We really don't have a policy [on climate change]. There's a lot of rhetoric and not a lot of action.

It's the uncertainty, the challenge and the willingness to put it all on the line that draws a lot of people to climb mountains. That can also apply to a lot of other challenges in life, whether it's running for office, starting a family, going to grad school or taking all of your cash and assets and starting a business.

I haven't inherited the earth from my parents, I am borrowing it from my children.

It is deeply shocking and incomprehensible to me that despite volumes of documentation and living witnesses who can attest to the horrors of the Holocaust, there are still those who would deny it.

There is no getting around it; Congress is failing the American people.

Climbing has worked for me in a number of ways on Capitol Hill. I'm much more inclined to look at what people do, as opposed to what they say. Also, it's about working together - we're all on the rope together, and you don't get to cut the rope if you're not getting along with someone.

I believe climate change is real - and I believe we have to act to protect the climate as fast as we possibly can.