A week after taking office, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order that established a new federal office focused on addressing the health consequences of climate change, which disproportionately affects poor communities and communities of color.
10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint
The administration had grand plans for the office. For the first time, it would marshal the full powers of the federal government to help Americans sweltering under deadly heat waves, breathing in dangerous wildfire smoke, fleeing from massive flooding and struggling to access clean drinking water amid a historic drought parching the West.
“Many climate and health calamities are colliding all at once,” Biden said at the time, adding, “Just like we need a unified national response to covid-19, we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis.”
But nearly a year after the Department of Health and Human Services launched the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, Congress has not provided any funding, forcing it to operate without any full-time staff at a time of worsening climate disasters across the country, according to interviews with four officials there.
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster last summer
“Right now, it is an unfunded office,” said Adm. Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health. “What we really need is funding to have a permanent staff.”
In his budget plan released in March, Biden requested $3 million to support eight full-time positions in the climate office. The government funding package that passed the House last week would deliver the full $3 million. So would the spending bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled on Thursday.
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However, the government spending bills that lawmakers released last year also included $3 million for the climate office — until that money was stripped from the legislation at the last minute as part of an agreement brokered behind the scenes. That has fostered apprehension among officials in the climate office.
“Funding isn’t final until it’s final,” said a Health and Human Services official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of a lack of authorization to comment publicly.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, accused Democrats on Thursday of using the spending bills to pursue the Green New Deal, the liberal proposal to eliminate the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions over 10 years while guaranteeing well-paying jobs for all.
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“Senate Democrats’ bills seek to use the appropriations process to advance radical environmental and climate policies,” Shelby said in a statement, citing proposals to subsidize the solar industry and curb emissions of methane, a potent planet-warming gas, from livestock.
A spokeswoman for Republicans on the panel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Without full-time staff, the climate office has received personnel on loan from other federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. But those employees could be recalled to their home agencies if the office does not receive funding in the coming months.
John Balbus, interim director of the climate office, lamented that there is a debate over funding his work in the first place.
10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint
The administration had grand plans for the office. For the first time, it would marshal the full powers of the federal government to help Americans sweltering under deadly heat waves, breathing in dangerous wildfire smoke, fleeing from massive flooding and struggling to access clean drinking water amid a historic drought parching the West.
“Many climate and health calamities are colliding all at once,” Biden said at the time, adding, “Just like we need a unified national response to covid-19, we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis.”
But nearly a year after the Department of Health and Human Services launched the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, Congress has not provided any funding, forcing it to operate without any full-time staff at a time of worsening climate disasters across the country, according to interviews with four officials there.
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster last summer
“Right now, it is an unfunded office,” said Adm. Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health. “What we really need is funding to have a permanent staff.”
In his budget plan released in March, Biden requested $3 million to support eight full-time positions in the climate office. The government funding package that passed the House last week would deliver the full $3 million. So would the spending bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled on Thursday.
Advertisement
However, the government spending bills that lawmakers released last year also included $3 million for the climate office — until that money was stripped from the legislation at the last minute as part of an agreement brokered behind the scenes. That has fostered apprehension among officials in the climate office.
“Funding isn’t final until it’s final,” said a Health and Human Services official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of a lack of authorization to comment publicly.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, accused Democrats on Thursday of using the spending bills to pursue the Green New Deal, the liberal proposal to eliminate the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions over 10 years while guaranteeing well-paying jobs for all.
Advertisement
“Senate Democrats’ bills seek to use the appropriations process to advance radical environmental and climate policies,” Shelby said in a statement, citing proposals to subsidize the solar industry and curb emissions of methane, a potent planet-warming gas, from livestock.
A spokeswoman for Republicans on the panel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sign up for The Climate 202, a daily newsletter about climate policy and politics
Without full-time staff, the climate office has received personnel on loan from other federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. But those employees could be recalled to their home agencies if the office does not receive funding in the coming months.
John Balbus, interim director of the climate office, lamented that there is a debate over funding his work in the first place.