fetterman Sen P A
---
PRIMARY 9 26 EZ IRAN WAR
MERRI OK
STROKE --> TRUMPISTA
see bad trinity attack // hillary stumble
let them eat crudite vs veggie tray
NOTES FOR TRUMP NOMS?
-=-=
? AN 9 26
MAGA-world making bank off 'Trump’s favorite Democrat'
-=-=
AN 9 26
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) cast a tie-breaking vote that will allow President Donald Trump's war with Iran to continue.
The House has left Washington, but the Senate has remained throughout the week, and in a vote on Thursday afternoon, Democrats pushed for a count on House Concurrent Resolution 89, War Powers Resolution (Iran).
CSPAN showed the votes as they ticked by, standing still at 49-49. It was unclear who may have been out of town or unable to vote. If it was a tie, it would have put Vice President JD Vance in the difficult position to support a war he disagrees with or vote against Trump.
Semafor reporter Burgess Everett was watching, recording which lawmakers voted for and against.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) voted with Democrats.
Fetterman jumped in, he said, casting his vote with the Republicans.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), who was on Capitol Hill for an earlier vote, did not cast one for this count, Punchbowl confirmed. She was the only senator listed as not voting on the resolution.
Fetterman's larger concern is not with the Iran war specifically. His stated position is that Congress should not limit Trump’s ability to continue the military operation in Iran while U.S. forces are pursuing its objectives.
He told Fox News' Sean Hannity in April: “We have to stand [with] our military to allow them to accomplish the goals of Epic Fury.”
H.Con.Res. 89 was introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) would direct the president to remove U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran unless Congress passes a declaration of war or specific authorization for force. It expressly preserves the ability to defend the United States, U.S. forces, diplomatic facilities, and allies from an imminent attack, as well as defensive troop deployments and intelligence activities.
Alsobrooks has strongly stood in opposition to the Iran war, repeatedly voting for all Senate war-powers resolutions that would require U.S. forces to leave hostilities with Iran absent specific congressional authorization. Had she been there, she would have sent the bill into a 50-50 split, requiring Vance to cast the tie-breaker.
As news spread across social media, Fetterman was blasted for his vote.
"Thank you for proving our point that he just wants power just like Fetterman. You’re a sucker," said one person.
Republican Eric Daugherty sang Fetterman's praises, "Thankfully, despite being a Democrat, Fetterman knows being an IRGC apologist is NOT good for America! Now stop wasting time on these useless votes that don't actually accomplish anything even if they pass. PUT SAVE AMERICA ACT ON THE FLOOR!"
-=-=
-=-=
intercept
John Fetterman Is Fundraising on GOP Donor Email Lists
Akela Lacy
The hardline pro-Israel senator has been flirting with the idea of switching parties. Now he’s using Republican campaign infrastructure.
Read More →
-=-=
VID SP TRUMPAPALOOZA DALLAS
Philly paper goes all-in against 'unstable' Fetterman in brutal takedown
-=-=
'Dumb joke': Fetterman waves off his cruel texts about poor people
AN 9 26
Fetterman snubbed veterans and constituents to hang with Fox: report
DUCKED PARALYZ VETS FOR FOX HIT
staff says diff person after stroke, no interest in actual job
-=-=
7 26 AN
Sketchy GOP megadonor 'maxed out' contributions to John Fetterman
---
use of force defection israel? aipac?
an 5 26
Leaked texts expose Trump's favorite Democrat as basically a Republican - Alternet.org
Sen. John Fetterman might claim to be a Democrat, but according to a New York Magazine report, bombshell leaked texts have exposed why he is increasingly President Donald Trump and MAGA's favorite: he basically sounds like a Republican already.
This week, New York Magazine published a new piece about Fetterman digging into the relationship with "little-known writer," David Safier, who has "encouraged and counseled" the senator in his staunch support for Israel, as the rest of the Democratic Party has moved to a notably more critical stance. Within the report, as highlighted by The Daily Beast on Friday, were a number of leaked text messages in which he sounds much more in line with typical conservative talking points, "mocking free healthcare, dismissing the Epstein files as a 'nothing burger' and calling Democrats hypocritical for their outrage at the killing of nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis."
