Congress

The Democratic Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, said severe weather events fueled by climate change are becoming more and more of a disruptive and costly strain on national security. 

“In a congressional hearing this month, the Air Force testified that rebuilding U.S. facilities in Guam damaged by Typhoon Mawar will cost $10 billion alone," Whitehouse said. "That’s twice what the Department of Defense spent rebuilding Tyndall and Offutt Air Force bases in Florida and Nebraska. Both also devastated by climate change related weather events." 

In addition to growing costs, Erin Sikorsky, the director of The Center for Climate and Security, and The International Military Council On Climate and Security, said climate related events are also impacting military response. 

“In the past 22 months The Center for Climate and Security’s Military Responses to Climate Hazards Tracker ... has identified nearly 300 deployments by militaries in 74 countries to fight fires, rescue citizens from floods, deliver water or participate in other hazard related activities," Sikorsky said. "Here in the U.S., troops have deployed 70 times since June 2022, and of course, the U.S. military has also responded globally during that time period,”  

The Senate Budget Committee is led by Democrats who hold the majority in the chamber. Republicans on the committee criticized the decision to make climate change a focus for the hearing, arguing the nation’s deficit and foreign adversaries are greater causes for concern when it comes to national security. 

“This may be the committee’s only hearing on the defense budget this Congress, so I hope we can take off the climate change blinders and discuss some other national security issues. Climate change didn’t cause a rising and aggressive China. It didn’t convince Putin to invade Ukraine, and it didn’t instigate Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack on the Israeli people,” said the Ranking Member on the Committee, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. 

According to Grassley, Wednesday marked the 17th Senate Budget Committee hearing focused on climate change this Congress.