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Washington, D.C. — Ahead of congressional votes on the partisan Republican-led Continuing Resolution and the recent announcement regarding the closures of all Environmental Justice offices by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) released the following statement from KD Chavez, executive director of Climate Justice Alliance:
“Yesterday, Trump and his billionaire backers moved extreme funding cuts through the House, laying the groundwork to defund healthcare, Social Security, and essential services that families in the United States rely on —all to raid our hard-earned tax dollars and line the pockets of billionaires through unearned government contracts and tax breaks. If approved by the Senate, this plan would continue the Administration’s chaos with politicized funding cuts, putting livelihoods at risk as people lose jobs, food assistance, and critical services.
This administration has proven time and time again that it’s openly willing to break the law to slash programs and policies that families and frontline communities rely on, sacrificing community well-being and public health in return for more tax breaks for the wealthy.
Actions like the rescission of Executive Order 12898 from 1994, the workshopped Republican-led Continuing Resolution that guts environmental justice protections, and the recent announcement on the closures of all environmental justice offices by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), give fossil fuel executives free rein to pollute our air and water, poison our bodies, and fuel the flames of climate change. From Louisiana’s Cancer Alley to the backyard oil refineries in California, frontline communities will be hardest hit.
If Republicans continue to serve Trump and Elon Musk’s billionaire agenda while refusing to do their jobs, and Democrats don’t hold the line for and fiercely defend communities and those hit first and worst by the climate crisis as they work for a deal, millions will feel the consequences: parents unable to afford childcare, families exposed to increasing rates and multiple sources of pollution, a lack of safe air and water in already overburdened communities, thousands of people left without healthcare and more.
CJA communities need our elected officials to champion real solutions that are community-led. We need government to prioritize actions such as:
- Codifying the A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice For All Act into law, and
- A clean Continuing Resolution that keeps the government open and puts environmental justice communities’ essential needs at the forefront.
Instead of playing political games with people’s lives, Congress must quickly fulfill its constitutional duty to fund the government in a way that protects everyday people—not just the wealthy and well-connected. The time of secretly using our communities as sacrifice zones is over.”
Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) is made up of nearly 100 grassroots, supporting networks and alliance organizations throughout the United States and its territories. Here’s what members are saying:
“As climate change fuels devastating wildfires, prolonged drought, and other extreme weather events, frontline communities in New Mexico are bearing the brunt— being exposed to toxic air, water pollution, and soil contamination. These circumstances proliferate false climate solutions at the state level. On top of decades of environmental racism from uranium mining and oil and gas extraction, these communities now face relentless attacks on environmental justice (EJ).
However, EJ communities are not bystanders—they have long led mutual aid efforts, proving time and again that they know how to mobilize resources, protect their neighbors, and build resilience and financial pathways to self-determination. We need a fundamental shift from federal and state governments that allows for pathways to self-determination, which ensures that resources are equitably distributed so the frontlines have a real seat at the table in rebuilding a just and resilient future.” – Alejandria Lyons, Coalition Coordinator, New Mexico No False Solution Coalition
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