‘We’re not going to accept that’: Eastwick residents travel to D.C. to demand flood solutions funding be restored

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Eastwick residents are pushing back against the Trump administration’s cuts to funding meant to help protect the flood-prone neighborhood in Philadelphia.

Just after sunrise Tuesday morning, close to a dozen Eastwick residents boarded a charter bus headed to Washington, where they urged their representatives in Congress to fight for funds to be restored.

“It’s critical that we have that funding,” said Victor Jackson, a longtime resident of Eastwick and vice chair of Eastwick United CDC. “For them to take it away, that’s a setback for us … and we’re not going to accept that.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency terminated a grant to the city for work including flood resilience planning in Eastwick. Some funding to install temporary flood barriers in the neighborhood has also been placed “under review” and paused, said U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Anthony Williams, who organized the trip, said Philly’s representatives in Congress should negotiate with the Trump administration and defend the funding.

“It’s not a luxury. It’s not excessive. It’s not wasteful,” Williams said. “It is necessary spending, for taxpayers who pay taxes, to protect the quality of life.”

Williams also wants the federal lawmakers to include the funding in the budget bill Congress is currently crafting. 

Scanlon met with the residents when they arrived in Washington. She said her office has been supporting lawsuits against the funding cuts and requesting the Trump administration restore funding, but has not yet been successful.

“We’ve made requests about funding,” Scanlon said. “Where the White House returns calls from Republican senators and members of Congress, they haven’t been so willing to do so on the Democrats’ side.”

Scanlon said there should be no need to include the terminated or paused funding in the upcoming budget, since Congress already appropriated the funding once.

“It’s kind of basic civics,” she said. “Congress makes the laws and funds the things that it makes laws about. … The president is supposed to carry out those laws.”

Scanlon would like to see new funding in the upcoming budget for stormwater management projects in Eastwick, but said additional funding does not align with the priorities of congressional Republicans, who control both chambers and plan to cut billions to trillions of dollars in spending. 

The Eastwick residents also met with U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Pa, and Republican Sen. Dave McCormick.

In a statement, Evans said he’s using “all available tools” to push the Trump administration to free up the funding, including signing onto letters urging the administration to do so and co-sponsoring an amendment to a recent funding bill specifying the president must distribute funds appropriated under that bill. A spokesperson for Evans said that amendment did not pass.

State Sen. Williams said he tried unsuccessfully to schedule a meeting with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.

“The only one who’s not available is Fetterman,” Williams said. “That’s troubling. … He’s made it his mission to connect with the current president but not carried our concerns directly to that president.”

Fetterman and McCormick did not respond to a request for comment.

In an emailed statement, an EPA spokesperson said “as with any change in Administration,” the agency has been reviewing its grant programs and awards to ensure they are an “appropriate use of taxpayer dollars” and align with the Trump administration’s priorities.

“Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn’t have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and ‘environmental justice’ preferencing on the EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” they wrote.