Res 1516-2017

By Council Members Constantinides, Richards, Rosenthal, Salamanca, Cohen and Gentile Whereas, The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a federal agency that was established in 1970 to consolidate in one agency a variety of research, regulation- and standard-setting, monitoring and enforcement activities for the purpose of protecting the environment and human health; and Whereas, The EPA is responsible for administering federal laws and regulations that have a measurable impact on the basic quality of New York City's air and water, including the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act; and Whereas, The EPA is responsible for administering numerous other laws and regulations critical to protecting the environment and public health including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA); Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA); Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA); National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); Endangered Species Act (ESA); and Executive Order 12898, which addresses environmental justice in minority populations and low-income populations; and Whereas, The EPA's accomplishments range from the regulation of harmful auto emissions to the banning of carcinogenic substances such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT); from increasing recycling to revitalizing urban Brownfields; from cleaning up toxic waste to protecting the ozone layer; from cleaning the air, to ensuring purer drinking water and better protecting land; and Whereas, Environmental protection is fundamental to the well-being of our Nation's, State's and City's natural resources, public health and economy; and Whereas, President Donald Trump's Administration (Trump Administration) has proposed a federal budget, entitled "America First A Budget Blueprint to Make American Great Again" for the year 2018 (2018 budget proposal) which would severely cut funding to the EPA; and Whereas; The Trump Administration's 2018 budget proposal would cut funding to the EPA by 31 percent, from its current level of $8.1 billion down to $5.7 billion; and Whereas, The Trump Administration's budget proposal seeks to cut the EPA's budget, among other ways, by eliminating funding for the Clean Power Plan and climate change research; decreasing funding to the Public Water System Supervision Grant Program, which helps states monitor public water systems; reducing civil and criminal enforcement and curtailing the agency's ability to police environmental offenders; cutting thousands of staff; reducing funding to the federal Superfunds and brownfields program; eliminating the Nonpoint Source Grant program which helps states reduce runoff, into waterways, of pollution from sources such as agricultural fertilizers; and eliminating over 50 EPA programs; and Whereas, the Trump Administration has already taken actions - including reducing EPA's budget by tens of millions of dollars for the remainder of the year 2017 through the Omnibus Appropriations bill, and removing data relating to climate change and scientific information from the EPA's website - which have diminished the EPA's ability to carry out its core mission; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York condemns the Trump Administration's proposal to cut the United States Environmental Protection Agency's budget in 2018. WM LS 10665 5/23/17 2:19PM 3