Make Your Voice Heard: Take Direct Action In New York State
Keep Calling! Because they all need to know that we are not going away. We don’t want 5G and we don’t want cell towers close to our homes. Explain your concerns (who your are and why you are calling).
Make sure to ask them to call you back with responses from the representatives on how they are dealing with our concerns going forward.
Supervisor Chad Lupinacci: (631) 351-3000
Assemblyman Steve Stern: (631) 271-8025
Senator Carl Marcellino: (516) 922-1811
Congressman Tom Suozzi: (631) 923-4100
Senator Kristen Gillibrand: (631)249-2825
Senator Charles E. Schumer: (631)753-0978
Community Solar Program Looking For Participants
PowerUp Solar Long Island is an initiative designed to bring solar energy to nonprofit organizations at a substantially reduced cost. In this campaign, PowerUp Solar will focus on churches in Long Island as their target market among nonprofit organizations. PowerUp Solar provides the benefits of solar PV to nonprofits at reduced prices achieved by 
aggregating multiple installations and by passing along a portion of the benefits of tax incentives from a third party financier. This week’s guest is Ryan Madden, the Sustainability Organizer for the Long Island Progressive Coalition, who in addition to his extensive experience working in social justice and politics, works with Resonant Energy, facilitating the installation of solar panels to local, faith-based and/or nonprofit institutional sites. The significance of which not only lowers cost for these community centers, but signals to the surrounding communities that the possibility of renewable energy infrastructure is within reach and normal.
Tell Suozzi to Consider Public Health in New Bill
In just a matter of days, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on a funding bill that takes direct aim at Americans’ health and safety. The Interior Minibus Appropriations bill is loaded down with policy riders that gut our bedrock environmental protections and aim to slash EPA’s staff. We can’t let this dangerous legislation pass. Take action today, and tell Thomas Suozzi to reject this bloated funding bill that puts Americans at risk.
Here are just a sampling of the alarming provisions included in the legislation:
- A $500 million cut to environmental, science, & water infrastructure and management programs from the 2018 budget.
- $31.55 million in funds dedicated to buying out and laying off the career staff at EPA — the non-political appointees still dedicated to protecting Americans.
- And the bill even places actual prohibitions on listing certain species for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Why include these attacks in an appropriations bill? Because when our opponents can’t pass stand-alone legislation to block our bedrock protections, they use the funding process to attack our rights to clean air and water. It’s far easier to tack these anti-environmental “riders” on. Hard budget deadlines mean Members of Congress are more likely to vote “yes” on a funding bill that includes items they would usually reject — even though these anti-environmental riders provide no benefits and don’t have public support.
In fact, they cost the public money through the environmental and health hazards they produce. Americans deserve better. Take action today, and tell Thomas Suozzi: Don’t let the House use the funding process to attack public health & safety. Block this dangerous bill.
STOP Pharmacuetical-Use on Food-Animals To Maintain Industrial Production
The rampant use of antibiotics over several decades has finally come to the forefront of many speculative consumer’s minds, as they shop for responsibly-raised animal-meat. However, there are many other pharmaceuticals that have not been proven safe, and are used widely in high-volume production facilities. According to Center for Food Safety, “the pharmaceutical industry is trying to get a federal exemption to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) drug approval process which allows a drug to be marketed for 5 years without demonstrating efficacy.”
Tell your Representative not to put human and animal health at risk to boost industry profits!
This bill would significantly expand the ability of drug companies to rush animal drugs to market, without demonstrating they are safe and effective. This bill is moving to the floor for a vote! Industry groups have snuck this bill in to a larger piece of drug legislation, the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA), during its routine re-authorization. It would reduce the FDA’s oversight of new animal drugs, making it easier for drugs that haven’t been sufficiently tested to be used in food animals. This bill would amend the section of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act that allows FDA to conditionally approve a new animal drug. The vague language would enable a wide range of drugs to forego the full application, assessment, and approval process. It could be used in millions of animals each year for five years. 
Tell Congress that we must uphold strong testing standards for drugs used in food animals.
Currently, conditional approvals may only be granted to drugs intended for use in only a small number of animals annually, or in animals that are not considered “major species”. This ensures that it is only an option for drugs that will not have widespread use.
But this bill increases the umbrella meant to facilitate important medicines, giving blanket conditional approval eligibility for “a new animal drug not intended for a minor use or minor species.” The broad criteria opens the process to drugs intended to treat “an unmet animal or human health need” or for any drug which the Secretary of Agriculture determines that demonstrating effectiveness would require a difficult study.
Conditional approvals exist to ensure that drug companies are able to manufacture therapies for specific diseases or species that may be necessary for animal health, but costly to produce compared to their limited marketability. If the costs of conducting extensive efficacy studies and completing the lengthy FDA assessment process far exceed the revenue a needed therapy will generate, companies may not invest in some important animal medicines.
Outside of this, new animal drugs must go through FDA’s application process, which is meant to ensure only drugs that are safe and effective are approved. This approval process already places much authority in the hands of industry. See Center for Food Safety’s 2015 report for more details on animal drug approvals.
If ADUFA passes with this language included, it will increase the likelihood that harmful, untested drugs will be used in millions of food animals every year!
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