Agencies vital to weather monitoring, environmental safety, and disaster response are crippled during peak hurricane season, as the President’s Congressional allies refuse to end the crisis

WASHINGTON, DC — Today marks two weeks since President Trump and his allies in Congress triggered a federal government shutdown by refusing bipartisan negotiations on critical funding legislation. Instead of protecting the healthcare of 15 million Americans, the Trump administration has fired about 4,200 federal workers, plans to furlough nearly 90% of the staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and cancelled over $8 billion in clean energy investments in so-called “blue states.” Callously, the Trump administration gleefully bragged that this shutdown is an “unprecedented opportunity.” 

Quentin Scott, Federal Policy Director for Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund, released this statement:

“Americans are paying the price for President Trump’s take-it-or-leave-it approach to negotiations. The already understaffed and underfunded agencies responsible for keeping communities safe — like EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — are at a breaking point. During this shutdown, the Trump administration is stalling vital National Weather Service hirings at NOAA, making it harder to monitor extreme weather, putting communities at risk. Trump’s EPA warned that cleanup activities at Superfund sites could slow or cease entirely, and Trump’s FEMA plans to furlough nearly 4,000 employees at the height of hurricane season. 

“Leaders in the House and Senate must return to the negotiation table, end this shutdown, and implement guardrails to restrict the administration from withholding or spending funds in ways that are very different from Congress’s intent. The Trump administration has been slowly shutting down the government for months against the will of many in Congress, on both sides of the aisle. It’s long overdue for Congress to enforce its constitutional mandate under Article 1 to maintain its traditional power of the purse.”

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Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund is dedicated to driving change in public policies at the local, state, and national levels to address the climate crisis. Through voter education, lobbying, and participation in the electoral process, we seek to advance our country’s leadership in the global movement toward clean energy solutions, focusing our efforts primarily in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. We know that a vibrant democracy is central to our success, so we work to defend democratic integrity wherever we can.