Referred to the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change.
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Apr 8, 2021
Voices for Environmental Justice Act
This bill authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to award grants to eligible entities to participate in decisions impacting the health and safety of their communities in connection with an actual or potential release of a covered hazardous air pollutant. Additionally, the bill authorizes the EPA to award grants to eligible entities to participate in decisions impacting the health and safety of their communities relating to the permitting or permit renewal of a solid waste disposal facility or hazardous waste facility.
An eligible entity must be a group of individuals who reside in a community that (1) is a population or community of color, an indigenous community, or a low-income community; and (2) is in close proximity to the site of an actual or potential release of a covered hazardous air pollutant.
Covered hazardous air pollutants include those listed on the Toxics Release Inventory or those identified as carcinogenic by an assessment under the Integrated Risk Information System of the EPA.
Source last updated: Apr 7, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Explore the bill from different angles
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Neutral evidence review
Objective
Analyze H.R.2431 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
View full prompt & sources
Fairness and public impact
Progressive lens
Examine H.R.2431 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
View full prompt & sources
Institutions and government scope
Conservative lens
Examine H.R.2431 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
View full prompt & sources
Individual rights and government power
Liberty lens
Examine H.R.2431 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.