The New York Magazine report noted that Fetterman's staff in Washington D.C., had grown "incredulous and exhausted" by the start of 2026, claiming that he "was acting like a Republican" in private. In January, for example, he sent a report to his staff which showed that the average annual cost of healthcare for Americans was around $4,000.
“How should it cost? Free?” he texted. “I don’t understand what affordability it is.”
When speaking about the fallout of the Epstein files, Fetterman said that there was nothing to them and that the worst of the revealed materials were about former President Bill Clinton. Experts had previously warned that the Trump administration would try to manipulate the release of the files so as to make Trump's enemies look worse than his allies and himself.
“Epstein was a nothing burger," Fetterman wrote to a staffer in January. "Worst pics I’ve seen were from Clinton lol.”
In the wake of Alex Pretti's death at the hands of immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year, Fetterman argued to a staffer that it was hypocritical for Democrats to make certain arguments in his defense.
“Kyle Rittenhouse brought a gun to a protest,” Fetterman wrote in the message. “He was roundly condemned for that. Why are now democrats defending the nurse it was legal to carry. Both legal weapons. Square that.”
As the Daily Beast noted, Pretti never fired the gun that he had, while Rittenhouse did, fatally injuring two men after traveling to the scene of a protest.
Fetterman's significant drift to the right since entering office has seen his popularity with Democrats drop to historically unprecedented levels. This has fueled some rumors that he might switch parties, with reports suggesting that some prominent Republicans are egging him on. Despite feeling abandoned by Democrats, Fetterman himself dismissed those rumors and said that he would make for a "s—— Republican."
---
an 5 26
Fetterman says he 'fully' understands why a Pennsylvania judge left Democratic Party - Alternet.org
---
an 4? 26
Critics aghast after Fetterman tells Fox’s Hannity Trump has 'made the world safer' - Alternet.org
---
an 5 26
The GOP's once sure-fire odds to retain their Senate majority in the midterms are looking bleaker every day, but according to a new report from Politico, some in the party are plotting a "coup" that could save them from a complete wipeout: flipping John Fetterman, the increasingly ostracized Democratic senator.
Fetterman was first elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania in 2022, besting the Trump-backed Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz and helping Democrats defy the odds and grow their majority in the chamber. Initially styling himself as a working-class progressive champion, he has since made a major shift away from his own party, voicing support for various initiatives and nominees from President Donald Trump and breaking the Democratic minority on several key votes.
Now regularly polling as one of the least popular lawmakers with the Democratic base, Fetterman's days in Congress are considered numbered. That is, unless Republicans can pull off their gamble of trying to convince him to become one of them, as laid out on Monday by Politico.
"It’s a few days after the election this November, and the results have become clear: Democrats have netted the four seats they need to claim a Senate majority," Politico's report read. "But then there’s a disturbance in the force: Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump persuade Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) to switch parties or at least become an independent to ensure Republicans retain power in the chamber. It’s a scenario that’s becoming less fantastical by the day."
Fetterman himself has repeatedly dismissed the notion that he might swap parties, noting his record of voting along Democratic lines 93 percent of the time and admitting that he would make for a "sh——y Republican." Despite that, he has also frequently lamented about feeling poorly treated by his Democratic colleagues, and polls show that he has grown increasingly popular with Republican voters.
According to Politico, Trump has pledged complete support for the Pennsylvania senator if he makes the switch to the GOP, offering a full-throated endorsement and substantial monetary resources from the party's warchest.
"A handful of Senate Republicans are also gently feeling out Fetterman and responding to his concerns over the prospect of defecting from the Democratic Party, multiple high-level GOP officials tell me," Politico's Jonathan Martin explained. "If Fetterman does flip, according to officials who were given anonymity to talk about sensitive matters, it will be thanks in large part to his deepening friendship with a pair of senators and their high-profile spouses: Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), and his wife Dina, and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and her husband, Wesley."
Despite his public protestation, Martin claimed that Fetterman is less hostile towards the idea in private.
