Reps. Lee, Barragán, McClellan, Casten, Lead 100+ Colleagues Demanding EPA Restore Environmental Justice Offices
**For Immediate Release**
Reps. Lee, Barragán, McClellan, Casten, Lead 100+ Colleagues Demanding EPA Restore Environmental Justice Offices
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 27, 2025 — Today, Representatives Summer Lee (PA-12), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Jennifer McClellan (VA-04), and Sean Casten (IL-06) led more than 100 colleagues in sending a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin demanding the reversal of the agency’s recently announced decision to eliminate all EPA regional environmental justice offices and programs. The lawmakers urged the EPA to reinstate these critical offices, emphasizing that their closure disproportionately harms low-income communities, communities of color, and rural areas by stripping away essential resources, technical assistance, and legal protections against environmental pollution.
“EPA’s regional environmental justice offices were established to ensure Americans in every community receive equal protection under the law,” the lawmakers wrote. “This action would cause extraordinary and disproportionate harm and constitute a complete dereliction of the EPA’s statutory responsibility to protect human health and the environment.”
The letter highlights the historical significance and critical role these offices have played over the past three decades in providing resources and support to frontline communities fighting environmental hazards.
“For generations, historically disadvantaged communities such as low-income, rural, and communities of color have been systematically exposed to hazardous waste, industrial pollution, and toxic emissions—not by accident, but through deliberate and discriminatory policies,” the letter continues. “Without EPA’s environmental justice offices, the agency will have limited ability to prevent disadvantaged communities from shouldering the greatest pollution burden, track environmental health disparities, or enforce civil rights protections.”
The lawmakers concluded their letter by demanding “the immediate restoration of the EPA’s environmental justice offices and programs, along with a firm recommitment to the agency’s founding purpose.”
Cosigners: (105) Reps. Gabe Amo, Yassamin Ansari, Becca Balint, Joyce Beatty, Wesley Bell, Donald Beyer, Suzanne Bonamici, Julia Brownley, Shontel Brown, Salud Carbajal, André Carson, Troy Carter, Kathy Castor, Judy Chu, Yvette Clarke, Emanuel Cleaver, Steve Cohen, Gerald Connolly, Jasmine Crockett, Danny Davis, Madeleine Dean, Diana DeGette, Mark DeSaulnier, Maxine Dexter, Lloyd Doggett, Sarah Elfreth, Veronica Escobar, Adriano Espaillat, Dwight Evans, Bill Foster, Valerie Foushee, Laura Friedman, Maxwell Frost, John Garamendi, Jesús García, Robert Garcia, Daniel Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Al Green, Steven Horsford, Jared Huffman, Jonathan Jackson, Sara Jacobs, Pramila Jayapal, Henry Johnson, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Robin Kelly, Timothy Kennedy, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, George Latimer, Mike Levin, Stephen Lynch, Seth Magaziner, Lucy McBath, Betty McCollum, James McGovern, LaMonica McIver, Robert Menendez, Grace Meng, Kweisi Mfume, Gwen Moore, Seth Moulton, Kevin Mullin, Jerrold Nadler, Eleanor Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Johnny Olszewski, Ilhan Omar, Chellie Pingree, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Mike Quigley, Delia Ramirez, Luz Rivas, Raul Ruiz, Andrea Salinas, Linda Sánchez, Mary Gay Scanlon, Janice Schakowsky, Hillary Scholten, Robert Scott, Terri Sewell, Lateefah Simon, Adam Smith, Eric Sorensen, Melanie Stansbury, Haley Stevens, Eric Swalwell, Mark Takano, Shri Thanedar, Bennie Thompson, Dina Titus, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda, Paul Tonko, Norma Torres, Ritchie Torres, Juan Vargas, Nydia Velázquez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Maxine Waters, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Nikema Williams, Frederica Wilson
Endorsements: WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Sierra Club, Earthjustice, Climate Action Campaign, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Union of Concerned Scientists, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), National Wildlife Federation (NWF)
FULL LETTER TEXT CAN BE FOUND HERE
Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability 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 3,400 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.