Trey Pollard (202) 904 9187 or trey.pollard@sierraclub.org
Austin, TX -- Even in the midst of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey and a national emergency on the Gulf Coast that has hit communities of color and the immigrant community especially hard, House Republicans are looking to cut a billion dollars of disaster relief money in order to fund an ineffectual and disastrous border wall. At the same time, the Trump Administration announced plans yesterday to select vendors for concrete prototypes of the wall.
The Congressional GOP is not alone. Donald Trump’s 2018 budget blueprint proposed more than $1 billion in cuts to FEMA—11 percent of its total footprint. At NOAA, Trump’s proposal included a 16 percent cut to the overall budget and a 32 percent cut to the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the agency’s main ocean, weather, and climate research office. Trump’s proposal also cuts a whopping $1.2 billion from the Coast Guard’s approximately $9 billion budget. The Coast Guard has rescued dozens from the floodwaters left by Harvey.
In response, Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter Director Reggie James released the following statement:
"The idea that Congressional Republicans would cut a billion dollars in relief funding for victims of Hurricane Harvey and other disasters in order to fund a useless and impractical ideological crusade like the border wall is disgraceful and destructive. We should be investing far more in disaster relief to help the hardest-hit communities with a just and equitable recovery right now, not cutting funds to throw at a billion-dollar boondoggle of a border wall that will only create more humanitarian disasters. .
“It’s devastating that while people across the country are uniting to help each other following Hurricane Harvey, the Trump administration is seeking to divide us. Congress must do its job and pass an aid package to help the victims of Harvey rebuild a just and equitable community built on trust and unity, not the divisiveness and vitriolic rhetoric Trump and Congressional Republicans have preached. That means resources for EPA to clean up toxic sites, action at FEMA and other agencies to lead an equitable response that protects the right to return for communities at risk of displacement, investments in sustainable, locally-led development administered administered by state, city, and community officials, and protections for workers and the environment during the recovery process."
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.