http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/climate-change-congress-gao_n_2687149.html WASHINGTON -- The federal government's official watchdog had a message for Congress on Thursday: Hey, Stupid, the climate is changing. The Government Accountability Office delivered that warning in its update of the greatest threats the government faces in carrying out federal programs. Generally the GAO identifies things like flaws in the defense contracting process and fraud in health care programs. This year's update of the High-Risk Series report included the increasingly obvious and growing external threat of climate change -- in spite of the continued insistence from many members of Congress that fears over global warming are overblown.

1. Climate Change:
Congress Warned About 'High Risk' Posed
By Global Shifts

2. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/climate-change-congress-gao

3. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
WASHINGTON -- The federal government's official
watchdog had a message for Congress on Thursday: Hey,
Stupid, the climate is changing.
The Government Accountability Office delivered that
warning in its update of the greatest threats the government
faces in carrying out federal programs. Generally the GAO
identifies things like flaws in the defense contracting process
and fraud in health care programs.

4. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
This year's update of the High-Risk Series report
included the increasingly obvious and growing
external threat of climate change -- in spite of the
continued insistence from many members of
Congress that fears over global warming are
overblown.

5. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
"Limiting the federal government's fiscal exposure to climate change
is one of the new areas we have on the list," Comptroller General
Gene Dodaro, the head of the GAO, told reporters at a Capitol Hill
press conference. "The federal government is terribly exposed to this
change," he added, noting that the government owns hundreds of
thousands of buildings, operates defense installations, picks up the
tab to help local governments with disasters, and runs crop and flood
insurance programs.

6. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
"The government doesn't budget for disaster," Dodaro
said, "and the record number of disasters hit above 90 in
2012."
Dodaro was aware that some in Congress might not like
his agency's embrace of climate change, but he argued
that the facts justified it.

7. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
"We believe that the information coming from the
National Academy of Sciences and from the federal
government's own global change research program ...
has been very clear on the science underpinning this
area," Dodaro said.
He did allow that the GAO was staying away from the
debate on why the climate is changing.

8. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
"We are not focusing on what's causing these changes.
We know that there are efforts under way to deal with
emission issues, so that's a policy matter for the
Congress," he said. "We think there's enough scientific
evidence to show, regardless of whether anything else
changes, there's enough problems identified."

9. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
Still, while President Barack Obama has proposed making a
stronger push to deal with climate change, and leaders in the
Senate have praised him for it, the idea has received a chilly
reception from leaders in the House.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House
Government Reform and Oversight Committee, joined Dodaro at
the press conference to emphasize that it doesn't matter whether
lawmakers agree on climate change, the effects are nonetheless
occurring, and Congress should plan.

10. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
"We're recognizing that we have under-appropriated and
under-prepared for a wide variety of disasters," Issa
said. "If they're occurring more, not less, if we're seeing
an absence of indexing for inflation, those are all areas
that legitimately put it at high risk," Issa added, even
while indicating he has some skepticism on the climate
front.

11. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
"I hope all members of Congress on both sides of the
issue recognize that it's really not about where you are
on climate change, how much CO2 is being emitted --
which, by the way, has gone down, not up -- it's really
about recognizing that Congress has not adjusted for the
amount of money we are paying out," Issa said.

12. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
The cost issue was one of the prime factors Dodaro
cited in deciding to take the potential political risk of
officially elevating the threat.
"We also believe the timing is right because of the
federal government's fiscal position," Dodaro said. "We
can no longer afford to take on these huge costs that
occur as a result of disasters, and we need to prepare
properly. We think we have a sound case."

13. Climate Change: Congress Warned About 'High
Risk' Posed By Global Shifts
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the
Oversight Committee, had the starkest warning for his
colleagues.
"This landmark action by the nonpartisan experts at GAO ... is
a wake-up call for Congress to finally start addressing this
issue," Cummings said Thursday. "GAO warns that climate
change is real, its impacts are already being felt, and its
consequences will be devastating if we continue to ignore it."