Volume 163, No. 74 covering the 1st Session of the 115th Congress (2017 - 2018) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY AND ITS IMPACT ON MINORITY COMMUNITIES” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2995-H3001 on May 1, 2017.
More than half of the Agency's employees are engineers, scientists and protection specialists. The Climate Reality Project, a global climate activist organization, accused Agency leadership in the last five years of undermining its main mission.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY AND ITS IMPACT ON MINORITY
COMMUNITIES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to coanchor this CBC Special Order hour with my esteemed colleague from Texas (Mr. Veasey). For the next 60 minutes, we have a chance to speak directly to the American people on issues of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, the constituents we represent, and all Americans.
This evening, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Richmond), my friend and colleague, I first thank him for his continued leadership of the caucus and on issues impacting Black America and other minority communities across this great Nation.
I would also like to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey), my colleague, for joining me in chairing this evening's Special Order hour, and my other CBC colleagues who are joining us to speak on important issues.
Mr. Speaker, we are here tonight to address the first 100 days of the Trump Presidency and its impact on minority communities like the district I represent and those of my fellow CBC colleagues. Specifically, we will highlight 100 actions taken by this administration in the last 100 days with less than positive impact to the communities we represent.
The President hails his first 100 days as the most successful in the history of the United States. These actions, however, do not spell success for low income and minority communities. Actions that, in turn, roll back Department of Justice protections designed to ensure police accountability; actions that threaten to further restrict voting rights and undermine the public education system; actions that threaten access to quality affordable health care for millions of Americans, including children, seniors, and those with preexisting medical conditions; actions that propose gutting programs, HUD, and others that provide housing assistance for extremely low-income families and the homeless; mean-spirited actions that break up families and make immigrant communities less safe; and actions that roll back important environmental protections which serve to, among other things, ensure safe air and drinking waters in communities like Flint, Michigan, and mitigating the effects of climate change in vulnerable coastal communities like my home district of the United States Virgin Islands.
Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus has reached out to President Trump and is willing to work with his administration to continue to build upon the greatness of this country--and not just for the privileged few but for all.
As representatives of a congressional district that is home to the only HBCU outside the continental United States, I take exception to the administration's Education Secretary viewing HBCUs as pioneers for school choice, even though these institutions were founded because White colleges and universities refused to admit Black students.
This statement illustrates a lack of understanding of the history of the African Americans and the Black community. President Trump's proposed budget for the Department of Education plans to eliminate afterschool and teacher-support programs, as well as slashing funding for Federal supplemental education opportunity grants, Pell grants, and instead divert Federal funds to private school vouchers. This plan would be devastating to communities like my home district where almost one-third of the children live below the poverty line and where public schools are already struggling to make the best with limited funds and resources.
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President Trump's budget proposal would also cut the Department of Health and Human Services' budget by $12.6 billion, a 16 percent cut. In my home district of the United States Virgin Islands, HHS funds critical early childhood education; and nutrition programs provide assistance to seniors, low-income families, and funding for mental health programs.
Mr. Speaker, these and other actions that my colleagues will speak about are not to criticize the President, but more to highlight the importance of funding of these programs and, more importantly, highlighting how important these programs and government functions are to American families and to the safety and progress of our communities. America, stay woke. There are still more than 1,300 days to go.
I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey).
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands for all of her hard work on this Special Order hour. I enjoy coanchoring with the gentlewoman because of her commitment and wanting to get out these important messages.
I think the message we want to talk about today is the first 100 days. I don't know about you all, but I am disappointed in these first 100 days.
There were a lot of things that we were told were going to happen, and many of those things just hadn't happened. There has been a lot of flip-flopping. I know that you have seen that. We saw it on Syria. We saw it on NATO. We saw it on many other things that there was a whole lot of talk that happened in 2016, but there ain't a whole lot of walking that has happened in 2017 as far as follow-up is concerned. That is the sort of thing that all Americans should be worried about in these first 100 days that ended on Saturday.
Many of us hoped that the rhetoric, that the foolishness, the tweeting, that those types of things would stop. That hasn't stopped.
A lot of us actually hoped that--hey, if you want to talk about bringing some jobs back to somebody, I am for bringing jobs back. I am more committed to jobs and having jobs here in this country, and he hasn't done anything when it comes to jobs.
