March 14, 2017
The Honorable Thad Cochran
Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20510 The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Rodney Frelinghuysen
Chairman
House Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Nita Lowey
Ranking Member
House Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Cochran, Ranking Member Leahy, Chairman Frelinghuysen, and Ranking Member
Lowey:
Our organizations write to thank you for continued funding for the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)’s efforts to fight the second leading cause of lung cancer: radon. The
$7.978 million appropriated in FY 2016, and continued into FY 2017, to fund State Indoor
Radon Grants and the $2.9 million to fund the EPA radon program have helped to educate and
protect the public with crucial information for families, schools, home builders and the medical
community. We ask for your support for funding EPA’s State Indoor Radon Grants at $8 million
and the EPA radon program at $3 million for FY 2018.
Congress retained funding for the State Indoor Radon Grants (SIRG) despite requests from the
previous Administration to eliminate that funding. You recognized, as do we, that radon remains
a serious and underappreciated risk to health. This radioactive gas forms the top risk for lung
cancer in people who do not smoke, and significantly increases the risk for those who do. Yet
because radon occurs naturally and is invisible, too many people remain unaware of the need to
test and reduce the risk in their homes. The SIRG program and the EPA radon program have
helped to forge a cooperative approach among the federal government, states, tribes, non-
profits, public health groups, and business and professional groups to inform people and work to
save lives for decades.
The SIRG program funds work to reduce the risk from radon in states and tribes, both of which
must match these grants with their own funds totaling at least 40 percent of the project cost.