America’s Health Comes in Last Place in “America First” Budget
Public health threatened in Trump budget.
Today, President Trump released his first proposed budget to Congress. Below is a statement from Deirdre Cummings, Legislative Director of MASSPIRG on the President’s budget proposal.
“President Trump’s budget is dangerous. It fails to protect our health or the health of our families. This budget chokes off half of the funding for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which makes sure that deadly chemicals stay off the market, and the budget completely eliminates funding for the Chemical Safety Board, which investigates the causes of explosions, disasters, and chemical fires.
“This budget also fails to address the Flint water crisis or dozens of other lead in drinking water disasters. Slashing EPA’s overall budget by more than a third means the agency cannot adequately safeguard our health. It is basically a “get out of jail free card” for polluters. In addition, President Trump’s proposed budget drastically underfunds hazardous waste cleanup on Superfund sites. That’s terrifying—Superfund sites are places where the land is so polluted that it poses a serious and immediate risk to public health. We cannot risk the lives of Americans by cutting this funding.
“Congress should reject this budget. America’s health comes in last place in the “America First” budget. This is not the future our families or the planet deserve.”
Authors
Deirdre Cummings
Legislative Director, MASSPIRG
Deirdre runs MASSPIRG’s public health, consumer protection and tax and budget programs. Deirdre has led campaigns to improve public records law and require all state spending to be transparent and available on an easy-to-use website, close $400 million in corporate tax loopholes, protect the state’s retail sales laws to reduce overcharges and preserve price disclosures, reduce costs of health insurance and prescription drugs, and more. Deirdre also oversees a Consumer Action Center in Weymouth, Mass., which has mediated 17,000 complaints and returned $4 million to Massachusetts consumers since 1989. Deirdre currently resides in Maynard, Mass., with her family. Over the years she has visited all but one of the state's 351 towns — Gosnold.
