Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats will introduce legislation to defund a White House group on climate change that Democrats fear will be stacked with climate change skeptics.
Schumer called the National Security Council-led group a “fake panel of cherry-picked scientists who question the severity of climate change in order to counter the scientific consensus on this terribly urgent problem.”
The Trump administration has not officially announced the formation of the panel, but reports of its creation has prompted criticism from Democrats and environmental advocacy groups. It follows a national climate assessment produced by several federal agencies that warned of the dangers of climate change.
[Related: Trump administration climate report warns of worsening US disasters]
Schumer said the White House panel should not try to counter the claims made in that assessment.
“This is intentional, deliberate sowing of disinformation about climate science by our own government, so this cannot stand,” he said.
Democrats are in the Senate minority, and Republicans won’t bring up Schumer’s measure to defund the panel.
