Congressional Champions of Color Lead the Way

The 2025 National Environmental Scorecard demonstrates the unprecedented and dangerous attacks by President Trump and congressional Republicans on affordable clean energy and climate action, clean transportation, public lands and waters, clean air and water, and our democracy. However, climate and democracy champions in both chambers defended critical clean energy investments in our communities and against relentless attacks on climate and environmental justice. Many of the bills and initiatives in 2025 defending climate, conservation, environmental justice, and equitable democracy were led and supported by members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), collectively referred to as the Tri-Caucus.¹Tri-Caucus members are bolded on this page.

Opposing Clean Energy and Climate Rollbacks

This year, congressional champions of color fought back against the onslaught of attacks on affordable clean energy and climate action. From the start, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans took aim at the historic progress of the Inflation Reduction Act and the booming clean energy industry in order to redirect benefits to their fossil fuel cronies. Members of the Tri-Caucus pushed back, with dozens of amendments, floor speeches, letters, press conferences, and town hall meetings, including Rules & Administration Ranking Member Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), Representatives Gabe Amo (RI-01), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Greg Casar (TX-35), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Jahana Hayes, (CT-05), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Mike Levin (CA-49), Ted Lieu (CA-36), Jennifer McClellan (VA-04), Robert Menendez (NJ-08), Luz Rivas (CA-29), and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), among many others.

In July 2025, the Trump administration proposed a rule that would eliminate the endangerment finding, which is the foundation for nearly every federal climate pollution limit. The Trump administration’s attempt to deny the science and people’s experience of devastating climate change-fueled disasters was met with fierce resistance. In addition to joining caucus-wide letters, Senator Blunt Rochester, Small Business Ranking Member Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), and Representatives Summer Lee (PA-12), Nikema Williams (GA-05), Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03),  Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Amo, McClellan, and Menendez led individual delegation letters detailing how rolling back the endangerment finding would harm communities in their states.

Throughout 2025, environmental champions in Congress have been fighting back against unprecedented attacks on clean transportation programs. Most notably, the Congressional Review Act (CRA) was misused to block California and other states’ pollution standards for cars, trucks, and buses. These votes, which were included in this year’s Scorecard, were opposed by champions of color in Congress at every step of the process. Senator Padilla led this opposition by giving floor speeches and leading letters condemning this illegal rollback.

The Trump administration also withheld funds for critical clean transportation projects that were appropriated by Congress on a bipartisan basis. Once again, champions of color spoke out against these harmful executive actions. Senator Warnock led a letter urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to unfreeze funds for the Clean School Bus program. Representative Doris Matsui (CA-07) led a letter to the Department of Transportation urging them to release National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funding.

Matsui also fought to oppose the elimination of the federal clean vehicle standards by leading a letter of more than 100 members of Congress to the EPA. Despite these rollbacks and alongside discussions on surface transportation reauthorization, Representative Hank Johnson (GA-04) introduced the Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act, a groundbreaking bill that would provide $80 billion in funding for public transit programs.

Protecting Public Lands and Stopping the Sell-Off

This year, conservation champions in Congress worked hard to protect our public lands and waters and push back against relentless Republican efforts to sell them off to extractive industries. In the House, Representative Joe Neguse (CO-02) introduced the Protect Our Parks Act and the Save Our Forests Act, both seeking to ensure adequate staffing levels at land management agencies and reinstate workers wrongfully terminated by the Trump administration. Representatives Andrea Salinas (OR-06) and Ansari advocated for the reinstatement of the 2021 Roadless Rule, introducing the Roadless Area Conservation Act to codify the rule and protect millions of acres of national forest and leading a letter to the secretary of Agriculture demanding reinstatement of the protections. On the House floor, Representative Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) spoke in opposition to efforts to overturn protections for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Western Arctic using the CRA. Representative Leger Fernández (NM-03) also pushed back against these rollbacks and the importance of protecting the Arctic and public lands in committee speeches.

Several members used their voices to push back against public lands attacks at community events and in videos. Neguse joined LCV and Conservation Colorado for a hike on public lands in Colorado and spoke about the urgency of pushing back against attacks on public lands. During the House Natural Resources Committee’s consideration of the Republican reconciliation bill, Representative Dave Min (CA-47) filmed a video highlighting the myriad of public lands attacks included in the bill text.

