NEWARK – June 2, 2017 U.S. Senator Cory Booker was joined by U.S. Representatives Albio Sires (NJ-08) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and local advocates at the Ironbound Community Corporation Early Learning Center to discuss the impact of the Trump Administration’s agenda, including President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement this week, on communities of color in New Jersey.
“Communities of color endure disproportionally higher rates of asthma and heart disease as a result of increased exposure to dangerous pollutants,” said Sen. Booker. “President Trump’s pattern of reckless policies, most recently his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, threatens to further undermine the fundamental right of some of our most vulnerable citizens to prosper and live in a safe and healthy environment.”
President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement not only weakens efforts to combat climate change, but threatens public health, particularly in underserved communities. Multiple studies have shown that low income, minority communities are more likely to be exposed to harmful pollutants than higher-income white communities.
One study from the University of Minnesota found that Americans of color are exposed, on average, to 38 percent higher levels of outdoor Nitrogen Dioxide, and that this disparity in exposure amounts to 7,000 deaths a year from heart disease. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a staggering 68 percent of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant in the U.S., compared to only 56 percent of the white population.
The disproportionate targeting of communities of color by President Trump’s agenda is nothing new. The phase-out of the Medicaid expansion included in the Republican health care plan would eliminate coverage for 562,000 residents, with people of color making up 65 percent of NJ’s Medicaid recipients.
A budget proposal released by the Trump Administration last week delivers deep cuts to programs serving some of our nation’s most at-risk populations. SNAP, the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, is set to be cut by $193 billion over the next ten years while public housing funding is slashed by $1.8 billion, or nearly 29%, compared to 2017.
“President Trump’s budget eliminates billions of dollars in federal funding that provides cities and States with resources to maintain and upgrade our transportation infrastructure,” said Rep. Sires. “New Jersey, which already struggles to meet its residents’ needs, relies on federal funding to finance upgrades to the transportation networks that provide our communities with access to reliable and affordable transit options.”
“This budget blueprint embraces the draconian measures long sought by conservatives at the expense of the health and well-being of our nation’s hardworking men, women and their families,” said Rep. Watson Coleman. “Cutting programs that keep our children fed, their parents healthy and older Americans insured and able to receive vital healthcare flies in the face of American exceptionalism. This budget, coupled with the many damaging policies coming from this Administration, is a continuance of their attack on the lives and livelihood of Americans that need our protection the most and will not be tolerated.”
“President Trump’s ill-advised decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement is the most horrendous and dangerous anti-environment action he has taken since the beginning of his presidency,” said U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ-10). “Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by climate change, and abandoning the agreement will only make the problem worse. From withdrawing from the Paris accord to trying to repeal Obamacare to his slash-and-burn budget, it’s clear that President Trump’s policies are a very real threat to minority communities.”
“Donald Trump is not the one who’s going to decide whether he applies the Paris agreement or not. It’s our cities,” said Mayor Baraka. “Our cities are responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions. And in the same way that Newark and other cities have declared ourselves sanctuaries to protect undocumented immigrants from misguided Trump policies, we are also collaborating to defy the Trump Administration efforts to torpedo climate control.”
“The Trump budget proposal is an unmitigated disaster for New Jersey,” said Jon Whiten, Vice President of New Jersey Policy Perspective. “While everyone in the state would suffer from shrinking investments in economic drivers like research and development, infrastructure and higher education, the low- and moderate-income residents who rely on the safety net to get by would clearly be harmed the most. These New Jerseyans – who are disproportionately New Jerseyans of color – face the prospect of enormous federal cuts to programs and services that are literally life-saving.”
“The Americans who will be abandoned by this budget are not simply numbers on a ledger,” said National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial. “They are the thousands of older Americans who have found stable, sustaining jobs through the National Urban League’s Urban Seniors Jobs Program. They are the college-age youths, whose lives have been transformed by the education, mentoring, counseling and job training they found in our Urban Youth Empowerment Program. They are the tens of thousands of families who have realized the American Dream of homeownership through Urban League pre-purchase counseling and foreclosure prevention programs. This budget doesn’t cut dollars. It cuts jobs. It cuts educations. It cuts homeownership. It cuts the only hope of a better life for many young people and families.”
“The proposed $191 billion cut to food assistance will hurt tens of thousands of New Jersey residents who struggle every day to put food on the table,” said Adele LaTourette, director, New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition. “It would cripple our nutritional safety net that provides a path out of hunger for thousands of children and families, many of whom come from communities and families of color, while leading to higher health care costs, decreased workforce productivity and worse academic outcomes for children.”
“The administration’s draconian budget proposal which calls for massive cuts to social programs, the EPA, Medicaid, the arts and other vital programs and services will hurt us all, but it will hit the poor and people of color the hardest,” said Kevin Brown, 32BJ Vice President and NJ State Director. “Gutting the EPA won’t make the threat of climate change go away. Slashing the Department of Labor won’t make our workforce more productive or irresponsible employers’ offences less damaging. Crushing the Department of Housing will decimate affordable housing in places like Newark. Deep cuts to the Department of Education is not putting American kids first. This is the budget of an administration at war with reality that only serves the needs of the already wealthy and powerful. For Trump and his team of cronies the message to America is: you are on your own.”
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
