Urge Your US Representative to Co-Sponsor the Environmental Justice for All Act

From Clean Water Action (http://www.cleanwateraction.org/):

Please ask your Representative to co-sponsor and support the Environmental Justice for All Act. Take action at https://cleanwater.salsalabs.org/national-ej-4-all-act/index.html.

The Environmental Justice for All Act (H.R. 2021), introduced by Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Representative Donald McEachin, (D-VA) is a long overdue package of reforms that will help address the history of environmental injustice that has led to undue burdens of pollution on people of color and low-income communities.

The concept of environmental justice is not new. Since the 1980s, communities across the United States have been formally organizing around inequitable environmental access. Environmental justice disparities contribute to adverse health outcomes, damaging environmental effects, and low social mobility, amongst other challenges. The Environmental Justice for All Act aims to address many of these problems.

The Environmental Justice for All Act is a comprehensive approach to addressing historic and current causes of disparate impact. Key provisions include:

Amending Section 602 of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to empower communities and individuals who are being unfairly discriminated against to seek legal remedies on the basis of disproportionate impact.

Amending Section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act) to consider cumulative impact when making permitting decisions.

Codifying and strengthening President Clinton’s 1994 Executive Order on Environmental Justice by directing federal agencies to develop environmental justice strategies and regularly report on implementation and progress. that federal agencies include diverse communities in public health research, data collection, and analysis.

For more information, see our letter to U.S. House Natural Resources Committee leadership here, learn more about the bill on the Committee’s website here,  and read the full bill text here.

Please ask your Representative to co-sponsor and support the Environmental Justice for All Act!