Senate Environmental Justice Caucus Co-Chairs Booker, Duckworth, & Markey Commemorate the Launch of the First-Ever House Environmental Justice Caucus

WASHINGTON, D.C.– U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Edward J. Markey (D-MA)—co-chairs of theU.S. Senate Environmental Justice Caucus—issued the following statement commemorating the launch of the first-ever U.S. House Environmental Justice Caucus, which will be led by U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), Summer Lee (D-PA-12) and Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ-7).
“As the co-chairs of the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus, we are proud to have Representatives Tlaib, Lee and Grijalva as key partners in the House in our push to ensure every American has the right to breathe clean air and drink safe water, no matter where they live. In the face of Donald Trump’s cruel campaign against the Americans most hurt by environmental injustice, we need a strong bicameral front to fight his efforts to sacrifice our public health and planet’s future for the sake of polluters’ profit margins. We look forward to working closely with our House counterparts to provide environmental justice communities with the support they need and to resist this Administration’s desire to set our nation, and our planet, back decades.”
Senators Booker, Duckworth, and Markey have long pushed to strengthen and defend environmental justice efforts across the country. Last month, the three SenatorscondemnedTrump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for rescinding the endangerment finding, a landmark determination that requires the EPA to address greenhouse gas emissions and pollution because of the threat that climate change poses to public health and welfare.
Last year, the three Senatorscondemned Republicans’ cutsto environmental justice, and Booker and Duckworthcondemned the Trump Administrationfor shutting down all of EPA’s environmental justice offices and slashing over 30 EPA regulations that have helped protect our nation’s public health and the environment for decades.
Booker, Duckworth, and Markey—along with U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE)—last yearurged EPA Administrator Zeldinto reopen the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR), which Duckworth and Booker led the charge to create. Booker, Duckworth, and Markey alsohelped introduce legislationthat would permanently codify the Office of Environmental Justice within the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) in response to Attorney General Bondi’s order eliminating all environmental justice efforts at the DOJ.
For years, Booker and Duckworth have led the charge pushing for theirA. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice For All Act—the most comprehensive environmental justice legislation in history—which would help achieve health equity and climate justice for all, particularly in underserved communities and communities of color that have long been disproportionately harmed by environmental injustices and toxic pollutants.