Judy Caplan and Steve Fadem Meet with Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky on the Environment

Last Thursday, May 11th, Beth Emet members Judy Caplan and Steve Fadem were in Washington for the RAC’s (Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism) Day of Action on the Environment. They were part of 250 Reform Jews from across the country who came together to LEARN – we were treated to hearing from the Acting Deputy Administrator of the EPA and several members of Congress — Senator Raphael Warnock (GA), Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17), Rep. Pramlia Jayapal (WA-7) and others — about the need for the administration to make significant cuts to air pollution with the goal of cutting pollution in half by 2030. Many of the speakers underscored the disproportionate impact of air and water pollution on communities of color, The environmental issue is also a racial justice issue. Once we learned, we were sent off to ACT. After these talks, we took off to meet with legislators.

Steve and Judy met with a staffer from Senator Durbin’s office and directly with Jan Schakowsky, the U. S. Congressperson for the 9th District — our representative who also is a Beth Emet member. Our asks were two:

• We urge you to pressure the Biden administration to propose and/or finalize strong standards to limit climate pollution.
• We urge you to support increased funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and support the request for $12.083 billion funding in the next budget to fully fund the Clean Air and Climate program.

The Durbin aide could not commit but agreed to bring these two asks to the Senator.
Congresswoman Schakowsky boldly replied: YES, FOR SURE! to the first and YES, 100% to the second.

As a follow-up to this event, RAC-IL will be holding a Climate Campaign Webinar on Tuesday, May 16 at 7:00 pm. If you are interested in the environment and want to know more about what the Reform Movement is doing on the issue, please register using this link.

If you have any questions contact Judy Caplan