Health and Environmental Safeguards Under Attack by GOP Leadership

WASHINGTON (June 18, 2015) – Congressional Republican leaders are adding numerous anti-environmental measures to must-pass appropriations bills and moving them through the House and a key Senate committee this week, despite a presidential veto threat and support for health and environmental safeguards from the American public.

The following is a statement from David Goldston, director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“The Republican leadership is using spending bills to launch a sweeping attack on environmental progress. The bills they are pushing would block virtually every advance to protect our air, water, land, wildlife and environment, and would block any and all plans to attack climate change.

“These are not piecemeal attacks. This is their true agenda. They have no positive plans of their own to protect public health or the environment. This ‘just say no’ philosophy – so out of step with the American public – will fail, but it raises the specter of another government shutdown.”

Scott Slesinger, NRDC’s legislative director, also has written a blog that provides more details about the anti-environmental riders and GOP leaders’ agenda: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/sslesinger/holding_the_government_hostage.html