Sen. Kamala Harris announced she was teaming up with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to make sure the Green New Deal would lift up low-income communities, people of color, and indigenous communities.
“Too many communities in America face systemic environmental injustice—that must end,” the California Democrat said Monday on Twitter. “Today, I’m partnering with @AOC to announce a landmark bill to ensure that a Green New Deal leaves no one behind and lifts up low-income communities, people of color, and indigenous communities.”
Too many communities in America face systemic environmental injustice—that must end.
Today, I’m partnering with @AOC to announce a landmark bill to ensure that a Green New Deal leaves no one behind and lifts up low-income communities, people of color, and indigenous communities.
— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) July 29, 2019
The bill, titled “Climate Equity Act of 2019,” would require congressional climate and environmental bills to have an equity score and require additional review for “climate equity” in federal regulations. The bill would additionally require all major federal climate and environmental investments to consider front-line groups, including low-income communities, indigenous communities, and communities of color. The bill would create an office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability to handle new responsibilities created by the bill.
Harris is currently polling in fourth place at 11% in the Democratic presidential primary according to RealClearPolitics.
Ocasio-Cortez originally introduced the Green New Deal in February. The bill seeks to shift large amounts of the U.S. economy to be directed at fighting climate change.
The nonbinding resolution includes calls for the U.S. to deal with “a large racial wealth divide.” The resolution also claimed environmental issues “disproportionately” affect indigenous communities.
Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti claimed earlier this month about the Green New Deal that “it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all … we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
