At Summit, Rep. Lee Announces Plans For Environmental Justice Caucus
**For Immediate Release**
At Summit, Rep. Lee Announces Plans For Environmental Justice Caucus
WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 4, 2025 — At Moms Clean Air Force’s annual summit, Congresswoman Summer Lee (PA-12) announced plans to launch a congressional caucus on Environmental Justice. Honoring the legacies of the late Reps. Raúl Grijalva and A. Donald McEachin–congressional champions and trailblazers in the fight for environmental justice–this caucus will not only serve as a platform to further advocacy for the passage of the Environmental Justice for All Act, but it will also carry forward the historic, community-centered coalition-building that defined the creation of this legislation, ensuring that frontline, overburdened, and underinvested communities remain not just at the table, but are co-leading the work alongside Members of Congress to shape and drive policy.
During a keynote fireside chat with Almeta Cooper, National Manager for Health Equity at Moms Clean Air Force, Rep. Lee discussed the impact of environmental racism, the harm of fossil fuel drilling in Pennsylvania and across the country, and the need to get money out of politics to advance environmental justice. She concluded the session with closing remarks announcing plans to create the new caucus.
“The inequality we are dealing with in our communities and our climate is cyclical and intentional. And where we have intentional policy decisions made, we must have intentional policy solutions that are community-rooted,” said Congresswoman Lee. “That’s why I am honored to announce my intent to create an Environmental Justice Caucus in Congress. Folks are suffering, our planet is suffering, and we have to use every tool available to us to advance environmental justice. I am grateful for the partnership of the late Reps. Grijalva and McEachin for charting this path, and will continue to fight the good fight in their memory.”
“We are in a fight against an EPA that is cruelly and recklessly advertising a free pass for polluters, inviting companies to apply by email. We are in a fight to protect the laws that set forth our right to clean air—and make it achievable. In other words, this fight is a significant part of a fight for a democracy that respects the rule of law. Where is the plastics industry’s moral compass—the morality that demands we respect our children’s bodies and keep them free of known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors,” said Dominique Browning, Moms Clean Air Force Director and Co-Founder; Vice President, EDF.
Through a standing community advisory table and taskforce-driven engagement, the Environmental Justice caucus will work to:
- Defend frontline communities under attack by centering their voices in congressional oversight and messaging
- Hold federal agencies accountable to equity mandates like Justice40 and civil rights enforcement
- Elevate community-driven solutions through field briefings, appropriations advocacy, and cross-issue coordination
To watch the Congresswoman’s remarks, click here. To view photos from the event, click here.
Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.4 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs. Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 3,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.