# Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021

This bill creates a new federal committee tasked with identifying and mapping communities that face disproportionate environmental pollution and health risks. The core problem it's trying to solve is that certain neighborhoods—often populated by low-income people and communities of color—have historically been dumped on with factories, refineries, highways, and other polluting industries, while wealthier areas have been spared. The bill recognizes this isn't accidental but the result of systemic racism and injustice, and it aims to fix it by finally getting accurate data about where these problems exist.

The bill establishes the Environmental Justice Mapping Committee, which brings together representatives from multiple federal agencies including the EPA, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, and others. These government officials will work together to create a comprehensive national map showing which communities face the worst combination of pollution, poverty, and health problems. Importantly, the committee must include an advisory council where at least half the members are actual residents or representatives from affected communities—not just government bureaucrats deciding things behind closed doors. This means people living in polluted neighborhoods get a real seat at the table when decisions are made about their communities.

Once the committee identifies these environmental justice communities, the bill sets up a framework for directing at least 40 percent of federal clean energy and infrastructure funding toward fixing problems in these areas. This could mean money for cleaning up contaminated soil, improving air quality, upgrading water systems, building better public transportation, or improving housing. The bill also requires that some of this funding go toward helping these communities build their own capacity to access and manage these resources, rather than just having solutions imposed on them from outside.

The practical effect is that neighborhoods that have been neglected for decades—places like "Cancer Alley" in Louisiana where industrial pollution has caused serious health problems—would finally get systematic attention and resources. However, the bill is careful to note that investment alone isn't enough; it also emphasizes that actual pollution reduction is essential, and that new projects shouldn't accidentally create new problems like displacing residents through gentrification.

Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021

Bush, Cori

Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021 This bill establishes an interagency Environmental Justice Mapping Committee that must create a tool to identify environmental justice communities. Environmental justice communities are communities with significant representation of communities of color, low-income communities, or tribal and indigenous communities that experience, or are at risk of experiencing, higher or more adverse human health or environmental effects, as compared to other communities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must establish an environmental justice data repository to maintain the data collected by the committee. The EPA must make the repository available to regional, state, local, and tribal governments.