Rep. Underwood Votes to Re-Open All of Our National Parks with Full Staffing and to Allow EPA to Resume Its Activities Protecting Public Health | Representative Lauren Underwood
Skip to main content

Rep. Underwood Votes to Re-Open All of Our National Parks with Full Staffing and to Allow EPA to Resume Its Activities Protecting Public Health

January 11, 2019

Campton Hills, IL – On Friday, January 11, Today, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) voted to pass the FY 2019 Department of the Interior and EPA appropriations bill to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to resume its critical activities in protecting clean air and clean water for Illinois families. Illinois's $129 million in EPA state grants are currently at risk because of the continued government shutdown.

"For over two weeks, the EPA has been unable to perform its essential, life-saving role of protecting the clean air our children breathe and the clean water that they drink," Rep. Underwood. "Key EPA grants to fund environment protection activities in the states cannot go out when the EPA is shut down. Our state relies on this funding every year – having received, for example, $129.3 million in FY 2017 for these grants. This shutdown is now the longest in our nation's history, and the health and well-being of children across northern Illinois remain at risk."

CONTACT: LaurenUnderwoodPress@mail.house.gov