"When one senior Republican recently brought up the idea of becoming an independent to Fetterman, he absorbed the suggestion and didn’t embrace or reject the overture, according to a GOP official familiar with the conversation," Martin added.
Aside from the fact that he still sincerely holds many liberal values, Fetterman is reportedly also hesitant about the prospect due to Trump's caustic treatment of Republicans who break with him on key issues, something the senator is likely to do often.
"If Republicans can’t tolerate even Tillis, Fetterman suggested, how would they accept somebody who supports abortion rights, gay rights, legalizing marijuana and is pro-labor? (He flies the pride flag outside his Senate office.) Senate Republicans have reminded the Pennsylvanian that there are members of their conference who are more moderate on each of those issues," Martin wrote.
---
VOTED TO MULLEN HEGS? IRAN?
AN 3 26
'Needs to go': Critics rage against 'Trump’s intern' Fetterman - Alternet.org
---
AN 4 26
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) criticized Democrats for opposing President Donald Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, prompting some of those same Democrats to point out the obvious: Because the White House Correspondents Dinner is a private event, it would never have been held at the White House, and therefore a ballroom would have made no difference.
“We were there front and center,” Fetterman posted on X on Sunday. “That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government. After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.”
The acronym “TDS” stands for “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which refers to people who supposedly hate Trump so much that they become irrational. Yet as many Democrats and other Trump opponents pointed out, Fetterman — whose advocacy of a ballroom echoes the arguments made by Trump and his supporters after the supposed shooting attempt at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday — is the one being irrational. After all, the dinner in question is a private event, and has never been held in the White House.
“Sorry, @JohnFetterman, but the WHCA dinner is NOT sponsored by the White House,” posted Democratic strategist Jon Cooper on X. “Nobody is forcing the VP and other Cabinet members to attend this fancy black tie event.”
He added, “Sit down and worry about your primary.”
Liberal pundit Dean Obediallah also called out Fetterman’s comment, posting on X that he “can't wait for Fetterman to become a Republican so we can DESTROY him in the election!” Comibing both Cooper’s and Obediallah’s points, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Evan Gold wrote “Do you directly get the talking points from the GOP or just read about them? No venue should hold the entire line of succession. Period.”
He added, “Also this was a WHCA event, not a White House event. It wouldn't be held there.”
Meanwhile former tennis star Martina Navratilova, an outspoken critic of Trump, posted on X that Fetterman needs to “eff off already!!!”
The ballroom, which would be 90,000 square feet and eclipse the White House itself, is being challenged by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and last week a federal appeals court found that Trump lacked the legal authority to make those renovations without Congressional approval.
Notably, however, the U.S. District Judge Richard Leon allowed underground work to continue for security reasons — that is, because experts were concerned that beginning the construction created security risks that could not be ameliorated unless at least some of the construction is allowed to continue.
“The hurried reviews, with construction cranes already swiveling above the White House grounds, are an abrupt departure from how new monuments, museums and even modest renovations have been designed and refined in the capital for decades,” Emily Badger, Junho Lee and Larry Buchanan of The New York Times reported regarding the process behind the renovations.
---
AN 7 25
PA Democrat accuses Fetterman of 'covering for Trump' after senator claims economy is 'going well'
---
2 25 MADDOW BLOG
Some Senate Democrats have been willing to vote for Donald Trump’s less outlandish Cabinet nominees, but Pam Bondi’s nomination for U.S. attorney general was a qualitatively different kind of case. The Florida Republican is a scandal-plagued election denier and former lobbyist for foreign governments, who, even during her confirmation hearing, refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
Members of the Senate’s GOP majority were eager to confirm Bondi anyway, but there was no way that Democrats were going to go along with such a scheme. When the dust settled, the final tally was 54-46, with every member of the Democratic minority opposed to her nomination — with one exception.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted with Republicans.
Around the same time, reporters started asking lawmakers for their reactions to Donald Trump’s apparent plan to “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip. Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, echoing the thoughts of many in his party, described the president’s proposal as “deranged” and “nuts.” The New York Times reported, however, that Fetterman had a different perspective.
