{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.jones.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-doug-jones-leads-push-for-epa-to-enforce-civil-rights-protections", "Senator Doug Jones Leads Push for EPA to Enforce Civil Rights Protections", "2019-11-22", "2019", "2019-11", "Democrat", "House", "AL", "Doug Jones", "J000300", "www.jones.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON  U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.) is leading a\r\ngroup of his colleagues in urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to\r\nfully enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits anyone who\r\nreceives federal financial aid from discriminating when implementing programs\r\nand activities. The EPA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently made an\r\nannouncement that it plans to conduct an evaluation of EPA's implementation of\r\nTitle VI. Currently, OIG's evaluation is limited to organizations receiving EPA\r\nClean Air Act funds. In a letter to EPA's Acting Inspector General Charles\r\nSheehan, Senator Jones calls on OIG to broaden the scope of its evaluation to\r\ninclude all federally delegated programs under which EPA has the responsibility\r\nto enforce Title VI. The letter also poses a number of questions related to\r\nEPA's insufficient enforcement of Title VI  with respect to rejection of\r\ndiscrimination claims, lack of transparency, lack of interagency coordination,\r\nand inadequate public outreach and community engagement. The EPA, whom these Americans entrust to treat them fairly\r\nwith respect to enforcing the country's environmental laws, is failing to\r\nfulfill its mission, the senators wrote. Title VI has historically been used\r\nas an enforcement mechanism for communities seeking redress for environmental\r\ninjustices. However, due to a persistent lack of adequate enforcement, minority\r\nand low-income communities continue to suffer the disproportionate adverse\r\nimpacts of contaminated air, land, and water. The letter was also signed by Senators Tammy Duckworth\r\n(D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tom Carper (D-Del), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.),\r\nJeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy\r\nBaldwin (D-Wis.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard\r\nBlumenthal D-Conn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Brian Schatz\r\n(D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand\r\n(D-N.Y.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)\r\nand Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.). Full text of the letter can be found below and a .pdf can be found here. November 22, 2019 The Honorable Charles J. Sheehan  Acting Inspector General  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  1301 Constitution Ave. NW  Washington, DC 20460 Dear Mr. Sheehan: We were pleased to see that, on October 31, 2019, the Office\r\nof Inspector General (OIG) for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\r\nannounced its plan to begin an evaluation of EPA's implementation of Title VI\r\nof the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal\r\nfinancial assistance from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or\r\nnational origin when implementing programs and activities. As you know, Title\r\nVI has historically been used as an enforcement mechanism for communities\r\nseeking redress for environmental injustices. However, due to a persistent lack\r\nof adequate enforcement, minority and low-income communities continue to suffer\r\nthe disproportionate adverse impacts of contaminated air, land, and water. Considerable research has demonstrated that low income and\r\nminority communities are disproportionately adversely impacted by contaminated\r\nair, land, and water. Unfortunately, as the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights\r\nexplained in its September 2016 report examining the efficacy of EPA's Title VI\r\nenforcement regime, those millions of Americans who live in minority and\r\nlow-income communities often lack the political and financial clout to\r\nproperly bargain with polluters when fighting a siting decision or seeking\r\nredress from pollution already in their community. The EPA, whom these Americans entrust to treat them fairly\r\nwith respect to enforcing the country's environmental laws, is failing to\r\nfulfill its mission. Pursuant to Executive Order 12898, signed by President\r\nClinton in 1994, every federal agency  including EPA  must make achieving\r\nenvironmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing []\r\ndisproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of\r\nits programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income\r\npopulations. The External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO), within\r\nthe Office of the General Counsel, is tasked with ensuring that any entity\r\nreceiving EPA funds complies with federal non-discrimination laws. ECRCO is\r\nresponsible for processing discrimination complaints filed against programs\r\nreceiving EPA funding. In its 2016 report, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights\r\nconcluded that EPA had failed to substantively incorporate environmental\r\njustice into its decision-making. The 2016 report expressed concern with EPA's\r\nlack of attention to a number of issues, including process, effective remedies,\r\nfinalization of guidance, transparency, and interagency coordination. We\r\nlook forward to seeing the results of the OIG's evaluation of EPA's\r\nimplementation of Title VI  in particular, how EPA has addressed the concerns\r\nset out in the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' 2016 report. We understand that OIG's objective is to determine whether\r\nECRCO has implemented an oversight system to provide reasonable assurance that\r\norganizations receiving EPA Clean Air Act funds comply with Title VI\r\nrequirements. It is important to note, however, that ECRCO has a federally\r\nmandated responsibility to enforce Title VI across a number of federally\r\ndelegated programs. We request that you expand the scope of this review to\r\ninclude an evaluation of all federally delegated programs under which EPA has\r\nresponsibility to enforce Title VI. We also ask that your evaluation provide\r\nfindings on the following questions as part of its written report: 1. According\r\nto the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' 2016 report, despite having the\r\nregulatory authority to do so, EPA has historically avoided pushing civil\r\nrights complaints alleging discrimination based on disparate impact. And\r\naccording to a 2015 Center for Public Integrity investigative study, more than\r\nnine of every 10 times communities have turned to it for help, EPA has\r\nrejected or dismissed their Title VI complaints, the majority of the time\r\nrejecting claims without pursuing investigations. Since 2016, how many\r\ncomplaints has EPA rejected, dismissed, referred, resolved, and accepted? In\r\nassessing these complaints, does ECRCO properly evaluate their merit in\r\naccordance with the procedural guidance set out in EPA's Case Resolution Manual\r\nfor ECRCO case managers? To date, has EPA ever withheld funds from a recipient\r\nfor noncompliance? 