There has been absolutely no follow-up whatsoever when it comes to helping the American man and woman reopen factories, when it comes to helping the American man and woman help pay for their child care. When it comes to things like Davis-Bacon and putting more money on the table at the end of the night and in the bank accounts, absolutely nothing has been done, and that is what we should be concerned about.
The President promised on the campaign trail that he was going to help these hardworking Americans that I talked about earlier. One of the things that he talked about was the Buy American, Hire American. Ain't nothing happening on that. We know that not only did Trump fail to deliver on these promises, but that he has actually worked against the best interests of American workers.
He has also gone on to contradict himself on his commitment to job training. Instead of investing in job training and these crucial programs, the Trump administration has proposed $2.5 billion in cuts for the Department of Labor. We have, by many estimates, about a half a million or more jobs in this country that are high-skilled manufacturing jobs that we can't fill. These are jobs that could fill factories back up in the Rust Belt. These are jobs that could fill factories back up in Texas. These are jobs that could be filled up in other parts of the country.
You want to cut back on job training when we need to be training people for these new jobs? These are new manufacturing jobs that deal with robots, deal with programmers and different areas like that where the young people don't necessarily have the skills that they need to be competitive.
You hear about these companies that have come to America, they locate here--foreign car manufacturers, for instance--and they have to work with the local community colleges to get the kids on par to work these new manufacturing jobs. Now is not the time to cut back on job training. So that is what bothers me in these first 100 days.
The administration has rolled back worker protections that keep Americans safe while on the job. Last month, President Trump changed the law so that employers now only have 6 months to report workplace injuries and illnesses instead of the previously required 5-year reporting window. Scaling back the requirement does not allow the Department of Labor to get a full picture of a given workplace. It makes it more difficult to spot a trend of endangering employees.
Trump also gutted another worker protection that would have made it harder for companies to secure Federal contracts if they have a history of labor law violations. That protection is now gone. It is gone. It has disappeared.
Above all else, President Trump has still not put forward a single, concrete, job-creating bill like he pledged. He betrayed his promise to make rebuilding America's infrastructure a top priority of this administration. He has failed to mention a word about protecting the Davis-Bacon Act which, as you know, would ensure that workers are paid fairly should an infrastructure bill come together.
Again, when you are talking about money, I mean that is a very serious topic. Money decides whether or not you can pay your bills, whether or not you can put food on the table, whether or not you can buy your kids clothes, whether or not you can make the car payment.
The Davis-Bacon Act is a basic fundamental. If you cannot protect that, those prevailing wages that give people the opportunity to earn a good income, again, then you are just talking and you ain't walking. That is what I am worried about in these first 100 days.
You are going to hear a lot from the Congressional Black Caucus tonight about how the President has failed to deliver on so many of his campaign promises, how he is trying to take away health care from 24 million Americans. High-risk pools are absolutely terrible.
One of the things the Obama administration did was it gave people who have preexisting conditions the chance to have affordable healthcare insurance. Thinking about taking insurance away from 24 million people, thinking about taking those protections from individual families that have those preexisting conditions, I think, is absolutely terrible.
There are just so many policies that actually directly affect the American family. Remember, the very first day--and there have been so many bad things that have happened in these 100 days that we don't even have enough time to cover all of them tonight, but you probably remember the very first day, the first-time home-buyer program was suspended.
There is nothing that exemplifies what it means to be American as it means to own a home. That is the first day, the first action, the most antiworker, most antifamily action that anyone could take--got rid of the first-time home-buyer program. He got rid of the first-time home-
buyer program that helped individuals have a piece of the American Dream: homeownership.
We have seen the statistics about what homeownership means to the American family, what that means for the stability of American families, kids being able to have that backyard to play in, being able to go to that neighborhood school, to have that home to call your own to raise your family. It is so much more than just a home. It is really the foundation of who we are as Americans.
Getting rid of the first-time home-buyer program, that is not doing anything to help American families. That is not doing anything to help American workers.
I am glad that we have so many great voices here tonight within the CBC that are going to talk about these first 100 days and about the failings of these first 100 days and about how the people that were there, the people that thought that there were going to be some real changes, how they have been misled. They have been misled.
They have been taken down this road, and it is not a road of prosperity. It is a road of less prosperity. It is a road of dismay, despair, less money, more expensive insurance, no insurance, and it is going to hurt the American worker and the American family.