This came on the heels of the White House’s scandalous spending freeze, which the vast majority of Democrats were eager to denounce. Fetterman told reporters, however, that he wasn’t inclined “to freak out” about it.
About a week earlier, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called for possible U.S. military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Fetterman quickly endorsed the idea.
Circling back to our recent coverage, all of this appears to be part of a striking pattern. In the aftermath of the 2024 elections — a cycle in which his home state’s voters elected a new GOP senator while backing the Trump-Vance ticket — the Democrat has:
offered positive comments about Trump’s goal of acquiring Greenland;
met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago;
joined Trump’s social media platform;
endorsed a presidential pardon for Trump, calling the New York case against the Republican “bulls---”;
described Trump as “a singular political talent”;
met with Kash Patel and seemed reassured when the GOP operative said he wouldn’t pursue the names on his enemies list if confirmed as the next FBI director;
and cosponsored the Republicans’ Laken Riley Act, ignoring the bill’s many serious flaws.
Before the election, the Pennsylvanian also endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to make it a literal crime to sell “cultivated” lab-based meats.
In case this isn’t obvious, in the not-too-distant past, Fetterman described himself as a “progressive” and backed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. More recently, however, the senator told NBC News, “I’m not a progressive.”
It’s difficult to say with confidence what’s behind the Pennsylvanian’s shifts, but those hoping to see Senate Democrats maintain a united front against the new administration should keep this in mind: There are real differences between the old Fetterman and the new Fetterman.
---
7 24 boosts biden post debate, ~ 2025 on fox?!
---
checked himself in, no exhaustion BS
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-blames-john-fettermans-hospitalization-cruel-political-calculation-stage
---
https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/giselle-fetterman-fox-news-conspiracy/
---
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-launches-vicious-attacks-gisele-fetterman-has-bisexual-brazilian-immigrant
---
---
dirty trick? weapon ableism
https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/john-fetterman-consequence-free-stigma/
---
---
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-friends-first-guest-wildly-inflates-frackings-economic-footprint-pennsylvania-lies-0
---
---
mma 10 22
no lnx twt
Fox News’ repugnant smears about John Fetterman’s stroke
WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ
PUBLISHED 10/13/22
John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor and its Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, suffered a stroke in May. Five months into his recovery, he still faces lingering difficulties processing spoken words. Specialists say this side effect does not “indicate any cognitive impairment” or impact his ability to be a senator, and there is recent precedent for stroke survivors serving in that body. Fetterman has adapted to his condition, like tens of millions of Americans, through a common workplace accommodation — in his case, he often communicates with staffers through text messages and has used closed captioning to conduct numerous press interviews.
Fox News hosts have leveraged an NBC News interview which aired on Tuesday and fixated on that accommodation to stoke fears about Fetterman’s condition. To bolster the campaign of Fetterman’s opponent, celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, they’ve spent the last few days pushing conspiracy theories about the Democrat’s accommodation, claiming that he had been hiding his condition from voters, and suggesting that he is mentally incompetent.
Tucker Carlson, for example, speculated on Wednesday that Fetterman’s brain may have been taken over by computers.
:{:{}:
}:
“Where exactly does the software end and John Fetterman's consciousness begin?” the Fox host asked. “We don't know. We can't know.”
Carlson also postulated that Fetterman was “reading answers” — not questions — off the screen he used as an accommodation during his NBC interview.
:{:{}:
}:
:{:{}:
}:
Maria Bartiromo offered a similar conspiracy theory on her Fox Business show on Thursday morning, asking Oz, “There’s Fetterman in an interview reading the questions that she’s saying. Is somebody typing in the answers? What’s that all about?”
Sean Hannity said on Tuesday that Fetterman is “severely disabled” and “not mentally capable of debating.” The following night, talk radio host Clay Travis told Hannity’s audience that Fetterman lacks “the health status to be able to be a United States senator” because he “cannot speak.”
Fox correspondent Kevin Corke, meanwhile,falsely suggested on Thursday’s Fox & Friends that Fetterman had been dishonestly concealing his use of an accommodation from voters until the NBC News interview. In reality, “The Tribune-Review found 10 published stories, including ones from Pittsburgh publications and national outlets, that mention Fetterman informing reporters he needed closed captioning to help him understand their questions, including his first post-stroke interview on July 20.”
