STMT: AFGE Council 238 Responds to Funding Cuts for EPA

In response to the House approving a nearly 40% cut to EPA funding and the negative impacts it would have on the environment and human health, AFGE Council 238 President Marie Owens Powell released the following statement.

“Budgets reflect priorities, and, once again, it’s clear that the priorities of Republicans in the House are to protect polluter industry allies and ignore the public health and economic crisis posed by climate change and environmental destruction. The GOP’s dirty budget proposal aims to gut EPA by more than a third, by far the largest cut among all other federal agencies. The cut which translates into nearly $3 billion, will further hamstring the Agency’s already hobbled enforcement capacity, severely undermine lifesaving health protections, and nearly dissolve groundbreaking clean energy research programs.

The budget proposal underscores the GOP’s refusal to accept the warnings by nearly every organization monitoring our climate. We must transition to a clean energy economy in order to address the threat climate change poses to our health, economy, and national security.”