Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Fight for EPA funding goes on

It was great to hear in late March that Congress finally voted to pass the budget bill with no cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The outcry from Americans across the country was so strong that the attempt to cut the budget of the EPA — the agency charged with protecting our air, water and land from dangerous pollutants and chemicals — by 31 percent was seen for the massive error it was.

Such a cut would have meant job losses, cuts to enforcement capabilities, cuts for clean-up of superfund and brownfield sites, cuts for research into greater efficiencies, and more.

But here we are just three months later, and Congress is considering the 2019 budget. It calls for a 34 percent cut to the EPA’s budget. All these things are just as important today as they were a couple of months ago. What makes Congress think this is reasonable now?

Call, write, or visit our elected senators and representatives. Let them know the EPA is still important. It still needs full funding.