Presidents of 17 Local Unions representing more than 10,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees wrote to Senate appropriators on June 29 to protest deep cuts to EPA funding that would close the agency's libraries. The letter urges Congress to reinstate full funding to EPA libraries and explains how the cuts will impede EPA's ability to respond to public health, enforcement and homeland security emergencies and restrict public access to vital health and safety information.

More than 70,000 citizens voiced opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposals to cut chemical reporting under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), during the agency's public comment period that ended Jan. 13. Those speaking out against EPA's proposals included state agencies, health professionals, scientists, environmentalists, labor, Attorneys General, and even Congress, all of whom raised substantive concerns with the plan.

Last week Congress reconvened for a second lame duck session. They succeeded in stripping controversial tax language from the bill and on Dec. 8 the President finally signed it, officially bringing the much delayed FY 2005 appropriations process to a close. The omnibus bill combines nine appropriations bills Congress was unable to finish working on before the end of the fiscal year, along with thousands of provisions and riders.