President Joe Biden’s new Office of Environmental Justice in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is off to a rocky start.
The office, launched in May, was designed to tackle the broad issue of “environmental justice,” which could range from issues like undrinkable water in Jackson, Mississippi, to air pollution from factories in Los Angeles sickening residents. After only a few months, though, the office is soon to be down to just one employee and has no formal funding, according to STAT News.
The first four months of the office’s existence were largely spent on a “listening tour” with health officials and local activists, interim director Sharunda Buchanan told STAT. Buchanan will join the office on a permanent basis soon, but for now, she’s still on loan from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Buchanan will soon be the only employee working in the Office of Environmental Justice, as the only other employee is set to depart, according to STAT. It’s not entirely clear what the office will actually do going forward — Buchanan says she has “visions of grandeur” and wants the office to tackle issues from clean water to chemical exposure to lead poisoning.
One major hurdle for the office is that it hasn’t been formally funded by Congress, nor has its parent office, the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity in HHS. (RELATED: EPA Spent COVID Relief Money On ‘Environmental Justice,’ ‘Tree Walks’)
Congress declined to fund the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity in the 2022 federal budget after HHS had asked for $3 million. Funding for 2023 has yet to be decided. Funding for the office was also not included in the Inflation Reduction Act, which contained $3 billion in environmental justice block grants.
EPA’s new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights brings a historic opportunity to improve infrastructure, pay for needed projects, and enact equal environmental protection – connecting EPA to communities that need resources the most.https://t.co/tQLydATvZr
— U.S. EPA (@EPA) October 11, 2022
Biden paved the way for the creation of the environmental justice unit with an executive order he signed earlier this year. In January, the president ordered federal agencies to come up with department-specific plans to help fight climate change. From that, the Office of Environmental Justice was born.