The EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) is asking for public feedback on its draft National Program Guidance (NPG) for fiscal years 2025-2026. The draft NPG explains how the new OEJECR will implement President Biden’s goal of integrating justice and equity into all of the EPA’s work. 

OEJECR will have 200 staff overseeing a $3 billion block grant program and ensuring that other programs meet the administration’s Justice40 target of delivering at least 40 percent of the benefits of clean infrastructure to environmental justice-indicated (EJ) areas. The guidance would create a process of continuous improvement for the agency to adopt a ‘one EPA’ approach and address environmental pollution in the most affected communities. 

The NPG sets out three objectives: advancing EJ priorities outside of the EPA through assistance to communities; advancing EJ and civil rights within the agency itself; and enhancing OEJECR’s ability to enforce federal civil rights law. 

Comments on draft NPGs for all of the EPA’s program offices are due June 4, but the EPA may consider requests to extend that deadline. The draft NPG can be accessed here: https://lnkd.in/ghXwPjJP.