“A few months ago, he said, ‘Yeah, I'm fine, and good,’" Corke alleged. “OK, but we didn't know you needed electronic assistance to sort of make it through conversations, and I think that's really eye-opening for a number of folks in the commonwealth. And clearly questions about Fetterman’s health continued to swirl as concerns over his cognition also continue to grow.”
Fox hosts have frequently misrepresented Fetterman’s condition in recent months. Carlson claimed the candidate “is completely incapable of representing Pennsylvania in the United States Senate” because he is now an “incompetent husk,” while Hannity as described Fetterman’s stroke as “crippling.”
Fox chyrons have branded Fetterman a “giant walking vegetable” who “can barely utter a sentence.”
This dishonesty is part and parcel of Fox’s broader campaign against Fetterman: The network’s stars will say anything to tear him down and elect Oz, a Fox regular who owes his nomination to Hannity’s support and claims to have an identical ideology.
Related
Fox prime time goes all-in against John Fetterman
09/30/22 9:09 AM EDT
Political journalists joined right-wing media with ableist responses to Fetterman interview
10/12/22 3:06 PM EDT
Fox News is ramping up its campaign against PA Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman
08/05/22 1:49 PM EDT
---
---
https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/sean-hannity-threatens-to-sue-lying-john-fetterman-for-calling-him-a-liar/
---
---
an 8 22
Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman made the case Sunday for prosecuting corporate executives as part of a broader government crackdown on unlawful price gouging and other business practices that have driven up the costs of medicine, groceries, and gas—padding company bottom lines at the expense of consumers.
"Take the massive oil companies, for example," the Democratic candidate wrote in an op-ed for the Pennsylvania Times Leader. "Chevron, Exxon, and Shell have seen their profits increase 200% since last year, but they're still charging us sky-high prices for gas. Companies like Tyson posted over a billion dollars in profits last quarter, while raising prices on meat products our families depend on."
"It's gross, and deeply unpatriotic, for the big corporations to be rolling around in cash while charging us record-high prices for gas and groceries," wrote Fetterman, who is currently Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor. "We'll crack down on this by prosecuting the executives of these huge corporations, including the Big Oil companies and meatpacking companies who are artificially driving up prices, gouging consumers at the pump and at the grocery store."
Fetterman's op-ed comes just over a week after he held his first major public event since suffering a stroke in mid-May, days before the Democratic primary contest that he won handily.
The Democrat's general election campaign in the critical battleground Pennsylvania—a state that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate next year—currently enjoys a double-digit polling lead over his Republican opponent, the former celebrity television personality and ultra-millionaire Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Fetterman is looking to press his advantage by continuing to deploy populist messaging that presents Oz as a carpetbagger whose extreme wealth and ties to corporate interests such as Big Pharma render him unfit to deliver for the working class, whose earnings are being eroded by surging prescription drug prices, housing costs, and other inflationary trends.
According to one recent analysis, pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. have raised drug prices more than 1,100 times so far this year.
"Let's be clear: Dr. Oz just isn't connected to the struggles that Pennsylvanians are facing every day," Fetterman wrote in his new op-ed. "While he's been complaining about rising prices from his New Jersey Mansion, I've been meeting Pennsylvanians on grocery store runs, speaking with them about the challenges they're facing, and finding real policy solutions that get stuff done and make their lives better."
"Working Pennsylvanians are getting screwed," he continued. "While costs are rising and wages are failing to keep up, too many of our leaders in Washington simply aren't doing enough. Out-of-touch politicians got us into this mess, we can't trust an out-of-touch millionaire TV doctor to get us out of it."
In addition to prosecuting corporate executives for price-gouging and other abuses, Fetterman voices support for a range of policy solutions aimed at tackling rising costs and inequality, including:
- Enacting a financial transaction tax on trades of stocks, bonds, and derivatives;
- Ending the stranglehold of healthcare costs on American families by instituting a cap of a thousand dollars per year on out-of-pocket costs;
- Passing legislation to allow for the importation of lower-priced prescription drugs from other countries; and
- Putting a cap on prescription drug costs.
