In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and historic fires, federal agencies are struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is pursing a 31 percent budget cut to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In response, over 100 women and mothers from all walks of life have come together to sign an open letter asking Congress to get serious about protecting kids and communities from poison, ending harmful pollution, and preventing the next climate disaster by fully funding the EPA.

Here's their letter:

Dear Women Members of Congress:

We’re writing to you as mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and caretakers fiercely concerned about our kids. Donald Trump has shown little regard for women, our rights, and policies that protect our children’s future. We need your help to finally draw the line and get serious about climate change.

Families in Flint, Michigan, and other parts of the country, still don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. Families in Richmond, California, and those near polluting refineries, have grown accustomed to the sound of alarm bells ringing each time there is an oil or gas leak. In some parts of Utah, “inversion days” are treated like snow days, keeping people home from work and school because the air is too toxic to breathe. Worst of all, too many of our kids are suffering from lead poisoning, asthma, and pollution-related disease.

While the Trump Administration should be doing something to help our communities, it is making matters worse.

Trump has already formalized our nation’s exit from the Paris Agreement. Now he’s proposing a 31 percent budget cut to the Environmental Protection Agency. That means a quarter of EPA staff would lose their jobs, along with 50 environmental stewardship programs housed in communities across the U.S. Our nation will effectively lose the capacity to fight climate change which reduces the economic, social and healthcare costs of natural disasters like Harvey and Irma.

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