So I just really appreciate everything that the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) is doing today and hope that we can continue to get the media and the newspapers and the cable TV news people out here to really focus in and hone in on some of these problems that we are seeing coming out of the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I think the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) is correct about staying focused and, in the lexicon of the young people, to stay woke about what is happening.
The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) gave some great examples about some of the things that happened in this first 100 days that should make us aware how this is, in some ways, an assault on distressed communities, on minority communities. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) spoke to some of them.
One of the things I wanted to highlight is a booklet that the Congressional Black Caucus has put out about 100 actions that have taken place in these 100 days:
President Trump's proposed budget would eliminate the Economic Development Administration at the Department of Commerce. In 2015, EDA invested 38 percent of its funds in highly distressed areas, including communities with high minority populations, such as the gentleman from Texas' and mine.
President Trump's proposed budget would eliminate the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. People ask, What is that? This is an organization which channels investments into communities in need of capital for housing, small businesses, and community facilities. That is its sole function.
President Trump said that the private sector already did a good job making investments in these communities, which demonstrates how out of touch and ill-informed he and his administration are. His administration needs to tell him and give him the facts about what is going on in minority and underdeveloped communities.
As we will hear from our colleagues, there are areas in which environmental protection and climate change, social justice for environmental justice needs to take place. President Trump's proposed budget would cut environmental protection agencies, environmental justice programs that work to ensure the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, and national origin or income with the respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. It would simply cut it out of place.
The proposed budget would cut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's coastal programs, which would affect populations, including minorities living along the Gulf Coast and other coastal areas.
At this time, we have other members of the Congressional Black Caucus that are here to talk about environmental justice.
This freshman Member has really stepped in and just taken a hold of actions and demonstrating a love for his constituents in coming here this evening and wanting to address environmental justice areas.
I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. McEachin).
Mr. McEACHIN. Mr. Speaker, every Monday, Representatives Plaskett and Veasey lead our Caucus' discussion on issues of great importance to the American people, and I am glad to be joining them this evening to discuss a critical priority that is often overlooked: environmental justice.
Our country is built upon ideals like liberty, justice, equal protection for all Americans, yet we still fall short on those goals in important ways. While I believe we are making progress, this is a critical moment.
Over the last 100 days, we have seen how eager the new administration is to undo our recent achievements, from selecting EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a man who does not believe in climate change, to overturning critical antipollution protections.
The Trump administration has shown a dangerous contempt for proven science. The administration has even favorably discussed pulling the United States from a global climate change prevention pact, a move that could have disastrous, unknowable consequences for every generation to come.
Mr. Speaker, the list goes on and on and on; but at this point, Mr. Speaker, before I continue, I want to bring forward my good friend--he has got a fabulous first name like I do--Congressman Donald Payne, Jr. He is from the 10th Congressional District of New Jersey. He is a fierce advocate for environmental justice in his hometown of Newark. I thank the Congressman. His voice and advocacy will help us move toward sounder policies and more just outcomes, and I look forward to working with the gentleman.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Payne).
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the gentleman from the Commonwealth of Virginia (Mr. McEachin). It is the birthplace of my mother: Dinwiddie County, Virginia. My grandfather was a small-time tobacco farmer, and I learned to cut tobacco at 8 years old.
I am from Newark, New Jersey, the Garden State. We didn't raise much tobacco there in the Garden State, but my friends used think I was going on vacation when I would leave. I said I wasn't going on vacation; I was going to work. That is what we did for the summer. It was a great experience, and I always have great, great memories of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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Mr. Speaker, last month, as part of a partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, I wrote an op-ed on environmental justice issues. I will repeat what I wrote then, which is that environmental justice should be a national priority, not a problem confined to minority communities.
African-American communities are disproportionately burdened with pollutants. Across the Nation, communities of color suffer from higher rates of exposure to air pollution, higher rates of lead poisoning, and higher rates of water pollution.
Every single day, children in my home city of Newark, New Jersey, are exposed to harmful levels of pollution from the port and other sources that rob them of their health, just because of where they live.
One in four Newark children has asthma. The hospitalization rate for Newark children is 30 times the rate of the national average. Asthma is the leading cause of absenteeism in school-age children in the city of Newark, New Jersey.
