H.R. 1, or the Continuing Resolution, contains $100 billion in spending cuts, many which will harm or eliminate Federal agencies' ability to regulate or enforce properly. There is a lot in those 359 pages that the GOP is hoping people won't notice - and a lot they are counting on people to notice. We ( NRDC ) and others at the Save Our Environment partnership are working hard to find all of those things and bring them to light with some context, in a series of updates called the H.R. 1 Meat Axe. Below the break you'll find the first 3. We'll post 2 or 3 each day as we get them, and if something is really urgent we'll just update this post.
H.R. 1 Meat-Ax Bulletin: Costing Jobs, Risking Lives, Moving America Backward
Americans agree fiscal discipline is a must. But special interest giveaways and legislative earmarks to protect big polluters won’t balance our checkbook. Putting health protection on the chopping block means dirtier air, dirtier water, and more children’s and seniors’ lives at risk. Running rough-shod over our national parks, wildlife, and natural heritage means impoverishing future generations. Gutting investments in the clean energy technologies of tomorrow increases our dependence on foreign sources of oil while exporting clean energy jobs overseas, not creating them here at home. Congress should be investing in America’s future, not moving backwards.
H.R. 1 Meat-Axe Bulletin 1
Latest Attack: Food Safety Inspection
H.R.1 would cut the Food Safety and Inspection Services budget by about 9% (compared to FY10 enacted), hobbling its ability to ensure safe food for consumers, despite last year’s egg recall due to salmonella and ongoing concerns about E-coli in beef and spinach.
Families should be able to trust the groceries they buy won’t make their kids sick. This attack just doesn’t make sense.
H.R. 1 Meat-Axe Bulletin 2:
Latest Attack: New Starts Transit Grants
H.R. 1 would entirely eliminate federal investment in new public transportation systems. Public transit programs don’t just clear up traffic congestion, curb pollution, and save taxpayers money, they also create jobs
According to the American Public Transportation Association, the proposed cuts to these key public transportation and passenger rail programs could put tens of thousands of jobs at risk. Moreover, transit projects have historically generated 31 percent more jobs per dollar than new construction of roads and bridges.
There are dozens of cities – small and large, urban, suburbs, and rural – in states across the country that want to invest in new transit systems, including bus systems, for their residents and businesses through the New Starts program. States and cities must contribute up to half the cost of a project, making the New Starts program a true partnership that requires everyone to put money in the game.
Transit construction is smart fiscal policy. And the public agrees. In fact, in a recent nationwide survey by Hart Associates, 4 in 5 agreed that transportation investments to improve and modernize roads, rails, and runways in America would spur local economic growth and create jobs.
More traffic. More pollution. Lost jobs. This attack just doesn’t make sense.
H.R. 1 Meat-Axe Bulletin 3:
Latest Attack: Weather Forecasting and Our Oceans.
H.R. 1 would cut the budget of our nation's ocean agency - NOAA - by 22%, directly affecting essential government services upon which all our families rely. One program NOAA runs is weather forecasting that warns us of coming storms and is critical for agricultural planning.
NOAA keeps our oceans and beaches clean and safe and protects endangered ocean life, like whales and sea turtles.
NOAA also manages our ocean fisheries - a staple of the American diet – that is key to jobs throughout the nation’s food industry.
Crippling weather warnings. Jeopardizing seafood. Hurting the economy. This attack just doesn’t make sense.