Grijalva Statement on Trump Administration Freeze of EPA Grants to Flint, MI and Other Communities
Washington, D.C. – Today, Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s decision to bar the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from awarding grants and contracts:
“President Trump is withholding critical aid from communities across the country that desperately need funding to ensure safe drinking water, reduce asthma-causing air pollution, clean up contaminated and unsafe lands and waterways, and conduct basic science needed to protect public health and the environment. This action is a direct assault on the most vulnerable among us, who desperately need these basic improvements to ensure their health and wellbeing, on minority populations that have been systematically discriminated against for decades, and on rural residents who stand to lose the most from the loss of clean air, clean water, and unspoiled lands. I urge the President to reverse this order immediately.”
Late last night, the Washington Post reported that the “new EPA administration has asked that all contract and grant awards be temporarily suspended, effective immediately.” The funding for these EPA grants, including $100 million to address the water crisis in Flint, MI, was already approved by the Republican-controlled 114th Congress. Even a temporary delay in the release of this aid would slow the construction and implementation of projects and initiatives that measurably improve people’s lives.
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