vDuckworth, Booker Statement as Trump Administration Moves to Shut Down All EPA Environmental Justice Offices and Slash Dozens of Critical Regulations That Help Protect Public Health and Environment Duckworth, Booker Statement as Trump Administration Moves to Shut Down All EPA Environmental Justice Offices and Slash Dozens of Critical Regulations That Help Protect Public Health and Environment
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ)—founding co-chairs of the Senate’s first-ever Environmental Justice Caucus—issued the following statement after the Trump Administration moved to close all the environmental justice offices within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and slash over 30 EPA regulations that have helped protect our nation’s public health and the environment for decades:
“The Trump Administration seems determined to undermine protections aimed at helping every American—no matter their zip code—breathe safe air, drink clean water and live, work and play on uncontaminated land. By planning to shut down EPA’s environmental justice offices and throw out decades of proven regulations, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are needlessly endangering the health of millions of Americans—all so they can carve out tax cuts for billionaires and let the biggest polluters poison our environment. It’s a whole new level of cruel.
“Underserved communities in rural, urban and tribal areas already shoulder the brunt of the climate crisis and environmental injustice. These cuts and reversals will make it even harder for these communities to address some of our nation’s toughest challenges, including removing lead pipes, cleaning up dangerous toxins, addressing legacy pollution that has led to higher cancer, asthma and death rates and tackling the climate crisis that threatens our health and collective planetary future. After years of leading the charge to advance environmental justice in the Senate, we’re outraged that Trump and Musk would slash EPA’s workforce and redirect the agency’s mission away from protecting Americans in need.
“With so much at stake, we urge them to immediately reverse course and prioritize public health before billionaires’ wealth. Making it harder for Americans to breathe safe air and drink clean water is not making America great or healthy again.”
As co-chairs and co-founders of the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus, Duckworth and Booker have long pushed to strengthen and defend environmental justice efforts across the country. Last month, Duckworth and Booker—along with U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE)—urged EPA Administrator Zeldin to reopen the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR), which Duckworth and Booker led the charge to create.
The Senators also recently helped introduce legislation that would permanently codify the Office of Environmental Justice within the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) in response to Attorney General Bondi’s order eliminating all environmental justice efforts at the DOJ.
For years, Duckworth and Booker have led the charge pushing for their A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice For All Act—the most comprehensive environmental justice legislation in history—which would help achieve health equity and climate justice for all, particularly in underserved communities and communities of color that have long been disproportionately harmed by environmental injustices and toxic pollutants.
Duckworth and Booker both worked to help pass the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which included Duckworth’s Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (DWWIA)—the most significant federal investment in water infrastructure in history that includes $15 billion for national lead pipe replacement. DWWIA, which focuses on disadvantaged communities, is helping rebuild our nation’s crumbling and dangerous water infrastructure and enable communities to repair and modernize their failing wastewater systems, with many of the provisions to help low-income communities designed specifically for communities like Chicago, Cahokia Heights and East St. Louis.
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