July 19, 2024
Dear Members of the U.S. House and Senate Committees on Appropriations,
Earlier this month, the House Appropriations Committee marked up a spending bill to be voted on by the full House of Representatives. If passed it would mandate a slew of harmful policies, reversals, cuts and backward motion that the environmental and climate justice movements have won over the last few decades, among many other significant gains made by social justice movements in our country.
This bill is audacious in scope and the amount of harm it could unleash on the environment and frontline and fenceline communities in particular, is daunting. However, this is not just an attack on climate or environmental justice gains, but will also roll back decades of human rights, racial justice, anti-homophobic, and economic justice advances that we simply can’t afford to lose.
On behalf of our members representing thousands of communities across the country, climate experts, and the larger environmental and climate justice movement, we strongly urge you to oppose this dangerous bill that has tacked on more than 80 highly political, poison-pill policy riders, that will only exacerbate rather than improve the climate crisis and environmental injustice.
Here are just a few of the most egregious environmental justice provisions we oppose and ask that you remove as you work to craft a bi-partisan budget proposal that is grounded in combating climate change rather than promoting a political agenda that sacrifices people and planet.
- It will require the Secretary of the Interior to resume quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales and mandates new oil and gas leasing at a time when the climate crisis and extreme weather are accelerating with disastrous effects;(1)
- It slashes agencies’ resources, including the EPA budget by a whopping 20% or a $1.82 billion reduction, which means a significant loss in climate related action to cool the planet, regulate polluters and fund clean up measures, putting all communities’ health at risk;(2)
- It sacrifices entire communities and public lands for the oil and gas industries’ bottom line and blocks the Administration’s NEPA rules which will essentially end any consideration for climate change and its impacts in new permitting processes, favoring dirty industry over community health and well-being at every turn;(3)
- It will no longer fund eight of the Administration’s climate change executive orders including the Environmental Justice Executive Order that acknowledges the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities and aims to address it;(4)
- It singles out and blocks funding for “American Climate Corps, Climate Justice Alliance, and ecogrief counseling” in what can only be seen as mean-spirited and hostile tactics to attack the very communities most impacted by the climate crisis.(5)
We strongly urge you to vote no on any spending package that includes these controversial poison-pill riders when it comes before you in your respective chambers. We need more investments for real climate solutions and strong safeguards for communities against polluting industries, not less. We further ask that you remain steadfast in your support of your constituents’ ability to exercise their rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly and ask you to oppose any spending package that sacrifices environmental justice communities by specifically targeting our organizations and communities in any legislation arising from a compromise or concession this fall. That would set a dangerous precedent for us all.
Sincerely yours,
1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations
18 Million Rising
198 methods
350 Bay Area Action
350 Triangle
350.org
350 Hawaii
4DaSoil
7 Directions of Service
AAPI Victory Alliance
Accelerate Neighborhood Climate Action
AFGE Local 704
Agri-Cultura Cooperative Network
Agricultural Justice Project
Alaska Community Action on Toxics
Alaska Wilderness League Action
Alianza for Progress
Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Inc.
Alliance for Affordable Energy
Alliance for Appalachia
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
AMANESER 2025
American Jewish World Service
Animals Are Sentient Beings, Inc.
Appalachian Voices
Arab Resource & Organizing Center
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Alternatives for Community and Environment
Azul
Bay Area-System Change not Climate Change
Between the Waters
Beyond Plastics Greater Boston
Black Dirt Farm Collective
Breathe Project
Building Equity and Alignment for Environmental Justice
Businesses for a Livable Climate
Buy Local, Grow Local
California Communities Against Toxics
California Environmental Justice Coalition
Call to Action Colorado
CASA
Catholic Network US
Catskill Mountainkeeper
Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Coalfield Justice
Center for Earth Energy and Democracy
Center for International Environmental Law
Center For Oil and Gas Organizing
Central Florida Jobs With Justice
Change Begins With ME
Chatham Research Group
Cherokee Concerned Citizens
Citizens’ Resistance At Fermi Two
Clean Air Council
Clean Energy Action
Clean Water Action
Climate Action
Climate Hawks Vote
Climate Justice Alliance
Coal River Mountain Watch
Color Brighton Green
Colorado Businesses for a Livable Climate
Colorado Farm & Food Alliance
Color Brighton Green
Communities for a Better Environment
Community for Sustainable Energy
Concerned Citizens of Wagon Mound and Mora County
Concerned Health Professionals of Pennsylvania
CURE Minnesota
Defend Our Health
Delaware Riverkeeper Network
Democracy Out Loud
Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network
Don’t Waste Arizona
Earth Ethics, Inc.