Yet, too often, environmental justice is an afterthought, or often it is missing entirely in the discussion of the challenges facing African Americans.
The Trump administration threatens to make the problem even worse. President Trump has prioritized rolling back environmental regulations, from emissions rules for power plants to the mandate that Federal decisionmaking must be taken into consideration on climate change impacts.
President Trump proposed slashing the EPA's budget by 31 percent, cutting enforcement of the Agency's clean air laws by $129 million.
With threats of excessive cuts to the EPA, air quality across the Nation may even be worse than expected. In the American Lung Association's ``State of the Air'' report, my district and many other metropolitan areas ranked as having the most polluted air in the country. However, only one-third of counties have ozone or particulate pollution air monitors. We must fight to ensure that funding for air monitors are for all our communities.
So what can we do to protect our communities from environmental degradation?
The Newark City Council has been a leader in that area and has passed a first-in-the-nation ordinance requiring developers to request environmental permits to inform the city of any environmental impacts. As a result, decisionmakers and the public will be able to make informed decisions about sustainable development. Other municipalities would be smart to follow Newark's lead.
Last November, I joined Amy Goldsmith and Kim Gaddy of the Clean Water Action and the Coalition for Healthy Ports for an environmental justice tour of the Port of New York and New Jersey. We were also joined by Congressman Frank Pallone from New Jersey. Organizations like theirs are doing excellent work in the fight against health-threatening pollution. Expanding partnerships on the environmental justice initiatives must be a central part of our strategy to secure environmental protections.
To those listening at home: I encourage you to make it clear to your elected officials that you will hold them accountable for any efforts to dismantle environmental protections and any failures to fight for environmental justice.
And to my colleague from Virginia, it is really noteworthy that you have taken the lead on this issue. As I stated in my presentation, Newark, New Jersey, is 30 times greater propensity for asthma in children than the national average. I mean, that is almost criminal.
And we as a home, myself, not just have heard about it, but have lived it. My middle son--I am the father of triplets. My middle son has grown up with asthma; the days we had to keep him inside. He has been fortunate to have not--knock on wood--have many instances throughout his childhood of asthma attacks, but the one that I did see really brought me to tears.
To know that there are numbers of children throughout this country who don't have the opportunity to go to the doctor, who rush to the hospital with asthma attacks, and who, God forbid, sometimes don't make it to the doctor is just--to think that that could be my boy brings tears to my heart.
So I am willing to make this fight not for just my son, but for the hundreds of thousands of children throughout this country who suffer from this disease, and make sure that the EPA stays intact to fight these dreaded diseases, especially in minority communities, in our young people, and throughout the country.
I will close with the drinking water issue in Flint. The Congressional Black Caucus went out to Flint when the issue first came up. Ms. Pelosi was there as well, and we talked to the people of Flint and heard firsthand their heartbreak and not being able to think they could trust anyone. Their government had let them down, had lied to them, had given them poison to drink and said it is okay. It looked like rusty water, but they told them that it was fine to use it for baths or whatever.
So I am sitting there on that stage listening to all this and I am thinking in the back of my head: I am from Newark, New Jersey, the third oldest city in this country's history. So Flint, Michigan, can't be that old because Lewis and Clark went West.
So the third oldest city, what were my pipes like? What was the condition of my water system?
And I went back and I saw several mayors from my district, and I said: I suggest you start looking at your water systems.
And that was on a Friday. That Tuesday we got a report from the Newark school system. They found lead in the drinking water in 44 schools in Newark that next--not even a week.
So we know how important these issues are, and we will continue to fight for what is right in our communities. I appreciate the opportunity and your leadership on this issue.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Evans), from the great city of Philadelphia.
Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my great colleague from the Virgin Islands for the great introduction. I really appreciate her leadership, and my colleague from Texas' leadership.
This discussion that we have been having is relating to the President's 100 days. And I think it is 102 at this particular point.
The question that I and members of the Congressional Black Caucus have constantly been raising is: What do we have to lose with President Trump's cuts to the EPA?
As I always said: What don't we have to lose?
We have a lot to lose.
In the time that I met with the organization in my community--a number of organizations--called Mothers for Clean Air, they were extremely concerned about the cuts to the EPA. The President's budget cuts $2.6 billion from the EPA budget. They were concerned about the impact that that would have. As a matter of fact, I talked to a mother who talked about her twins and what kind of effect that would have.