Conservation champions also worked hard to establish new and protect existing national monuments across the country. At the beginning of the year, Senator Padilla and Representative Raul Ruiz (CA-25) celebrated the designation of Chuckwalla National Monument by presidential proclamation, which followed their bills in each chamber to do the same. In the House, Representatives Vasquez and Leger Fernández penned a letter to the secretary of the Interior urging the Department to keep protections for New Mexico’s national monuments in place and highlighting their enormous cultural and economic value. In the Senate, Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) teamed up to introduce legislation to protect New Mexico’s national monuments. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) introduced legislation to protect Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona. 

In a year filled with attacks on civil liberties, members of Congress pushed back against rising authoritarianism from the Trump administration while sometimes becoming targets of it themselves. Senator Padilla questioned secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem about ICE raids and unprecedented militarization in Los Angeles during a Department of Homeland Security press conference and was tackled and handcuffed for doing so. Representative LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) was arrested and prosecuted while touring an immigration detention facility in her district.

As attacks on voting rights have ramped up this year, congressional champions have introduced legislation to defend and expand voting rights. Representative Terri Sewell (AL-07) joined with Leader Jeffries and all House Democrats to reintroduce the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, an essential bill to restore and modernize our most effective civil rights law. Senators Warnock and Booker reintroduced the bill on the Senate side, joining with colleagues including members of Senate leadership. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL) reintroduced legislation to grant Washington, D.C. statehood.

This year, President Trump appointed many judicial nominees with track records of opposing democracy, equal rights, and the rule of law. Judiciary Committee members Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Booker, and Padilla have played a key role in calling out nominees’ extremist positions and pushing them to answer tough questions about the rule of law, Trump’s abuse of power, and their positions on the January 6 United States Capitol attack.

This year, environmental champions in Congress fought to protect clean air and water because everyone in this country, no matter their race, income or zip code, deserves to live in a healthy community. Representative Emilia Sykes (OH-13) led efforts to make water more accessible and affordable through her introduction of the Water Preservation and Affordability Act and a letter to the House Appropriations Committee to urge funding of critical water infrastructure programs. Representative Tlaib, alongside Representative Debbie Dingell (MI-06), led a briefing on safe drinking water and the importance of upholding the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements.

Fighting Against the War on Environmental Justice and the EPA

This year, environmental champions in Congress fought back against the Trump administration’s relentless assault on the environmental justice movement and the EPA. In the Senate, Senator Blunt Rochester led her colleagues in urging the EPA not to terminate its grants and assistance programs. Blunt Rochester also joined Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Booker in leading the fight to block the closure of the EPA Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights, which helped communities overburdened by pollution solve environmental and public health challenges.

In the House of Representatives, Representative Valerie Foushee (NC-04) led the fight to stop the dismantling of EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which provides critical scientific research and analysis for the agency to develop protections for human health and the environment. Other members also challenged the dangerous rollbacks of EPA’s critical environmental safeguards. Representative McIver led her colleagues in urging EPA to uphold PFAS drinking water standards, and Representative McClellan took the lead on opposing rollbacks to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Rule to help improve air quality across the country.

This year, environmental champions in Congress contested the Trump administration’s efforts to open up our coasts to offshore drilling, which threatens our waters and coastal communities, while prolonging our dependence on dirty fossil fuels. In the House, Representative Salud Carbajal (CA-24) introduced the California Clean Coast Act, a bill to permanently ban future offshore oil and gas leasing off the coast of California. Representative Levin introduced the So Cal Coast and Ocean Protection Act, which would prohibit offshore drilling along the Southern California coast. In the Senate, Senator Booker took action to introduce the Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act, which would permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean. And Senator Padilla introduced the West Coast Ocean Protection Act, a bill to permanently prohibit offshore drilling off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. These bills would permanently protect our coasts from the dangers of fossil fuel drilling, which jeopardizes our coastal communities, public health, and the environment to benefit Big Oil and Gas.