Federal Manager's Daily Report

OMB wants the map to be the primary tool used by agencies for geographic identification of disadvantaged communities. Image: https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/

OMB has told agencies to begin using a recently launched online tool for identifying historically underserved areas under the Biden administration’s Justice40 initiative.

That initiative, announced in 2021, seeks to have 40 percent of the overall benefits of some federal spending—including various forms of grants, direct payments and procurement of goods or services for the government’s use—flow to historically disadvantaged communities, defined as those that are historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment in housing, transportation, water and wastewater infrastructure, and health care.

The “climate and economic justice screening tool” launched in November contains “interactive maps with indicators to assist agencies in defining and identifying disadvantaged communities,” says OMB Memo 23-09. Agencies are now to use that tool “to identify geographically defined disadvantaged communities for any covered programs under the Justice40 Initiative and for programs where a statute directs resources to disadvantaged communities, to the maximum extent possible and permitted by law.”

That “should become the primary tool used by agencies for such geographic identification of disadvantaged communities,” it says, although actions already under way, such as Notices of Funding Opportunities, that were based on other tools or methods can continue.

The memo further reminds agencies that the tool “only applies to the identification of disadvantaged communities that are geographically defined, and not to those that are geographically dispersed.”

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