Earthjustice
Earthworks
ecoAmerica
Elders Climate Action
Elevate
Empower Our Future
Endangered Species Coalition
Energy Justice Network
Environmental Protection Network
Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint
Evergreen Action
Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay Area
Family Farm Defenders
Florida Rising
Food & Water Watch
Food in Neighborhoods Community Coalition
For a Better Bayou
Fresh Water Accountability Project Ohio
Fresnans Against Fracking
Fridays for Future Capital District NY
Friends of the Earth
Front and Centered
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
Got Green
Grassroots Environmental Education
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Great Plains Action Society
Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition
Green Education and Legal Fund
Green New Deal Network
Green Workers Alliance
GreenLatinos
GreenRoots
Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart
HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance
Healthy Gulf
Healthy Ocean Coalition
Indigenous Environmental Network
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Institute for Policy Studies Climate Policy Program
Ironbound Community Corporation
Just Transition Alliance
Just Transition Northwest Indiana
Justice Is Global
Kelly Street Garden
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Kinda Black Radio
La Plazita Institute
LaPlaca and Associates LLC
Latino Outdoors
League of Conservation Voters
Long Island Progressive Coalition
Los Padres Forest Watch
Louisiana Against False Solutions
Micronesia Climate Change Alliance
Milwaukee Riverkeeper
Minnow
Mothers Out Front
Mothers Out Front Roanoke
Mujeres Unidas y Activas
Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment
NAACP-Utica/Oneida County NY
National Family Farm Coalition
National Wildlife Federation
Native Movement
Native Organizers Alliance
Natural Capitalism Solutions
Natural Resources Defense Council
NC Climate Justice Collective
Neighbors Against the Gas Plants
New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance
New Mexico Environmental Law Center
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
NY Renews
Newark Water Coalition
Nicaragua Center for Community Action
No Coal in Oakland
North American Climate, Conservation and Environment
North Carolina League of Conservation Voters
Northeast Organic Farming Association
Northeast Organic Farming Association of MA
Northeast Organic Farming Association of CT
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York
Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont
Northeast Organic Farming Association-Interstate Council
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Occupy Bergen County
Ocean Conservation Research
Ocean Defense Initiative
Oil and Gas Action Network
Oil Change International
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon
Oregon Just Transition Alliance
Organized Uplifting Resources & Strategies
Our Climate
Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative
Partnership for Policy Integrity
Pass the Federal Green New Deal Coalition
Pennsylvania Action on Climate
People’s Action
People’s Climate Innovation Center
People’s Justice Council
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania
PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights)
Port Arthur Community Action Network
Preserve Giles County
Preserve Salem
Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights
Rachel Carson Council
Redeemer Community Partnership
ReGenesis Institute
RICH CITY Rides
Rise to Thrive
Rural Vermont
Sachamama
Sacred Lands, Native Hands
Safe Energy Rights Group
Scientist Rebellion, Turtle Island
Social Eco Education
Seeds of Resistance
Sierra Club
Silver Lining Farm
Society Of Native Nations
Soil Generation
Soul Fire Farm
Soulardarity
South Seattle Climate Action Network
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
Stand.earth
Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing
Sunflower Alliance
Sunrise Durham
Sunrise Movement
Tallahassee Food Network, Inc.
Terra Advocati
The CLEO Institute
The Climate Reality Project
The Conservation Angler
The Enviro Show
The Quantum Institute
The Solutions Project
The Story of Stuff Project
The Wilderness Society
Third Act North Carolina
Tishman Environment and Design Center
Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Union Hill Freedmen Family Research Group
Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
UPROSE
Urban Tilth
Vote Climate
WE ACT for Environmental Justice
We Want Green Too.org
WeCount!
West Berkeley Alliance For Clean Air and Safe Jobs
Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions
Western Nebraska Resources Council
Women, Food and Agriculture Network
Youth United for Climate Crisis Action
Zero Hour
_____________________
1 Sec. 154, p.84 – “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to implement, administer, or enforce the final rule titled ‘‘Management and Protection of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska’’ and published by the Bureau of Land Management in the Federal Register on May 7, 2024 (89 Fed. Reg. 38712), or any substantially similar rule.”
3 Sec. 478, p.219 – “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the notice of interim guidance titled ‘‘National Environmental Policy Act Guidance on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change’’ published by the Council on Environmental Quality in the Federal Register on January 9, 2023 (88 Fed. Reg. 1196)”.
4 Sec. 449, p.191 – “None of the funds appropriated by this Act 24 may be used to implement any of the following executive 25 orders: (1) Executive Order No. 13990, relating to Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis; (2) Executive Order No. 14008, relating to Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad;(3) Section 6 of Executive Order No. 14013, relating to Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs To Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration; (4) Executive Order No. 14030, relating to Climate-Related Financial Risk; (5) Executive Order 14037, relating to Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks; (6) Executive Order No. 14057, relating to Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability; (7) Executive Order No. 14082, relating to Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022; and (8) Executive Order No. 14096, relating to Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environ23 mental Justice for All.”
Sec. 443, p. 188 – “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to implement, administer, or enforce Executive Order No. 13985 of January 20, 2021 (86 Fed. Reg. 7009, relating to advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the Federal Government), Executive Order No. 14035 of June 25, 2021 (86 Fed. Reg. 34593, relating to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the Federal workforce), or Executive Order No. 14091 of February 16, 2023 (88 Fed. Reg. 10825, relating to further advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the Federal Government).”
5 Sec.448, p.191; Sec. 460, p. 213; & Sec 126, Page 70.
