American Lung Association Commends Congress for Passing Bill to Fund EPA

Just now, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill that provides funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the rest of the federal fiscal year. This follows the House passage of the bill last week. In response to the vote, American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer issued the following statement:

“The American Lung Association applauds Congress for coming together to pass a bipartisan bill to fund the lifesaving work of EPA. This bill funds critical clean air programs like air quality monitoring, wildfire smoke preparedness and radon exposure prevention. It ensures that funding is available to continue the work of cleaning up air pollution and protecting communities most impacted by poor air quality. The bill also provides funding for the Department of Energy, including for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Vehicles Technology Office, which the Lung Association supports.

“The nation has made enormous progress in cleaning up air pollution over the past 50 years, thanks in large part to Congress’ investments in EPA, but this improvement takes work. And more work needs to be done so everyone in America has clean air to breathe. While we applaud the fact that this funding bill rejects the huge cuts proposed previously, the need for funding is still greater than this bill provides. We look forward to continue working with Congress to make more robust investments in programs and staff at EPA in the future.

“We now call on President Trump to sign the bill into law. And, building on their bipartisan success with this funding bill, we urge Congress to come together once again to fund the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the levels necessary to protect people’s health.”