Cohen: GOP Proposed Budget Harms Our Country's Physical Health

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) spoke on the House floor today about how the budget offered by the GOP jeopardizes the health, safety and well-being of millions of Americans -- including our children and seniors -- by drastically cutting programs that protect our air, water and food quality. Click here to see the Congressman’s remarks.

“The GOP proposed budget harms us fiscally and physically,” said Congressman Cohen. “These reckless spending cuts don’t make sense. Our air, water and food quality should never be jeopardized and must be protected for future generations.”

Democrats have offered a responsible way forward to avoid a government shutdown – a short-term continuing resolution that preserves the $41 billion in cuts already on the books while we negotiate a bill that the President will sign. Congressman Cohen argued that we can cut spending without sacrificing jobs, weakening our economy or hurting our air, water and food quality.

Congressman Cohen opposed the GOP “So Be It” spending bill that passed the House on February 19. In addition to destroying 800,000 jobs and weakening our economic growth, the GOP measure would hinder our ability to ensure the safety of our air, water and food supply.

Some of the GOP cuts that would harm our air, water and food supply include:

• Funding limitations that stop EPA from limiting greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources, such as power plants and refineries. EPA has found that these emissions have serious consequences to human health, so not only will this language impact human health, it will further contribute to climate change and the loss of private sector jobs. EPA would be blocked from issuing valid permits, which would throw all attempted large, job-creating construction projects across the country into great uncertainty. The litigation uncertainty would cause the cancellation of countless projects and eliminate thousands and thousands of American jobs.
• Gutting communities’ ability to provide clean water and safe drinking water: The Republican bill slashes the clean water and drinking water state revolving funds by 56 percent, reducing the number of wastewater and drinking water projects communities could finance by approximately 750 nationwide. The Republican EPA Administrator under President George W. Bush, Christine Todd Whitman, estimated that the needs of our nation’s aging water infrastructure topped $660 billion. This would also be a missed opportunity to add an estimated 54,000 engineering, construction and other support service jobs by cutting these programs. Additionally the bill includes an undesignated $300 million rescission to EPA that will most likely impact the revolving funds or other State and Local assistance.
• Safety of our meat and poultry: The Republican CR funds the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which is responsible for the safety of meat and poultry, at exactly the 2008 level. This is $88 million below the CR and $107 million below the 2011 President’s budget. USDA says this would mean furloughing the federal inspectors in slaughter and processing plants. Since plants cannot operate without inspectors, the plants would have to close their doors. USDA estimates those plants would have to shut down for six to nine weeks. This will hurt the plants, the economies in their towns, the workers, producers and consumers, as prices rise. USDA estimates an economic loss of $11 billion.
• Food and Drug Administration: The Republican proposal cuts FDA funding by $241 million below 2010 and $400 million below the Administration’s 2011 budget request. This would lead to furloughs and/or RIFs of hundreds of FDA staff including those who inspect our domestic and imported foods. It would also lead to a sharp reduction in the number of samples of food and medical products coming into our country from overseas.