"If we start getting stuff done, starting with these priorities I've listed," Fetterman wrote, "we can make real change for the towns, cities, and people of Pennsylvania."
---
fetterman vs dr oz
https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/steve-bannon-ridiculed-without-mercy-after-claiming-pennsylvanias-lt-gov-is-satanic/
---
---
~ Fetterman
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-ramping-its-campaign-against-pennsylvania-democratic-senate-nominee-john
---
challenged tex lt gov for voter fraud bounty TRMS?
---
120 bernie gaining ground in Iowa? corp press ignores? nader et al see corp dem bias to ctr?
https://www.ecowatch.com/bernie-sanders-fracking-ban-2644992555.html
While Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been in Washington this week for the impeachment trial, he has put forth two bills to help the environment.
On Tuesday, he pushed forward a bill to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as The Hill reported. The bill, titled "A bill to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing, and for other purposes," will go to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for review.
While the text of the bill is not yet available, Sen. Jeff Merkley from Oregon is a co-sponsor of the bill. On Thursday, Sanders tweeted that he also worked on the bill with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Darren Soto (D-Fla.), as The Hill reported.
"I don't mind if @MarkRuffalo spoils his own movies. But please, don't ruin the surprise of our new legislation with Rep. @AOC, @SenJeffMerkley and @RepDarrenSoto. I don't want the dirty fracking industry CEOs to know what hit them," wrote Sanders in his tweet, which embedded a video of the actor and activist, Mark Ruffalo, touting a potential federal ban on fracking.
...
he bill drew support from several environmental activist organizations.
"Senator Sanders' bill names the problem and provides the only solution," Natalie Mebane, Associate Director of Policy at 350.org, said in a statement. "In order to avoid the worst of the climate crisis, we must rapidly transition off of fossil fuels, and end fracking and the dangerous pipelines that come with it."
The ban on fracking that Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren advocate has democrats concerned that such a policy could push Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state, to President Donald Trump in November.
"In Pennsylvania, you're talking hundreds of thousands of related jobs that would be — they would be unemployed overnight," said John Fetterman, Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, to The New York Times. "Pennsylvania is a margin play. And an outright ban on fracking isn't a margin play."
Sanders not only introduced a ban on fracking. On Wednesday, he, along with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Ma), introduced The Preventing Future American Sickness (PFAS) Act, which takes aim at 'forever chemicals' polluting waterways, as The Hill reported.
As EcoWatch reported, a recent study from the Environmental Working Group found that toxic forever chemicals, or PFAS, are far more prevalent in drinking water than previously thought.
"As hundreds of communities across the country are dealing with toxic PFAS contamination in their drinking water," Sanders says in a statement put out by Food and Water Watch, "it is unconscionable that huge corporations like DuPont have, for decades, concealed evidence of how dangerous these compounds are in order to keep profiting at the expense of human health. Congress must pass this legislation to put an end to corporate stonewalling and criminal behavior and tackle this public health crisis. It is not a radical idea to demand that when people in the world's richest country turn on their taps, the water they drink is free of toxic chemicals."
The legislation would ban the chemicals from food packaging and ban the incineration of PFAS firefighting foam. It would also direct the Environmental Protection Agency to designate PFAS as hazardous under both the Clean Air and and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act — commonly called CERCLA or Superfund, as Common Dreams reported.
Labeling the chemicals as hazardous substances would force manufacturers to foot the bill for cleaning them up, according to The Hill.
"Every American—regardless of the color of their skin, their zip code, or their income—has the right to be free from exposure to a slew of carcinogens and hazardous chemicals," said Merkley, as Common Dreams reported. "But millions of people are ingesting dangerous PFAS chemicals against their will through the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the food they eat. Congress needs to come together to put the health of our communities above the wish lists of American's biggest polluters, and that means establishing and enforcing chemical standards that protect Americans from PFAS substances."
Both bills face an uncertain future in a Republican-controlled senate. Even if they did get through the Senate, Trump has said he would veto them, as Common Dreams reported.
---