The Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief is requesting nearly $400 million in additional funds, for the purpose of hiring hundreds of new “environmental justice” bureaucrats.
According to the Daily Caller, EPA Administrator Michael Regan has called for $375 million in federal funding in order to hire at least 265 new full-time employees for the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (EJECR), which was established in September. Approximately one-third of the funding would go towards grants for outside groups, while another portion of the funds would double the agency’s civil rights budget.
“In fiscal year 2024 EPA requests more than $375 million and 265 [full-time employees] for the Environmental Justice Program,” Regan declared. “The funding will help to expand support for community based organizations, indigenous organizations, tribes, states, local government and other territorial governments so that they can identify and develop solutions to their environmental justice concerns through multi partner collaborations.”
“The development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies has not always ensured the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income,” Regan continued. “In the long term, the vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws will address historical and systemic barriers that contribute to the environmental injustice affecting vulnerable communities.”
With its current funding, the EJECR has already distributed at least $3 billion in environmental justice grants to minorities, which the EPA has claimed, without any evidence, are disproportionately impacted by pollution and global warming.
“The FY 2024 Budget will expand upon the FY 2023 enacted budget to enhance the Agency’s ability to develop, manage, and award new competitive grants to reduce the historically disproportionate health impacts of pollution in communities with environmental justice concerns,” the budget request declares.