November 26, 2017
By Rachel M. Usdan
Corner of Liberty and Fifth avenues at 8:38 a.m. in Pittsburgh in 1940.
...Just as the Steelers (click here) deserve a win on Sundays, Pittsburghers deserve breathable air and drinkable water. One way we improve the quality of our air and water is with funding from the annual federal budget. Programs to improve air and water quality are funded through the annual non-defense discretionary portion of this budget, which Congress is proposing to cut by $7.5 billion. Other programs in this non-defense annual portion of the budget include such varied and important items as law enforcement, education, transportation, health research, diplomacy, economic security and science.
Clean air and water activities largely are funded from the science bucket of the budget. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, in 2016 all the science, environment and energy programs combined amounted only to 12 percent ($72 billion) of the non-defense annual budget. Despite the clear need to maintain clean water and air, and despite the small percentage of overall spending on these items, this funding is at risk of being reduced. Cutting this funding would have a negative impact on the lives of my family and fellow Pittsburghers....