The President wants to cut programs like Pollution Prevention Programs, Lead Risk Reduction Programs--which has been a problem in the case of the city of Philadelphia, a problem that we thought we dealt with, but with a cut on the lead reduction program, that would just reinforce the program--the Water Quality Research Programs, and the Environmental Education Programs.
Who do you want to help when you cut 31 percent of the EPA budget?
No one. The cuts would be horrendous and have a dangerous negative impact on not only our communities of color, but everyone nationwide.
Two weeks ago I sent a letter to EPA Administrator Pruitt outlining how the plan to cut fundamental EPA programs would have a negative impact on our children and most vulnerable in Philadelphia, all across the State and the Nation.
Last week marks 3 weeks--3 years, I should say, since the city of Flint, Michigan, decided to switch their water supply from the Detroit area water system to the Flint River water system, which resulted in lead contamination within the city. It is 3 years later and, sadly, not much has changed for the communities in Flint. Three days is too long to go without clean drinking water. Three years is simply heartbreaking.
Mr. President, we have seen how various communities across the U.S. are at greater risk of health problems due to overexposure to unsafe drinking water. Now is no time to cut funding for Americans in need.
As Questlove says: ``Without science, we are truly operating blindly.''
The cuts to the EPA would have an increasingly harmful impact, especially for communities of color and hardworking families who do not have the means nor the resources to fight back against their local governments about the safety of the water they drink or question old paint in their house.
According to the State Department of Health, in 2014, more than 10 percent of the children from Philadelphia had elevated levels of lead in their blood because they were exposed to lead-based paint. Exposure to lead-based paint is a chronic problem that goes undiscussed too often.
No level is safe for our children to be exposed to, just as no level of lead is safe for our children to drink.
Yet, the President says rather boldly that things are moving in the right direction. I would like to know what community he is talking about. He clearly couldn't be talking about the community that I am from.
Now, more than ever, we need to keep the resistance alive, speak up and speak out for our communities at risk. I will not stand silent while the vital EPA programs that protect and enhance the lives of all Americans are at risk of being cut. Together, we are the voice of the people, so there is no way we will be silent. We will continue this message.
Ms. PLASKETT. I thank the gentleman, Congressman Evans, for keeping us focused and giving us the information we need to understand what real communities are going through and the environmental justice that we need to be fighting for in this administration. I appreciate that so much.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. McEachin), who has been the person who was at the forefront of this evening, bringing issues of environmental justice to our minds and exposing and explaining to the American people the assault on environmental justice that is taking place right now, and appealing to President Trump to be mindful of those communities who are going to be affected by the cuts and by other interest groups that are going after the basic needs that Americans have to stay healthy and stay alive.
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Mr. McEACHIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman.
As has been demonstrated tonight, on nearly every facet of environmental policy, we are in danger of backsliding irreparably. I want to talk about an area where that danger is especially great and where stakes are especially high. Today, and for much of our history, certain communities have been the victims of profound environmental injustice. Lower income, rural, tribal, and especially minority communities are at an increased risk of exposure to the negative impacts of pollution and climate change.
For far too long, communities of color have been on the front lines of environmental and economic injustice, shouldering the health burdens of living in areas with higher rates of dangerous fossil fuel pollution and lower rates of income and employment.
Mr. Speaker, an African-American child born in the United States has twice the chance of developing asthma than a White child and is four times more likely to die from an asthma attack. This is not a coincidental statistic ginned up for shock and awe but the day-to-day reality that African-American families across the United States have been dealing with for decades.
Rooted in America's legacy of segregation and redlining communities of color while simultaneously restricting their government services, employment opportunities, and environmental protections, African-
American families have historically borne the brunt of the worst health impacts of polluting industries and have received dwindling economic opportunities due to systemic racism. This is why we see coal plants, oil refineries, and natural gas plants, which spew some of the most toxic substances around into the air and contaminate water supplies, are frequently located in communities of color--communities that have little political or economic power to protect themselves.
These disparities, Mr. Speaker, are unacceptable, and they did not arise in a vacuum. In many cases, they have been the avoidable results of government action or inaction. For example, according to the FY 2015 Annual Environmental Justice Progress Report, ``Many low-income, minority, and tribal communities are disproportionately impacted by air pollution and are not able to participate in environmental decisions due to barriers preventing them from meaningfully engaging in the political process.''
