Campaign Action
You know how popular vote loser Donald Trump brags all the time about being the most productive president ever who has signed more bills than anybody else (when he's not trashing Senate Republicans for not sending him any bills to sign)? Well, here's something he did sign, something that's going to make the Harvey tragedy—and every other catastrophic storm and flood during his tenure—worse.
On August 15, Trump and his team overturned an Obama-administration rule requiring that infrastructure projects, including roads and bridges, be designed to withstand the consequences of climate change—such as rising sea levels.
Experts in climate change, coastal management, and environmental policy begged the administration to maintain the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard for “climate resilience.” The concern crossed traditional lines of ideology and partisanship, as free-market economic groups and Republican members of the House praised the standard.
But politically influential real-estate developers and builders lobbied for overturning Obama’s order. And they got their way, thanks in no small part to one of the industry’s most powerful allies in the administration, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
Since Trump took office on January 20, Chao and other presidential appointees have rushed to sell off critical decisions to the highest bidders in a crony-capitalist frenzy the likes of which Washington has never before seen.
Oh, by the way, that’s the Elaine Chao who’s married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who Trump keeps attacking for not sending him any bills to sign.
Couple this with a complete shut-down of any kind of federal response to the reality of climate change and we’re in for a very, very grim future.