The Biden administration on Wednesday said it is appropriating $600 million as grants to fund thousands of “environmental justice” projects across the country.
The grantmaking program, created by President Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, is expected to make it easier and faster for “small, community-based organizations” to tap into federal “environmental justice” funding over the next three years, according to Vice President Kamala Harris.
“These grants could help a nonprofit in, say, Atlanta, monitor air pollution levels, or help a middle school in Indian Country create a summer program to teach young leaders about environmental science,” the vice president said in a press call.
Under the plan, that $600 million will go to 11 national and regional “grantmakers,” which will work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue subgrants to fund a range of different environmental projects, such as small local clean-ups, local disaster resilience programs, “environmental workforce development” programs, air quality and asthma-related projects, “healthy homes” programs, and projects addressing illegal dumping.
Among the grantmakers are New York’s Fordham University and Texas Southern University. Each will be given $50 million for distribution, except for North Carolina’s Research Triangle Institute, which will receive $100 million to serve as both a regional and national grantmaker.
“These organizations will be able to review and approve grant applications faster,” Vice President Harris said, adding that they are run by people who “live and work in the communities they serve” and are “uniquely well positioned to ensure these grants make a real impact.”
The $600 million plan is threatened by a Republican-backed bill that would, among other things, rescind $9.4 billion in funding allocated for the EPA under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Under the bill, the Interior Department would be funded at $14.3 billion, slicing its budget by $677 million. The EPA budget would be brought down to $6.2 billion by a steep cut of nearly 40 percent.
The legislation would also block EPA regulations on greenhouse gases from power plants and cars. It would require oil and gas lease sales and block the “Waters of the United States” rule, which more broadly defines which types of waterways are eligible for federal water-quality protections.
Three Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), Marcus Molinaro (R-N.Y.), and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), voted against the bill. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr. (D-Texas) was the sole Democrat voting in favor of it.
“One thing that all Republicans agree on is that we’ve got to reduce spending. The debate occurs on how much and how fast,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the House’s interior-environment appropriations subcommittee.
“With the national debt in excess of $33 trillion and inflation at an unacceptable level, we must make tough choices to not saddle our children and grandchildren with overwhelming debt,” the congressman argued. “Some may say that discretionary spending is only a small fraction of our nation’s spending problem and that entitlements are to blame, but last Congress alone, $3 trillion was spent outside of the normal appropriations process.”
“We must rein in unnecessary federal spending and put our economy on track to recover.”
President Biden, meanwhile, has vowed to veto the bill if were sent to him for signature, claiming that its passage would result in “unacceptable harm to clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives that lower energy costs and other critical investments in rural America.”
The bill, according to a veto threat from the White House, would also cause “devastating consequences,” including threatening the “health and safety of LGBTQI+ Americans,” hindering “critical climate change initiatives,” and preventing the Biden administration from “promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
“If the President were presented with H.R. 4821, he would veto it,” the White House said.
