In a visit to Capitol, Jessie Diggins and other Olympians push for climate change solutions

Olympian Jessie Diggins visited Capitol Hill with her four medals in hand Wednesday to advocate for clean air, clean water and a healthy planet.

America’s most decorated cross-country skier is part of “Protect Our Winters,” an athlete-driven environmental group that sent a coalition to Washington to meet with lawmakers Tuesday and Wednesday. The group is most concerned with how the Environmental Protection Agency has weakened key climate, water and pollution regulations since President Donald Trump returned to office.

“I don’t want to stick my head in the sand and ignore the world burning,” Diggins said in an interview. “I feel like I have a responsibility to use my voice to advocate for change. And so that’s why it’s so important to me, because I want my great-grandkids to be able to build a snowman and try cross-country skiing someday, and be able go hiking and fishing and camping in the summer, and breathe clean air. I want that for them very badly.”

Diggins retired from professional ski racing this year after earning bronze in the women’s 10‑kilometer interval start at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Many skiers expressed concern during these Olympic Games about climate change and the accelerating melt of the world’s glaciers. A warming world jeopardizes the future of their sport.

Diggins described bringing her medals to Washington as a “beautiful, full circle moment.” She said she'll consider it a success if she has productive conversations that help pave the way for bipartisan efforts to strengthen and bolster the EPA in the future. Republicans currently in control of Congress have generally supported the Trump EPA’s actions.

“We’re trying to advocate for solutions that are going to protect us long term, and training and racing through four Olympics, that was a very long-term thing, you know? It’s not quick, immediate gratification, you work and you work and you work,” Diggins said. “I think it’s a nice reminder of like, it’s OK that we are looking for solutions for the future.”

Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko, of New York, said it was an honor to meet with this group of “athletes, advocates and champions.”

“These efforts are more important than ever, with an administration and EPA that is wiping out environmental protections left and right,” he said in a statement. "I remain as committed as ever to being sound stewards of our environment and leaving behind a better planet for our next generation of torchbearers.”

It's not the typical lobbying group. Professional ski mountaineer Brody Leven only owns a suit to go to Washington with Protect Our Winters. But, he said, they are the ones who can hopefully bring people together around policy solutions to climate change.

“We’re good at looking at adversity in the face and still moving forward," he said. "And we’re good at knowing something is going to be hard and trying to do it anyways.”

They met with Democrats and Republicans. Olympians Jaelin Kauf, Gus Schumacher, Bea Kim, Julia Kern and Olivia Giaccio were involved, Protect Our Winters said.

Kauf, a three-time Olympic silver medalist, said she talked with lawmakers Wednesday about seeing the effects of climate change firsthand as she travels, and about how poor snow is impacting major races. She said protecting these lands and beautiful places is “something that can bring a lot of us together.”

During the Trump administration, the EPA has revoked a scientific finding that underpinned the fight against climate change, moved to roll back limits on toxic wastewater from coal-fired power plants and announced other cuts to federal limits on air and water pollution as it promotes fossil fuels. These changes clash with the agency’s historic mission to protect human health and the environment.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has said the department is “ driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age.” Doing so, he said, will save trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and hidden taxes, which in turn will make the cost of living more affordable and reignite domestic manufacturing.

Environmentalists say the EPA under Zeldin has abandoned its obligation to protect the public from dangerous greenhouse gas pollution at a time when climate change is creating greater risks of extreme weather, including stronger hurricanes, more dangerous floods and more intense wildfires. Legal challenges to a range of EPA rule changes have been filed by states, cities and public health and environmental groups.

Ben Gubits, vice president of campaigns and advocacy for Protect Our Winters, said the group expects the federal government to protect the health of American citizens and the planet. POW has lobbied Congress for about a decade, including several visits in 2021 and 2022 when it advocated for passage of a landmark climate bill. President Joe Biden signed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

“We are really thinking about a long-term and positive vision for the future, and how do we rebuild these critical institutions beyond the Trump years,” Gubits said.

Stuart Nissenbaum started working at the EPA early in Biden's term and left a year ago. He's part of the coalition, too. Nissenbaum said he thinks being in Washington with Olympians will help bring attention to their message. They are masters of their craft and they wore the U.S. flag while competing, which should resonate with members of Congress, he added.

Nissenbaum said he went to Washington to convey to legislators that clean air and clean water are bipartisan, and they should adopt policies grounded in science to protect the environment.

“Clean air and clean water isn’t something that we should take for granted,” he said. “It affects every single person.”

