A dozen Democratic attorneys general have written congressional leaders in opposition to what they call “deep and damaging proposed cuts” to the Environmental Protection Agency’s fiscal 2018 budget.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller was one of the 12 who also wrote they were opposed to “the anti-environmental riders contained in the federal government appropriation legislation.”
“Grossly underfunding EPA—as the House and Senate bills do in their current form—directly impacts states and harms our ability to protect our residents,” wrote the 12. “Depriving EPA of necessary funding to do its job, and to assist our states with enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws, threatens to take us back to the dark days before EPA’s establishment—a time when air and water pollution was rampant, contaminated sites frequently jeopardized the health of communities, and the presence of unregulated toxic chemicals in food, water and the environment were a constant threat to the safety of Americans.”
Others who signed the letter were Eric Schneiderman of New York, Xavier Becerra of California, Lisa Madigan of Illinois, Janet Mills of Maine, Brian Frosh of Maryland, Maura Healy of Massachusetts, Ellen Rosenblum of Oregon, Peter Kilmartin of Rhode Island, T.J. Donovan of Vermont, Mark Herring of Virginia, Karl Racine of District of Columbia and Patrick McDonnell of Pennsylvania.
