Environmental Justice Legacy Pollution Cleanup Act of 2020
Latest action. Referred to the Committee on appropriationA law permitting federal agencies to spend money. The Constitution forbids any spending without one, Congress's 'power of the purse'.Read the full definition (opens a new tab), and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdictionA court's legal authority to hear a case: over the subject matter, the parties, and the territory.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) of the committee concerned.
Environmental Justice Legacy Pollution Cleanup Act of 2020
This bill provides for funding and permitting restrictions in relation to environmental cleanup and remediation of areas with public health threats.
Specifically, the bill provides supplemental appropriations for FY2020 to the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Agriculture, and the Indian Health Service for various environmental cleanup and remediation projects, including those that affect low-income and tribal communities. For example, the bill appropriates $30 billion to HUD to provide grants to local governments to evaluate and reduce lead-based paint hazards and other housing-related health and safety hazards in low-income housing.
The bill immediately prohibits the granting of a Title V permit for a major proposed source (relating to air pollution control requirements) for an overburdened census tract, which is an area that has been identified as having a specified amount of particulate matter and an identified heightened risk of cancer due to air pollution. The EPA must publish a list of overburdened census tracts and update the list annually based on the most recently available modeling and monitoring data.
After January 1, 2025, the bill also prohibits the renewal of Title V permits for major sources in an overburdened census tract.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on September 16, 2020. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on September 16, 2020: Referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Debra Haaland (D-NM) introduced it on September 16, 2020, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 3 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on September 16, 2020, 2185 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2185 days ago, on September 16, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers