CONTACT: Sasha Tenenbaum
Senior Manager, Media and Public Engagement
stenenbaum@momscleanairforce.org
(917) 887-0146
Washington, DC—On Thursday, the US government notified its workforce that a federal shutdown appears imminent amid the ongoing budgetary stalemate. In response to concerns around federal funding cuts beyond September 30, Moms Clean Air Force’s Senior Legislative and Regulatory Policy Manager, Melody Reis, issued the following statement:
“A government shutdown puts the health of people across the country at risk. Shutdowns stall the vital work of agencies like EPA to stop illegal pollution that hits low-income communities first and worst—pollution that fouls the air we all breathe and the water we all drink, causing cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illness.
“Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives who refuse to address climate pollution are playing brinkmanship with our future and the well-being of our children. In proposing draconian cuts to EPA and other important climate programs, they are deprioritizing the safety and health of our communities.
“To cut billions in climate funding is to deny life-sustaining, job-creating clean energy projects and long overdue environmental justice commitments. At a time when we need to double down on fighting air pollution and climate change for our urgent and immediate safety, we cannot imperil our nation’s hard-won climate progress.”
BACKGROUND
If a shutdown halted EPA’s operations for merely one week, some 150 inspections of chemical plants, oil refineries, hazardous waste sites and other facilities would no longer take place according to EPA’s own projections. More than half of EPA’s inspections happen at facilities that are in low-income communities and neighborhoods of color. Further, more than half of the cases the agency brings are also in these communities as the Washington Post reported today.