Trump’s First 100 Days Put Us on a Path to More Health Problems, a Less Secure Future

NEWS RELEASE

“In his first 100 days, President Trump has taken steps to remove basic health protections for kids and families. His administration’s zeal to eliminate environmental safeguards has put us on a path to more asthma attacks for our kids, more health problems for elderly Americans, and a less secure future. By proposing deep reductions in the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement budget, the president has signaled to the big polluters that there will be little or no real accountability for damage done to our environment. 

“In just three months, the Trump Administration has moved to lift or weaken rules on toxic mercury, acid gases, arsenic, and carbon pollution. It has ignored the science on a pesticide known to causes developmental problems in children. It has proposed cutting the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by almost one third – more than any other agency – even though the agency’s funding, in real dollars, is already close to its lowest level in forty years. Those funding cuts would weaken enforcement against the worst polluters, drain local governments of support for needed programs, and block critical scientific work. To execute these plans, the president is filling the government with lobbyists from the industries they will be regulating – at the Environmental Protection Agency almost two-thirds of the appointees have ties to fossil fuel companies, according to a Columbia University study.

“The public is strongly opposed to these attempts to weaken our clean air and water standards. 61 percent of voters disapprove of the president’s environmental policies, 60 percent oppose cuts to EPA – and even 78 percent of Mr. Trump’s voters want to protect federal clean air rules from being weakened. From town hall meetings to marches across the country, we have seen a growing backlash against the administration’s reckless anti-environmental agenda. America should not be a country where people are afraid to drink the water or get sick from breathing the air. We already have challenges – from Flint, Michigan to 1,300 toxic waste sites in almost all 50 states and the District of Columbia – it is time to move forward to make a cleaner, healthier America.” 

- Fred Krupp, president, Environmental Defense Fund