2. One of\r\nEPA's stated goals is ensuring that all Americans have access to accurate\r\ninformation sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and\r\nenvironmental risks. There is evidence, however, that the Agency may be\r\nfalling short. For instance, with respect to EPA's proposed rule on coal ash in\r\n2010, the Agency received comments expressing that communities in which coal\r\nash was disposed were more likely to be communities of color. According to the\r\nU.S. Commission on Civil Rights' 2016 report, however, EPA failed to analyze\r\nthe substantive result of its rule, meaning affected communities were not\r\nprovided a substantive meaningful opportunity to participate in decision-making\r\nthat impacts their communities. According to EPA's Case Resolution Manual\r\nfor ECRCO case managers, ECRCO is responsible for carrying out compliance with\r\nfederal nondiscrimination statutes through a variety of means, including\r\noutreach activities. Are ECRCO operations sufficiently transparent, and is\r\nthe office conducting sufficient outreach in order to make communities aware of\r\ntheir right to meaningful redress and the institutional resources available to\r\nthem? What steps has ECRCO taken to foster outreach and transparency? How is\r\nthe public outreach work of ECRCO informed by the public outreach work being\r\nconducted by the Office of Environmental Justice? 3. Under\r\nExecutive Order 12250, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is charged with ensuring\r\nthe consistent and effective implementation of Title VI and other civil rights\r\nlaws. In implementing Executive Order 12250, DOJ periodically evaluates Title\r\nVI implementation, which includes requiring agencies that administer federal\r\nfinancial assistance to submit reports describing their past year's performance\r\nand upcoming plans to implement Title VI. DOJ also can request information on\r\nthe major components of an agency's civil rights enforcement program, including\r\nbudget and staffing for external civil rights activities, pre-award and\r\npost-award compliance reviews, regulatory and policy development, outreach and\r\ntechnical assistance, and training. What information has EPA sent to DOJ in\r\nthe last three years pursuant to requirements set out in Executive Order 12250,\r\nwith respect to Title VI enforcement? What steps is EPA taking to ensure it is\r\ncomplying with its obligations under Executive Order 12250? How is EPA working\r\nto ensure that the Attorney General can effectively coordinate the\r\nimplementation and enforcement of Title VI? 4. In its\r\n2003 report on the use of Executive Order 12898 and Title VI to achieve\r\nenvironmental justice, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that a lack of\r\nfinal guidance on the use of Title VI to remedy discrimination led to\r\nuncertainty about the effectiveness of Title VI in protecting low-income communities\r\nand communities of color. In the same report, the Commission noted that, at\r\nthe time of drafting, EPA was moving toward finalizing its Title VI\r\nguidance. Fifteen years later, however, EPA has yet to issue Title VI\r\nguidance. On January 18, 2017, EPA issued Chapter 1 of its ECRCO Toolkit, which\r\nit described as a clarification of existing law and policy intended to provide\r\nguidance to promote and support EPA recipients' compliance with federal civil\r\nrights laws. The ECRCO Toolkit was issued in lieu of a final guidance\r\ndocument  it is not a comprehensive, programmatic guide for EPA funding\r\nrecipients, and it does not make clear their obligations under Title VI. How does EPA communicate Title VI obligations to grant recipients, investigators,\r\nand complainants? If there is specific, comprehensive, and programmatic\r\nguidance on this issue, please describe. Does the guidance that EPA provides\r\nadequately communicate to all relevant stakeholders the information necessary\r\nin order to effectively protect the rights of all Americans under Title VI? 5. Under the\r\nObama Administration, EPA committed to creating a web-based docket of Title\r\nVI-based claims. This database is no longer maintained, and was last updated in\r\n2014. As a result, complainants and impacted community members are forced\r\nto submit Freedom of Information Act requests in order to gain critical\r\ninformation regarding their cases and agency actions. Why did EPA discontinue\r\nits maintenance of its web-based docket of Title VI-based claims, and who was\r\nconsulted in the decision-making process? Does EPA plan to recreate and\r\nmaintain a Title VI database, and  if so  what steps will EPA take to ensure\r\nthat the public can quickly and easily access information on Title VI claims? There seems to be no question that, if properly enforced,\r\nTitle VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would be, as the U.S. Commission on\r\nCivil Rights' 2016 report concluded, a powerful tool for EPA to address\r\nenvironmental justice and remediate discrimination. We urge OIG to expand\r\nthe scope of its audit and consider the questions posed in this letter, so that\r\nit may inform its evaluation. Thorough and sufficiently broad evaluations are\r\ncritical to ensuring that EPA is complying with its enforcement obligations\r\nunder Title VI and working to protect the health of all Americans. We look forward to completion of the evaluation and hope\r\nthat, going forward, EPA will take seriously its mission to protect the\r\nenvironment and public health, by implementing a forceful civil rights\r\ncompliance regime. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to your\r\nresponse. Sincerely, ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.jones.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-doug-jones-leads-push-for-epa-to-enforce-civil-rights-protections"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7460599299520254, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}