WASHINGTON — Workers, lawmakers and environmental advocates gathered  this week to speak out against a proposed federal rule that would roll back protections for people who live near hazardous facilities across the country.

“This is just the latest example of how this administration will do whatever it can to put industry profit over the health and safety of workers, first responders and communities that allow those companies to exist in the first place,” US Rep. Paul Tonko, a Democrat from New York, said during a March 25 press event on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The event was organized by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, an alliance of community, environmental, and labor organizations working to strengthen federal regulations to prevent chemical disasters.

In 2024, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention rule, which revises the agency’s Risk Management Program (RMP), established in 1996, to better protect communities from catastrophic chemical releases and explosions by requiring facilities to identify safer technologies and chemical alternatives, put in place safeguards, investigate incidents more thoroughly and conduct third-party audits.