Warns Funds to Community-Based Organizations Must Be Distributed to Groups By December, Well Before Trump Takes Office
WASHINGTON, DC — The Climate Justice Alliance, a coalition representing over 100 rural and urban-based community-based organizations, is calling on the Biden Administration and Environmental Protection Agency to deliver on the promises of the Inflation Reduction Act and obligate remaining funds to organizations immediately.
The Climate Justice Alliance leads the United Network for Impact, Transformation & Equity in Environmental Justice Communities (UNITE-EJ), which was selected as one of three national grantmakers for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program (“EJ TCGP”) (authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act).
KD Chavez, the new executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance, explained:
“Now more than ever, the promises of the IRA should be delivered on and the obligated funds that Climate Justice Alliance is waiting on should be released by December. Climate Justice Alliance was one of the top-scoring applicants to the grantmaking role, met every milestone and currently leads two communities of practice for the TCGM program, including quality assurance, and communications and outreach. If CJA was not funded this would likely put the success of the entire program in jeopardy.
“Funding decisions should be made based on the merits of the projects and the need for action, not political or ideological bias. That would be a horrible precedent to set and would have lasting ramifications for future awards many cycles down the road.
“At a time when communities will likely experience increased devastation from continued climate catastrophes, it’s important that the promise of the Inflation Reduction Act can actually be accessed by the communities that need it most.
“Withholding this funding based on what could be seen as viewpoint discrimination, would set a troubling precedent that undermines our constitutional right to free speech and would also have far-reaching implications for other advocacy organizations representing marginalized and vulnerable populations.
“Now is the time to ensure communities, universities and other acceptable grant applicants can have a chance to apply for these extremely critical resources that will help address climate change and mitigate against the consequences the most vulnerable and overburdened communities face now and in the future.”
In December 2023, EPA announced the selection of 11 national and regional grantmakers that will receive awards totaling $600 million to serve as pass-through entities for the EJ TGCP, $50 million of which will be distributed through UNITE-EJ. The grantmakers will award competitive subgrants of up to $350,000 to community-based organizations and other eligible entities for capacity building and projects addressing local environmental and public health issues. Previously, EPA directly managed this program as the EJ Small Grants Program, which required small and capacity constrained organizations to navigate the federal SAM.gov and Grants.gov process. EPA determined that the EJ TGCP pass-through model will be a more effective approach to awarding these small grants because it will reduce the burden of navigating the federal grants process as a prime recipient, increase access to funding, and reduce the amount of time from application to receipt of funding.
Despite official confirmation from EPA administrators obligating the funds, and despite the administration’s formal recognition of CJA’s exceptional capacity as a national grantmaking institution and leader in building community-based climate solutions, the EPA has yet to fulfill its financial obligations and obligate funds.”
Since the announcement, CJA has been subjected to right-wing media attacks seeking to politicize the organization and alienate its supporters.
This tactic of intimidation seems to have picked up speed since Election Day and is already having a chilling effect on organizations who understand that the targeting of social justice organizations will likely increase in coming months.
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