These voices deserve to be heard. Their silence--particularly their enforced silence--is unacceptable, and it is incompatible with our, small D, democratic values. The practical consequences of that silence are dire: poorer public health, diminished economic opportunity, and decreased quality of life.
To address these grave human and civil rights issues, the environmental justice movement was born--a movement grounded in the belief that all citizens, regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic class, should share fairly in the benefits of environmental resources and the burdens of environmental hazards.
As policymakers, Mr. Speaker, we have a responsibility to embrace that vision--to correct and prevent environmental injustice. We can and we must do better. It is not enough to avoid repeating past mistakes. True equity requires a recognition that some communities have been hurt much more and, as a result, need more resources and targeted assistance. If we succeed--if we achieve equitable policies that promote environmental justice--our world will become a more fair, more liveable, and more sustainable place. But if we fail, public health will suffer. People will lead shorter and harder lives. None of us should be willing to accept that outcome.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is worth noting that the environmental justice movement began in 1982, when North Carolina established a toxic waste landfill in Warren County--a poor, rural, majority African-
American locality--over the objections of the residents. In the more than 20 years since, many environmental justice organizations have formed. During the Clinton administration, the pursuit of environmental justice became a Federal priority.
Sadly, though, these improvements have not been enough to fix longstanding problems, and, again, the progress we have made is under grave threat. Left unchecked, this administration would devastate communities of color and many other vulnerable groups as well.
Today, the Trump administration is rolling back budgets, cutting offices, obscuring scientific information, and attacking legislation aimed at curbing environmental justice. That is why, on March 7, we witnessed the resignation of Mr. Mustafa Ali from his post as leader of the Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Justice Program. For more than two decades, Mr. Ali helped lead our Nation's efforts to secure justice and positive change for vulnerable communities that have seen their public health threatened and the quality of their air, water, and land degraded.
In his letter, Mr. Ali said: ``Communities of color, low-income communities, and indigenous populations are still struggling to receive equal protections before the law.
``These communities, both rural and urban, often live in areas with toxic levels of air pollution, crumbling or nonexistent water and sewer infrastructure, lead in the drinking water, brownfields from vacant former industrial and commercial sites, Superfund and other hazardous waste sites, as well as other sources of exposure to pollutants.
``Despite the many challenges we face regarding the impacts of pollution and a changing climate, we have just as many effective tools and programs with long track records of assisting vulnerable communities in meeting their goals of improving public health and enhancing the environmental quality of their local communities.''
Mr. Speaker, I know my Democratic colleagues are eager to use these tools to secure just outcomes and better lives for the people we represent. Mr. Speaker, I urge my friends in the majority to join with us.
Mr. Speaker, in concluding, I would like to thank my colleagues for joining me this evening to discuss environmental justice.
Together, we have amplified a simple truth: regardless of the color of your skin, how much money you make, or where you live, every American is entitled to clean air, clean water, and access to our public lands. Again, when we fail to achieve those goals, public health suffers, quality of life suffers, and people lead shorter and harder lives.
We know that climate change is real. We know that it is being caused by human activity. If we fail to act, we know that there are going to be terrible consequences for the entire human community. We also know that vulnerable populations and marginalized communities are poised to suffer the most--just as they have in the past. That kind of environmental injustice has a long history, and it must stop.
That is why, this past week, I announced the creation of the United for Climate and Environmental Justice Task Force alongside my colleagues, Congresswoman Jayapal from Washington State and Congresswoman Barragan from California. We are going to fight every day to prevent climate change and to mitigate its worst effects. We are going to advocate for policies that correct and prevent environmental injustice. We are going to defend every American's right to clean air, safe water, and healthy communities. I think I can speak for all three of us when I say that we look forward to working with you all.
Millions of working families are counting on us, Mr. Speaker, as their Representatives in the House and the Senate to serve them and to make wise decisions to improve their lives. We must confront environmental and economic injustices through fierce participation in the planning processes in at-risk areas moving forward. That means demanding more stringent environmental compliance and enforcement that protect communities of color from fossil fuel pollution and demanding greater investments in clean energy deployment in historically African-
American communities that will create union and family-wage jobs with upward mobility.
