CSS Opposes Piecemeal Funding for Federal Agencies and Programs

October 7, 2013 | Download PDF

United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:

The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS) is an alliance of consumer, small business, labor, good government, health, environmental and public interest groups dedicated to protecting the standards and safeguards that ensure a decent, healthy quality of life for all Americans. A strong and effective public sector is essential to that goal.

We write to urge you to reject a piecemeal approach to funding federal programs. This would lead to the most visible programs being funded, while other essential services are ignored. Americans depend upon the totality of our government to protect them. The American people rely on the activities of a range of agencies to protect their health and safety and to protect them from predatory financial products and schemes: the Food and Drug Administration ensures our medicines and processed foods are safe; the Environmental Protection Agency protects the water we drink and air we breathe; the Consumer Product Safety Commission keeps dangerous toys and other products out of the hands of our children and off the shelves; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ensures the safety of our nation’s cars and roads; the Federal Trade Commission works to protect consumers from unfair and predatory practices; and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration protects our workplaces. Congress should not be asked to cherry-pick from menus of federal programs and agencies during a self-made budgetary crisis when Americans need all federal agencies up and running to protect them.

Please push for a budget that fully funds the government and sends the entire federal workforce back to work. We need Congress to open the government, pay our existing debts, and find ways to repair the damage that sequestration has wrought on our system of public protections.

Sincerely,

Katherine McFate
President and CEO, Center for Effective Government
Co-chair, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards

Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen
Co-chair, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards

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The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards is an alliance of over 140 consumer, labor, good government, health, environmental, and public interest groups, as well as concerned individuals, joined in the belief that our country’s system of regulatory safeguards provides a stable framework that secures our quality of life and paves the way for a sound economy that benefits us all.