H.R.5842

            I 

116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION H. R. 5842 

To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to 
award grants to entities to enable such entities to participate in decisions 
impacting the health and safety of their communities in connection with 
the release of certain hazardous air pollutants and the permitting of 
solid waste disposal facilities and hazardous waste facilities, and for 
other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 11, 2020 
Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Ms. BARRAGÁN, and Mr. RUIZ) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 
To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protec-

tion Agency to award grants to entities to enable such 
entities to participate in decisions impacting the health 
and safety of their communities in connection with the 
release of certain hazardous air pollutants and the per-
mitting of solid waste disposal facilities and hazardous 
waste facilities, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

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2 

•HR 5842 IH

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Voices for Environ-2

mental Justice Act’’. 3

SEC. 2. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY TECH-4

NICAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS. 5

Title III of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7601 et 6

seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new 7

section: 8

‘‘SEC. 330. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY TECH-9

NICAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS. 10

‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator may award 11

grants to eligible entities to enable such entities to partici-12

pate in decisions impacting the health and safety of their 13

communities in connection with an actual or potential re-14

lease of a covered hazardous air pollutant. 15

‘‘(b) TIMING.— 16

‘‘(1) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 12 months 17

after the date of enactment of this section, the Ad-18

ministrator shall publish guidance describing the 19

process for eligible entities to apply for a grant 20

under this section, including the required content 21

and form of applications, the manner in which appli-22

cations must be submitted, and any applicable dead-23

lines. 24

‘‘(2) FIRST GRANT.—Not later than 180 days 25

after the issuance of guidance under paragraph (1), 26

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3 

•HR 5842 IH

the Administrator shall award the first grant under 1

this section. 2

‘‘(c) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—To be eligible for a grant 3

under this section, an applicant shall be a group of individ-4

uals who reside in a community that— 5

‘‘(1) is a population of color, a community of 6

color, an indigenous community, or a low-income 7

community; and 8

‘‘(2) is in close proximity to the site of an ac-9

tual or potential release of a covered hazardous air 10

pollutant. 11

‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.—An eligible entity receiving a 12

