SENATE MEMORIAL 13

56th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2024

INTRODUCED BY

Linda M. L pez

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THAT THE LEGISLATIVE FINANCE COMMITTEE TRACK PRESIDENT BIDEN'S JUSTICE40 INITIATIVE TO ENSURE THAT FUNDS ARE DIRECTED TO POOR, DISENFRANCHISED AND LEGACY CONTAMINATED COMMUNITIES.

 

     WHEREAS, justice40 is a whole-of-government effort to ensure that federal agencies work with states and local communities to make good on President Biden's promise to deliver at least forty percent of the overall benefits from the relevant federal investments to disadvantaged communities; and

     WHEREAS, the initiative looks to direct investments in the following areas to disadvantaged communities: climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transportation, clean water, affordable housing, workforce development and a reduction of legacy pollution; and

     WHEREAS, a new climate and economic justice screening tool is being developed by the white house council on environmental quality in partnership with the United States digital series to assist federal agencies in identifying disadvantaged communities to target investments; and

     WHEREAS, the white house environmental justice advisory council recommends that federal agencies identity disadvantaged communities using factors such as: household income, households living near superfund, waste, landfills and toxic facilities, households with low education attainment and low high school graduation rates, geographic areas with high maternal and infant mortality rates, geographic areas that were formerly redlined, geographic areas with high asthma rates and deaths and geographic areas with poorly maintained stock of housing and food deserts; and

     WHEREAS, an environmental justice scorecard is being established to track how federal agencies are performing on meeting the goals of the justice40 initiative; and

     WHEREAS, President Biden issued an executive order that established the justice40 initiative in January 2021; and

     WHEREAS, implementing justice40 involves restructuring how the federal government operates to ensure that federal funding equitably benefits communities, prioritizing disadvantaged communities for investments though hundreds of existing and new federal programs; and

     WHEREAS, the council on environmental quality released an interim implementation guidance directing federal agencies to begin assessing how existing and new federal programs can deliver forty percent of their overall benefits to disadvantaged communities;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative finance committee be requested to research and report on New Mexico communities and organizations that have benefited from the Biden administration's justice40 initiative funding; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislative finance committee be requested to write and publish a report listing the specific ways in which those communities benefited from justice40 funds; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the legislative finance committee, the legislative health and human services committee and the interim committee that studies water and natural resources issues.

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