The U.S. Senate has passed a bipartisan bill that will provide funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the remainder of the federal fiscal year, following approval by the House last week.
Harold Wimmer, President and CEO of the American Lung Association, responded to the passage of the bill with a statement:
“The American Lung Association applauds Congress for coming together to pass a bipartisan bill to fund the lifesaving work of EPA. This bill funds critical clean air programs like air quality monitoring, wildfire smoke preparedness and radon exposure prevention. It ensures that funding is available to continue the work of cleaning up air pollution and protecting communities most impacted by poor air quality. The bill also provides funding for the Department of Energy, including for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Vehicles Technology Office, which the Lung Association supports.
“The nation has made enormous progress in cleaning up air pollution over the past 50 years, thanks in large part to Congress’ investments in EPA, but this improvement takes work. And more work needs to be done so everyone in America has clean air to breathe. While we applaud the fact that this funding bill rejects the huge cuts proposed previously, the need for funding is still greater than this bill provides. We look forward to continue working with Congress to make more robust investments in programs and staff at EPA in the future.
“We now call on President Trump to sign the bill into law. And, building on their bipartisan success with this funding bill, we urge Congress to come together once again to fund the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the levels necessary to protect people’s health.”
The American Lung Association focuses on improving lung health through research, education, advocacy efforts and community programs across its local offices nationwide (official website). The organization has contributed support for those with conditions such as asthma and COPD while promoting cleaner air policies and reducing tobacco use (official website). Under Harold Wimmer’s leadership (official website), it has supported research leading to advancements in lung disease treatment and prevention.
Founded in 1904 originally as an organization combating tuberculosis (official website), it operates as a nonprofit public health entity headquartered in Chicago (official website). The association also received recognition for its fiscal management from Charity Navigator (official website).
The association continues its mission through advocacy supporting clean air policies at national levels (official website) as well as providing educational resources and research funding targeting lung cancer via initiatives such as LUNG FORCE (official website).
