Five dozen House and Senate Democrats have told the Biden administration that while they support its “Justice 40” initiative, carrying it out will require planning and coordination among agencies and transparency about what is being done.
That initiative, announced in 2021, seeks to have 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain government 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.
“To fully realize the vision of a coordinated, cross-agency perspective that delivers benefits in covered areas regardless of where funding is housed, we encourage you to continue to identify covered programs across all agencies, departments, and other federal institutions,” says a letter to senior officials at OMB and elsewhere overseeing the initiative.
The letter further called for “clear guidance” for example on how agencies are to “direct funds, inform rulemakings and permitting, and conduct other Justice40-related actions” and for OMB to create a “centralized, publicly accessible hub for information” in order to “increase transparency” about the initiative.
It added: “Because the federal workforce will ultimately be responsible for carrying this legacy forward, we urge you to build an enduring non-political civil service workforce specifically tasked with Justice40 implementation and accountability at the White House and agencies. This workforce should not be limited to environmental justice offices, but instead disseminated across offices administering covered programs.”
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