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Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., speaks with Olympians Jessie Diggins, from center left, Bea Kim and Julia Kern, during a meeting to advocate for clean air, clean water and a healthy planet on Capitol Hill Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Olympians Julia Kern, from left, Jessie Diggins, Bea Kim and Olivia Giaccio, take a selfie from the Senate Minority Leader balcony during a meeting to advocate for clean air, clean water and a healthy planet on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

FILE - Jessie Diggins, of the United States, waves to the fans when walking away from the podium after winning the bronze medal in the cross country skiing women's 10-kilometer interval start free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE - Jessie Diggins, of the United States, competes in the cross country skiing women's 50-kilometer mass start classic at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks with Olympians Julia Kern, from left, Jessie Diggins, Bea Kim and Olivia Giaccio, during a meeting to advocate for clean air, clean water and a healthy planet on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., speaks with Olympian Jessie Diggins as she shows him her medals during a meeting to advocate for clean air, clean water and a healthy planet on Capitol Hill Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump held a tense meeting with Senate Republicans at the Capitol on Wednesday after he abruptly canceled the signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing bill that GOP lawmakers have touted as a major election-year achievement.

Trump's decision not to sign the bill capped weeks of friction with the Republican majorities in Congress. The president made it clear that, for now at least, he’s in no mood to compromise as he pressures the Senate to move forward with the voting bill, which lacks the support to pass.

Trump called it a “great meeting” as he left the Capitol, but noted his frustration with some of the Republican lawmakers.

“We like our leader. We like everybody, really, in the room," Trump said. "I don’t like a few people but that’s okay, I think you know who they are.”

Republican senators were eager for a conciliatory meeting with the president after escalating tensions in recent weeks. But Trump upended their plans when he declared on social media that he won't sign the legislation until they send him his bill to require proof of citizenship for all voters.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis says he doesn't know why Trump is holding the housing bill “hostage” for the voting bill that “will never pass in this Congress.”

“It makes no sense to me,” Tillis said as he walked into the luncheon.

Trump has pressed Republicans for months to kill the Senate filibuster and focus on the proof-of-citizenship voting bill even though Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has repeatedly told him that neither has the votes.

Asked about Trump’s post on the housing bill, Thune told reporters, “That was his call to make.”

“What I would say is that the bill is a bill that has been worked on for a long time,” Thune said. "It’s a great piece of legislation that increases the supply of housing and the availability of credit for people to afford homes. So it’s an affordability issue and eventually I hope he finds a way to sign it.”

The White House did not immediately respond when asked whether Trump would veto the legislation. But his apparent reversal on the measure that Republicans have touted ahead of the election is likely to only aggravate the deepening split between the president and his Republican majorities on Capitol Hill.

At the news conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had spoken to the president for about 20 minutes earlier on Wednesday and expected the housing bill would still be signed.

Trump's move on the housing bill is his latest reversal after weeks of being at odds with Senate Republicans.

Trump has blocked the Senate from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend his Iran war even as they question the strategy and endgame. And by rejecting a public bill signing, Trump is also indicating a level of indifference to voters' affordability concerns heading into November's midterm elections.

Trump has also helped whittle down his own support in the Senate after endorsing primary challengers to two GOP incumbents who were previously reliable votes for his agenda — Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy. Both men lost their primaries and have since become more critical of the president.

“If we’re going to win the midterm elections, we need to get on the same page,” Cornyn said. “We’re not on the same page now, and that I think is dangerous.”

Adding to the tension is Trump’s increasingly distant relationship with Thune. While Thune remains popular in his conference and cordial with the president, he has spent much of his time lately telling Trump what he doesn’t want to hear.

Thune said Tuesday that while Trump and some in their conference want to see the voting bill pass, “it’s just not realistic.”

Trump has also demanded that they add a ban on mail-in ballots to the bill as well as unrelated provisions to block sex reassignment surgeries on some minors and prevent transgender women from playing in women’s sports.

Thune devoted weeks of floor time to the voting bill earlier this year and has said he supports it. But he has repeatedly said there aren’t enough votes to scrap the filibuster that triggers a 60-vote threshold to pass most bills in the 53-47 Senate. And Democrats are uniformly opposed to the bill.

“Those are just hard realities,” Thune said. “And I think people at some point have to come to grips with that.“

Johnson said Wednesday that he had talked through a different approach with Trump in his call on Wednesday morning — putting the voting bill on a budget reconciliation measure that would only need a simple majority to pass. But the process is long and complicated, and Republicans are divided over how to proceed.

What Johnson has proposed is a federal grant program that would provide funding to states if they implement various SAVE Act provisions.

“We’re willing to invest heavily in that,” Johnson said.

But certain rank-and-file Republicans who want the SAVE America Act to become law panned that approach.

“I’m not saying I’m opposed,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leader of the Freedom Caucus. “But let’s not kid ourselves that it would be full SAVE. It wouldn’t be.”

Only a handful of senators have questioned Thune's rationale that the Senate can't pass the voting bill. The most vocal in that group is Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican who has amassed a large following on X with daily posts about how they should kill the filibuster and pass the bill.

“The push to pass the SAVE America Act is not a ‘fantasy,’” Lee posted over the weekend. “It’s a plan to avoid a nightmare — one that’s coming soon unless we act.”

Associated Press writers Steven Sloan, Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., speaks to reporters as Republican senators arrive for a closed-door lunch at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, to prepare for a meeting with President Donald Trump Wednesday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, as he prepares for a meeting with President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)