Vogue | Alyssa Milano

Every day, I question whether I’m doing enough to protect and raise my children with strength and good values. I work really hard at parenthood, and I try to be the best mother I can possibly be. It is frustrating that so much of their futures depend on our environment, our government, and the standards we’re implementing today. This week, Donald Trump released his so-called “infrastructure” proposal—and it’s pretty easy to read between the lines. His plan would roll back environmental protections and privatize public works projects under the guise of “infrastructure” support. I strongly believe that government should be run by and for the people—especially with our children and future generations in mind—and that’s why I’m so deeply concerned.

How would selling off public lands to the fossil fuel industry benefit our children? Our beautiful public lands need protection so that we and future generations can enjoy them. How does privatizing roads, bridges, and water systems, and possibly charging increased tolls and fees benefit our children? It makes no sense to allow big business to profit from our basic safety needs.

How does potentially giving authority to one man to greenlight pipeline projects benefit our children? Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has repeatedly demonstratedthat he represents the oil and gas industry. Imagine even more pipelines crisscrossing our public lands—all of them just waiting to leak and spill.

How does weakening clean air and water standards benefit our children? Trump’s plan would allow projects to ignore bedrock environmental safeguards like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. This puts our health and the environment at risk.

Trump’s infrastructure plan is yet another attempt to weaken our checks and balances, to sidestep protections for workers, and to cut out public input on decisions that will affect our air and water. Trump wants to line the pockets of his billionaire friends at the expense of the rest of us. He’s not streamlining anything; he’s simply making it easier for big businesses to bulldoze through environmental, worker, and public safety standards.

Why aren’t we investing in improving our crumbling infrastructure? Why not improve our electrical grid to support more clean energy? Why not invest more in resilient transportation systems that are better for the environment like public transit? Why not make sure we’re ready for more extreme climate-related weather events, like hurricanes and wildfires? Climate change is already happening—we should be preparing right now.