I know my colleagues on this side of the aisle are committed to making this change, and I challenge our friends in the majority to join us. I urge them to support greater transparency, objectivity, and outreach in environmental policymaking. I urge them to support processes that improve two-way communication between decisionmakers and the people their decisions affect. I urge them to help ensure that the decisionmakers are confronting the full effects of their choices--
including how consequences are distributed and by whom they are borne.
Protecting the environment, Mr. Speaker--creation care--is my passion. I commit to you that I will continue fighting each and every day to address climate change and sea level rise, push for renewable energy and green technologies, and do everything I can to leave this planet a better place for future generations.
Mr. Speaker, I am an Eagle Scout, and I know that we are supposed to leave the campground better than the way we found it. The time is now to continue fighting for perhaps the most important issue of the 21st century--the environment.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for her indulgence.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. McEachin for his passion and for his commitment to these issues of environmental justice.
Particularly in the Virgin Islands, we know that climate change is real. We feel it, and we see it in how we operate and how our environment is changing, whether it be mosquitoes and Zika, before that chikungunya and dengue. We know that the effects of climate change are impacting our health and impacting the livelihoods of our environment.
The Congressional Black Caucus supports policies that ensure that all Americans also have access to a clean and healthy environment. Studies have long shown an unsettling correlation between race and the location of hazardous waste facilities. For example, a 1983 Government Accountability Office study found that 75 percent of hazardous waste landfills in eight southeastern States were located in predominantly poor and minority communities.
The places where minorities live, work, and learn are significantly compromised by air, water, land, soil, noise, and light pollutants. Black Americans and other minorities are predisposed to health issues directly linked to environmental and toxic waste. We cannot take away funding to support the eradication of these health hazards. We must continue to push for that.
We are not here as the Congressional Black Caucus simply to disparage our President. We are not here to point out his fallacies. But we would be doing a grave disservice to the people that we represent, not just minorities but all Americans, if we do not stand up and discuss the issues that are of grave concern to us, to ask for support and funding, to ask that there not be a rollback on many of the gains that we have had that have supported and helped our community.
At the beginning of the 115th Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus launched: ``What Did Trump Do?'' It was a rapid-response messaging document we used to inform our external stakeholders. This
``What Did Trump Do?'' is a special #staywoke edition. We are listing 100 actions President Trump and his administration have taken over the last 100 days. It was developed by 78 million Americans that the CBC collectively represent, including 17 million African Americans, as well as millions of Americans we do not represent.
We want this information to be before the American people to show that work must still be done. We talked about environmental areas. I am going to list some of the things that have happened in the 100 days that we need to be cognizant of, that we need to make sure that these things do not take place, and that they not become embedded in this great America in which we live.
On February 28, Attorney General Sessions said that the DOJ would pull back from using its legal authority to monitor police departments responsible for repeated instances of police misconduct and abuses by backing away from legal commitment first enacted into law by Representative John Conyers as part of the 1994 crime reform legislation. Sessions sent a signal to the African-American community that the police misconduct laws will not be equally and fully enforced. On that same day, the President signed a bill that rolled back a regulation restricting gun purchases by the mentally ill through a use of background checks.
Attorney General Sessions rescinded the Obama-era order to reduce the use of privately operated prisons. The use of privately operated prisons creates a financial incentive to lock people up using African Americans, Latinos, and poor people. In addition, in comparison to the government-operated prisons, privately operated prisons are less safe and secure for both staff and inmates, don't provide the same level of rehabilitative services like educational programs and job trainings which increase the likelihood that those who are released from prison will return to a life of crime.
Finally, although privately operated prisons are said to be more cost effective than government prisons, they are not because those that are in those prisons will continue to, in many instances, come back causing a burden not just on the American people and taxpayers but on the families and the communities in which those individuals reside.
Other things that have happened in these first 100 days: President Trump appointed Candace E. Jackson as Acting Assistant Secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education. Ms. Jackson once said that affirmative action promotes racial discrimination and claims she was discriminated against for being White. Secretary DeVos hired Robert Eitel, an official with deep ties to the for-profit college industry, to be a Special Assistant to the Department of Education. This hire presents a serious conflict of interest and raises questions about whether Eitel can put students' needs above the interest of his former colleagues.
