WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Tonight, the House approved an appropriations “minibus” that includes $1.6 billion in funding to support construction of Trump’s border wall while gutting funding for clean energy and undermining clean water protections. The proposed budget is slated to cut $1 billion in clean energy measures, limit the federal government’s ability to prevent water pollution and direct hard-earned taxpayer dollars toward an inhumane and anti-environmental political agenda.
In response, Sierra Club Legislative Director Melinda Pierce released the following statement:
“The attacks on the environment, on the health of the public and on human rights in this spending proposal are ill-thought and extremely dangerous. Americans will not stand for cuts to the programs that keep our air and water clean and safe while also being forced to pay for a billion-dollar boondoggle of a border wall.
“It makes no sense to spend nearly $2 billion on an unnecessary and cruel border wall that will cause flooding and threaten wildlife and wild places in an attempt to tear families apart and militarize our border. Furthermore, targeting the the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge as a primary location for the beginnings of a wall, puts wildlife and local economies at great risk.
"This legislation has its priorities all wrong. It slashes funds for job-creating energy efficiency measures and clean energy research, undermines clean water protections while wasting money to construct a barrier on our border. This bill is a recipe for disaster and belongs in the trash, not in Congress.”
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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.