VIDEO: Harder Pushes Biden Admin on Combatting Air Pollution & Asthma in Critical House Hearing
After San Joaquin County received an ‘F’ grade from the American Lung Association, Rep. Harder has doubled down on his demands more investments in clean air and asthma treatment
WASHINGTON – Today, during a critical House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Josh Harder pushed National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak on doing more to combat air pollution and asthma in the Central Valley. San Joaquin County recently received an ‘F’ grade in the American Lung Association’s 2022 State of the Air report, failing all three of the report’s key metrics. The report also indicates that 13,971 kids and 52,942 adults in San Joaquin County are at risk of developing asthma. This issue is personal to Rep. Harder, who along with his brother suffered childhood asthma growing up in the Central Valley.
VIDEO: WATCH REP. HARDER’S EXCHANGE WITH DIRECTOR TABAK ONLINE HERE.
“I know the feeling of growing up more worried about your inhaler than your homework. It breaks my heart to know that the problem of childhood asthma has gotten worse, not better, since I was growing up in the Valley,” said Rep. Harder. “Today we had the Director of the National Institutes of Health in front of our Committee, and I pushed him to explain what needs to be done to deliver cleaner air to everyone in our community. It’s time we put a real plan into action and clean up our air.”
Read Rep. Harder’s remarks as prepared for delivery below.
Thank you, Chairwoman DeLauro, for hosting this hearing.
Thank you also to the witnesses for taking time to be here before the Subcommittee and for sharing their testimonies. Since we last met, the American Lung Association released their 2022 State of the Air report.
The report gave my District – both Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties – an “F” grade. This means that they received an “F” grade for both ozone and particle pollution in a 24 hour period and a failing grade for particle pollution annually.
This has serious health impacts for my constituents - one in five kids in our community has childhood asthma. My brother and I both grew up with childhood asthma. I know what it’s like to worry whether your inhaler is in your backpack every day.
These “F” grades illustrate what everyone in my community already knows – our air is bad and it’s only getting worse. I refuse to let my daughter grow up breathing worse air than I did.
Dr. Tabak, with this continuing trend in my community regarding poor air quality and staggering cases of childhood asthma, what can the NIH commit to doing with this year’s budget to ensure federal dollars are directed to programming and research that tackle the issues of air quality and asthma?
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