President Trump's proposed budget for the Department of Education hurts low-income students from pre-K through college by undermining public education through the elimination of afterschool and teacher-
support programs and diverting Federal funds to private school vouchers, eliminating support for college students, gutting Federal workstudy, and slashing critical funding for Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants and Pell grants.
All of these cuts would have severe consequences for our Nation's students--not just African Americans but Latinos and students in large urban areas. No afterschool programs, no support for teachers--what will our children do?
{time} 2100
What will those families do that need those children and that support?
On March 9, EPA Administrator Pruitt said that he did not think that carbon dioxide was the primary driver of global warming even though that is the public position of EPA, NOAA, and NASA.
We can go on and on. We have a document with over 100 actions that have been taken in the last 100 days.
In housing and homeownership, President Trump's proposed budget would cut the Department of Housing and Urban Development by $6 billion. HUD is responsible for providing housing assistance to extremely low-income families and the homeless and reinvesting in American cities and counties.
Those same proposed budgets would end the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which assists families with energy costs, including home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization, and energy-related home repair.
These are some of the many examples of what has happened. We give these examples not merely to degrade what has happened with this administration, but to show that work must still be done and that we, as Americans, must stay woke to what is happening in this country. We must keep our eyes vigilant and on the prize and ensure that Americans will see what is really happening and not be moved by the media, by the tweets, but see actual facts.
We are working in real facts here to let you know what needs to be done and that we, the Congressional Black Caucus, as Members of Congress, are asking our colleagues across the aisle and in the Democratic Caucus to support us and to support the issues that are relevant not just to African Americans, but to all Americans this day.
General Leave
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lewis of Minnesota). Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands?
There was no objection.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to expose the cavalier disregard of environmental justice by our President during his first 100 days in office. In a short period of time, President Donald J. Trump made clear his agenda--anti-climate, anti-science, and anti-
fact. The current administration has already taken significant steps, in lock-step with Congressional Republicans, to roll back and erase the progress made by the Obama Administration to protect our health, our public lands, and our precious environment.
Since taking office, President Trump has signed a number of executive orders reversing many of President Obama's environmental protections--
promoting cleaner air, cleaner water, and more sustainable energy production. The current White House is on a fast-track to derail decades of progress and set our nation back in the effort to combat climate change. The Clean Power Plan, which established comprehensive carbon emission standards and put the United States at the forefront of global environmental stewardship, was one of Trump's first targets. Instead of investing in technological and scientific innovation to make America a leader in greener, cleaner, sustainable energy production and consumption, President Trump has used his office to support the interests of corporations and interests in big oil and dirty coal on the backs of hardworking Americans.
Furthermore, the current administration has promulgated efforts to expand environmentally detrimental offshore drilling, allow the dumping of mining waste, and potentially force an exit from the 2015 Paris Agreement which brought the world's powers together in agreement to curb our collective carbon emissions.
The proposed budget goes even further in rejecting evidenced-based policy-making. From proposals to cripple the Environmental Protection Agency and zero-out critical programs at the Department of Energy like ARPA-E, this administration has abandoned our nation's effort to protect our planet and be a global leader.
Our administration's blatant disregard toward the health, economic, and national security risks associated with global climate change is shortsighted and will only further endanger Americans' health, security, and economic stability. While we will all suffer from the consequences of short-sighted federal policy, the heaviest burden is bound to fall on those already marginalized.
Minorities and working class families are already struggling to make ends meet, but study after study shows that they are the most vulnerable to environmental injustices. Subject to downwind and downstream pollution, children and families who are economically disadvantaged often lack the political voice to keep industries from polluting their communities and frequently bear the brunt of deregulatory regimes. Take Flint, Michigan for example, where young children have been exposed to toxic levels of lead from their drinking water. That is wrong and should be unheard of in the world's most powerful nation.
I urge my colleagues to consider the kind of country we want our children to live in. Where is the freedom in living in a community where there is no access to clean drinking water, or a city where children are forced to stay inside because the air is so polluted? We can and must do better, Mr. Speaker. The actions the President has set forth thus far do nothing to Make America Great Again; rather, his first one hundred days has only made America more polluted, less safe, and less secure.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand firm in their resolve to hold this and future administrations accountable to keeping our air clean, our water safe, and our environment sustainable for future generations. We have far too much to lose, Mr. Speaker, and future generations deserve our better judgement.
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