grant under this section shall use the grant to participate 13

in decisions impacting the health and safety of the commu-14

nity involved in connection with an actual or potential re-15

lease of a covered hazardous air pollutant, including— 16

‘‘(1) interpreting information with regard to the 17

nature of the hazard, cumulative impacts studies, 18

health impacts studies, remedial investigation and 19

feasibility studies, agency decisions, remedial design, 20

and operation and maintenance of necessary mon-21

itors; and 22

‘‘(2) performing additional air pollution moni-23

toring. 24

‘‘(e) LIMITATIONS ON AMOUNT; RENEWAL.— 25

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4 

•HR 5842 IH

‘‘(1) AMOUNT.— 1

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The amount of a 2

grant under this section (excluding any renew-3

als of the grant) may not exceed $50,000 for 4

any grant recipient. 5

‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—The Administrator 6

may waive the limitation in subparagraph (A) 7

with respect to an applicant in any case where 8

the Administrator determines that such waiver 9

is necessary for the community involved to ob-10

tain the necessary technical assistance. 11

‘‘(2) RENEWAL.—Grants may be renewed for 12

each step in the regulatory, removal, or remediation 13

process in connection with a facility with the poten-14

tial to release a covered hazardous air pollutant. 15

‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 16

‘‘(1) The term ‘community of color’ means any 17

geographically distinct area the population of color 18

of which is higher than the average population of 19

color of the State in which the community is located. 20

‘‘(2) The term ‘covered hazardous air pollutant’ 21

means a hazardous air pollutant (as defined in sec-22

tion 112 of the Clean Air Act) that— 23

‘‘(A) is listed on the toxics release inven-24

tory under section 313(c) of the Emergency 25

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5 

•HR 5842 IH

Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act 1

of 1986; or 2

‘‘(B) is identified as carcinogenic by an as-3

sessment under the Integrated Risk Informa-4

tion System (IRIS) of the Environmental Pro-5

tection Agency. 6

‘‘(3) The term ‘indigenous community’ means— 7

‘‘(A) a federally recognized Indian Tribe; 8

‘‘(B) a State-recognized Indian Tribe; 9

‘‘(C) an Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian 10

community or organization; and 11

‘‘(D) any other community of indigenous 12

people, including communities in other coun-13

tries. 14

‘‘(4) The term ‘low income’ means an annual 15

household income equal to, or less than, the greater 16

of— 17

‘‘(A) an amount equal to 80 percent of the 18

median income of the area in which the house-19

hold is located, as reported by the Department 20

of Housing and Urban Development; and 21

‘‘(B) 200 percent of the Federal poverty 22

line. 23

‘‘(5) The term ‘population of color’ means a 24

population of individuals who identify as— 25

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6 

•HR 5842 IH

‘‘(A) Black; 1

‘‘(B) African American; 2

‘‘(C) Asian; 3

‘‘(D) Pacific Islander; 4

‘‘(E) another non-White race; 5

‘‘(F) Hispanic; 6

‘‘(G) Latino; or 7

‘‘(H) linguistically isolated.’’. 8

SEC. 3. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY SOLID 9

WASTE DISPOSAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 10

GRANTS. 11

(a) GRANTS.—Subtitle D of the Solid Waste Disposal 12

Act (42 U.S.C. 6941 et seq.) is amended by adding at 13

the end the following new section: 14

‘‘SEC. 4011. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY TECH-15

NICAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS. 16

‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator may award 17

grants to eligible entities to enable such entities to partici-18

pate in decisions impacting the health and safety of their 19

communities relating to the permitting or permit renewal 20

of a solid waste disposal facility or hazardous waste facil-21

ity. 22

‘‘(b) TIMING.— 23

‘‘(1) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 12 months 24

after the date of enactment of this section, the Ad-25

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7 

•HR 5842 IH

ministrator shall publish guidance describing the 1

process for eligible entities to apply for a grant 2

under this section, including the required content 3

and form of applications, the manner in which appli-4

cations must be submitted, and any applicable dead-5

lines. 6

‘‘(2) FIRST GRANT.—Not later than 180 days 7

after the issuance of guidance under paragraph (1), 8

the Administrator shall award the first grant under 9

this section. 10

‘‘(c) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—To be eligible for a grant 11

under this section, an applicant shall be a group of individ-12

uals who reside in a community that— 13

‘‘(1) is a population of color, a community of 14

color, an indigenous community, or a low-income 15

community; and 16

‘‘(2) is in close proximity to a facility described 17

in subsection (a) for which a decision relating to a 18

permit or permit renewal for such facility is re-19

quired. 20

‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.—An eligible entity receiving a 21

grant under this section shall use the grant to participate 22

in decisions impacting the health and safety of the commu-23

nity involved that are related to the permitting or permit 24

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8 

•HR 5842 IH

renewal of a solid waste disposal facility or hazardous 1

waste facility, including— 2

‘‘(1) interpreting information with regard to— 3

‘‘(A) cumulative impacts studies; 4

‘‘(B) health impacts studies; 5

‘‘(C) relevant agency decisions; and 6

‘‘(D) operation and maintenance of nec-7

essary monitors; and 8

‘‘(2) performing environmental monitoring. 9

‘‘(e) LIMITATIONS ON AMOUNT; RENEWAL.— 10

‘‘(1) AMOUNT.— 11

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The amount of a 12

grant under this section (excluding any renew-13

als of the grant) may not exceed $50,000 for 14

any grant recipient. 15

‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—The Administrator 16

may waive the limitation in subparagraph (A) 17

with respect to an applicant in any case where 18

the Administrator determines that such waiver 19

is necessary for the community involved to ob-20

tain the necessary technical assistance. 21

‘‘(2) RENEWAL.—Grants may be renewed for 22

each step in the process for the permitting or permit 23

renewal of a solid waste disposal facility or haz-24

ardous waste facility. 25

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9 

•HR 5842 IH

‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 1

‘‘(1) The term ‘community of color’ means any 2

geographically distinct area the population of color 3

of which is higher than the average population of 4

color of the State in which the community is located. 5

‘‘(2) The term ‘indigenous community’ means— 6

‘‘(A) a federally recognized Indian Tribe; 7

‘‘(B) a State-recognized Indian Tribe; 8

‘‘(C) an Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian 9

community or organization; and 10

‘‘(D) any other community of indigenous 11

people, including communities in other coun-12

tries. 13

‘‘(3) The term ‘low income’ means an annual 14

household income equal to, or less than, the greater 15

of— 16

‘‘(A) an amount equal to 80 percent of the 17

median income of the area in which the house-18

hold is located, as reported by the Department 19

of Housing and Urban Development; and 20

‘‘(B) 200 percent of the Federal poverty 21

line. 22

‘‘(4) The term ‘population of color’ means a 23

population of individuals who identify as— 24

‘‘(A) Black; 25

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10 

•HR 5842 IH

‘‘(B) African American; 1

‘‘(C) Asian; 2

‘‘(D) Pacific Islander; 3

‘‘(E) another non-White race; 4

‘‘(F) Hispanic; 5

‘‘(G) Latino; or 6

‘‘(H) linguistically isolated.’’. 7

(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 8

for the Solid Waste Disposal Act is amended by adding 9

after the item relating to section 4010 the following: 10

‘‘Sec. 4011. Environmental justice community technical assistance grants.’’. 

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 11

There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 12

section 330 of the Clean Air Act (as added by section 2 13

of this Act) and section 4011 of the Solid Waste Disposal 14

Act (as added by section 3 of this Act) $5,000,000 for 15

each of fiscal years 2021 through 2025. 16

Æ 

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