Representatives Cohen and Barragán Urge Inclusion of Environmental Justice Provisions in the 2022 Water Resources Development Act

WASHINGTON – Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-09) and Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44) today led a letter to the leaders of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment urging them to include various environmental justice provisions in the upcoming 2022 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).

The letter reads in part:

"We appreciate the Committee's commitment towards effectively redressing the water resources challenges facing the nation's most vulnerable communities. This commitment was clearly evidenced in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2020, which included vital reforms designed to improve the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' consultation and coordination with disadvantaged communities and Tribes, prioritize resiliency planning for economically disadvantaged communities, and establish an important pilot program to facilitate effective flood risk management planning for underserved communities.

"However, much more needs to be done to ensure that the Army Corps of Engineers' has the tools and capacity needed to advance community-supported solutions to the entrenched water resources challenges that plague far too many of the nation's most vulnerable communities."

Read the entire letter here.

The letter outlines six policy reforms that can also be submitted as policy priorities in the WRDA 2022 portal, including:

• Increasing the capacity and expertise within the agency by establishing a new position of Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice within the Office of the Chief of Engineers;
• Ensuring meaningful opportunities for public input on environmental justice by establishing a standing Federal Advisory Committee on Environmental Justice;
• Increasing opportunities for assistance by expanding the ten-community Pilot Program for Economically Disadvantaged Communities;
• Maximizing toxics remediation in ecological restoration, navigation and flood resilience projects;
• Advancing environmental justice innovation by establishing an Environmental Justice Innovation Center to develop and train Corps staff to deliver innovative community-scaled solutions to water resources problems that are environmentally sustainable and cost-effective; and
• Supporting minority-owned businesses by directing the Corps to increase collaboration, contracting, and subcontracting with minority-owned businesses to improve gender-based and race-based outcomes.

Besides Representatives Cohen and Barragán, the letter was signed by Representatives A. Donald McEachin, Adriano Espaillat, Alan Lowenthal, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, André Carson, Ayanna Pressley, Barbara Lee, Betty McCollum, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Carolyn B. Maloney, Earl Blumenauer, Jamaal Bowman, Jan Schakowsky, Jesús G. "Chuy" García, Jimmy Gomez, Karen Bass, Katie Porter, Gwen Moore, Nikema Williams, Rashida Tlaib, Raúl Grijalva, Ro Khanna, Tony Cárdenas, and Veronica Escobar.

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