Omnibus spending package includes $100 million for environmental justice programs, an historic, transformational expansion of the current $12 million initiative

Washington (March 14, 2022) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement after Senate passage of the 2022 Fiscal Year omnibus spending package, which included funding or report language for several of the Senator’s key environmental justice, air quality, and climate health priorities.

Senator Markey’s provisions secured in the FY22 omnibus include:

• $100 million was announced for environmental justice priorities within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the purposes of implementing the EJ 2020 Action Agenda, which includes data collection and mapping activities as called for in Senator Markey’s Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act
• The Department of Energy was directed to “focus on electric vehicle charging infrastructure that is publicly accessible or available to residents of multi-unit dwellings, including public and affordable housing, who would otherwise lack convenient access to such infrastructure” and “increase deployment and accessibility of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in underserved or disadvantaged communities through grants, technical assistance, and community engagement.” This matches the goals established in Senator Markey’s Community Vehicle Charging Act.
• The EPA was urged to “prioritize air quality monitoring systems that yield frequently repeated measurements of pollutants and identify hotspots or areas of persistent elevated levels of pollutants localized to and caused by the characteristics of a specific geographic location” as part of a Community Air Quality Monitoring program, as directed in Senator Markey’sEnvironmental Justice Air Quality Monitoring Act.
• $10 million included for climate and health funding in the Department of Health and Human Services, which can help “identify potential health effects associated with climate change and implement health adaptation plans.” Senator Markey introduced the Protecting Moms and Babies Against Climate Change Act to support grants and an overarching strategy to identify climate change risks for vulnerable mothers and babies. 

“Storms, floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires have been supercharged by climate change—caused by the ongoing and historic use of fossil fuels—and incremental efforts won’t be enough to keep people safe today or in the future,” said Senator Markey, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety. “All Americans are feeling the devastation from this crisis, but Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities face an extra burden: the burden of environmental racism. Historically, these communities also have been denied the resources needed to monitor and map pollution, protect their health from climate impacts, remediate past harms, and build a clean energy future. Additionally, without intentional investment for electric vehicle charging infrastructure in environmental justice communities, lower income and individuals living in multi-family housing will not be able to access the economic and health benefits that EVs provide. 

“These appropriations are an excellent start, but we can and must do more to create jobs, bring down energy costs, boost American innovation, and put frontline communities who have borne the brunt of the impacts of the climate crisis at the center of our fight through a focus on environmental justice. Congress must act now to make this a reality by passing the $555 billion in climate justice and clean energy provisions and carving a path to delivering on a Green New Deal that will transform our economy and reverberate for decades to come.”

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