Tell Congress: Restore the Climate Funding Trump Cut

Donald Trump just canceled hundreds of millions of dollars that Congress had already approved — including funding intended to protect tropical forests and coral reefs.

Congress must fight to restore it.

The administration recently announced its intent to cut $810 million in previously appropriated spending. The cuts reach programs involving health, education, refugees, housing, minority-owned businesses and other priorities. They also include $9 million from the Tropical Forest and Coral Reef Conservation Act program.

That may be a relatively small piece of the overall package. But what it supports is anything but small.

For more than 25 years, this bipartisan conservation program has used debt-for-nature agreements to help countries protect tropical forests. Congress expanded it in 2019 to include coral reefs.

Instead of simply collecting debt payments, the United States reaches agreements that redirect resources toward protecting and restoring forests and reefs. 

Those ecosystems shelter extraordinary biodiversity — and tropical forests also store enormous amounts of carbon that would otherwise contribute to climate change if 
released into the atmosphere.

The program has helped protect more than 68 million acres of tropical forest and enabled more than $248 million in debt-reduction agreements across 14 countries. That is nothing any administration should walk away from to make an ideological point.

And there is bipartisan support in Congress for continuing this program. Lawmakers from both parties have introduced legislation this year to reauthorize it and provide future funding.

Donald Trump calls this wasteful spending. But protecting tropical forests and coral reefs is not waste — and Congress already made the decision to fund this work.

Now the administration is trying to claw that money back through a rarely used “pocket rescission” maneuver. Even Republican Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins has argued that the move violates Congress’s constitutional power over federal spending.

Congress should not surrender that power — especially when climate and conservation funding is on the chopping block.

Please sign the petition to tell Congress to restore this funding.

The petition to Congress reads: Restore the funding cut from the Tropical Forest and Coral Reef Conservation Act program and protect continued federal investment in conserving forests, coral reefs and the climate.

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Sources:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-administration-uses-rare-authority-to-claw-back-nearly-1b-in-spending-approved-by-congress

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hr10505ih/html/BILLS-119hr10505ih.htm