03.27.18

 

Last spring, President Trump unveiled an astonishing proposal to decimate the Environmental Protection Agency by slashing its funding by over $2 billion a year, nearly one-third of the agency's total budget.

Yet, on March 23, Trump signed – albeit grumpily – a budget that contained zero cuts to the EPA.

What stopped his plan? Months of hard work by Food & Water Watch and our allies to encourage New York’s Senator Chuck Schumer, the Minority Leader, to defend the agency from Trump’s assault.

Along with Environmental Advocates of New York, we helped form the New York Campaign to Save the EPA. We were joined by Riverkeeper, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Friends of the Earth, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, and dozens of other organizations. And we relied upon the hard work and dedication of our incredible volunteers.

We organized scores of rallies across New York, held call-in days, and delivered tens of thousands of petitions. We highlighted the EPA’s crucial role in protecting the health of our families and communities. And in October, we held a press conference with Schumer himself at which he declared his opposition to cutting the EPA budget.

Of course, it’s not all good news. There are policy riders attached to the budget that reduce the EPA’s authority in some areas, like regulating methane emissions. And we’ve already got next year’s budget to worry about. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt continues to undermine the mission of the very agency he heads, and we’re still contending with a terrible nominee for EPA’s number two job – coal lobbyist and climate denier Andy Wheeler – who almost makes Pruitt look like a tree hugger.

But the bottom line is that hundreds of millions of dollars are going to protect our water and air. We proved once again that smart strategies and the hard work of organizing can make a real difference in our lives. So, while Trump’s new budget also proposes massive cuts to the EPA, we’re committed to defeating his terrible plans once again.