Congress: Don’t Defund Safe Food and Clean Water

Musk, Trump and Republican leaders want to slash funding that keeps our essential food and water safe – along with inhumane cuts to medicare, nutrition assistance and more – all to pay for tax cuts for corporations and billionaires.

On the table are cuts to food safety inspections, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and funding that helps maintain local water systems. These cuts would result in more illnesses, deaths and hardship for Americans.

Tell Congress: Don’t Defund Safe Food and Clean Water!

Your Message

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As your constituent, I urge you to do everything in your power to block the proposed extreme budget cuts that put safe food and clean water at risk.

The House has released a budget reconciliation proposal with deep cuts to government spending, including trillions of dollars in cuts to basic services like Medicaid and SNAP food assistance, to help pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, largely for billionaires and corporations. This means that the people doing the work of keeping our food and water safe, and money being spent on basic healthcare, safe food and clean water could be cut or eliminated. This approach is totally shortsighted and must be rejected.

Oppose any cuts to food safety oversight: 
According to the Center for Disease Control, 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases each year in the United States. Musk-Trump are gunning for cuts that will result in fewer staff working on food safety. More people will get sick and die if these cuts go forward.

Oppose any cuts to SNAP and other food assistance: 
The House has proposed $230 billion in cuts, with at least $150 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This is to pay for tax cuts for corporations and billionaires in the budget reconciliation bill. SNAP benefits help feed more than 40 million low-income people in the United States every year, providing an average of just $212 a month per person for food.

Oppose cuts to APHIS in the CDC:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is charged with protecting the health of US agriculture and natural resources against invasive pests and diseases including H5N1 Avian Influenza. Bird flu is currently spreading - millions of birds have been infected and as of late January 65 cases had been transmitted to humans including one death. This disease, coupled with price gouging, has caused egg prices to skyrocket. We need a strong federal response to get bird flu under control. Cuts to the services charged with doing this will result in more disease and even higher costs to consumers.

Oppose cuts to FTC: 
The Federal Trade Commission is charged with enforcement of civil antitrust law and consumer protection. Among other things, it is supposed to safeguard against unfair competition in the food sector. This is a sector where there has historically been extreme consolidation, in part due to a lack of resources, and which has reduced consumer choice and unfair prices for farmers and ranchers. For example, just four companies control 85% of beef production. In recent years, the FTC has taken a stand for consumers, intervening to stop the merger of Kroger and Albertsons, after finding that a merger would harm competition and cost consumers more money at the grocery store. Cutting the FTC will only benefit large corporations and hurt consumers by reducing choice and increasing prices.

Oppose any cuts to funding for safe and clean water: 
Last year, the House passed appropriations legislation that would have cut funding for the State Revolving Fund programs by 25 percent, from $2.8 billion to $2.1 billion – the lowest levels in more than 15 years. This year proposals may be even worse. The House Ways & Means Committee has also proposed removing the tax exemption on municipal bonds as a potential way to pay for tax cuts for billionaires – this would devastate local governments’ ability to finance water projects. Poor water infrastructure results in diseases, including noroviruses, Legionella disease, ear infections and more. There are more than 7 million cases of waterborne diseases in the United States every year. As a result of these illnesses, more than 100,000 people are hospitalized and over 6,000 people die each year. People become sick from drinking contaminated water; swimming in polluted pools, lakes and beaches; and other exposures to contaminated water. The EPA estimated that thousands of people become sick each year just from exposure to sewage-contaminated recreation areas. Wastewater contains viruses, bacteria and other pathogens that can cause serious illness, including hepatitis, gastroenteritis, and infections of the skin, lungs and ears.

I urge you to oppose these extreme budget cuts that put safe food and clean water at risk.

Sincerely,
{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}
{user_data~Address 1} 
{user_data~City}, {user_data~State} {user_data~Ghost Zip Code}

Sincerely,
[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]

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