Capito questions Garland on climate, EJ budget request

E&E DAILY | Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito yesterday took aim at the Justice Department’s request for funds to tackle climate change and environmental justice.

DOJ's budget request for fiscal 2023 included $1.4 million to establish an Office of Environmental Justice and $6.5 million to address climate impacts and pollution in vulnerable communities.

“Are these directives coming from the White House?” Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, asked Attorney General Merrick Garland of DOJ’s climate priorities. “Why now and why with all of the other efforts … in the government, is this something you’re putting a high priority on right now?”

Capito's comments came during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on DOJ’s $37.7 billion fiscal 2023 budget request, which focused on investments in law enforcement, criminal justice reform and civil rights protections.

Garland — who appeared before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to defend the budget request — said DOJ “wanted to have some coordination” between its civil and criminal divisions, particularly on issues of environmental justice.

“Is that not being handled in other areas?” Capito asked, citing in particular EPA’s enforcement office.

Garland said he couldn’t speak to that office’s work but reiterated the desire for coordination within DOJ. He emphasized that the new office would exist within DOJ’s environmental division.

In a January 2021 executive order, President Joe Biden tasked DOJ and other federal agencies with taking a governmentwide approach to address planet-warming emissions.

Among the steps Biden instructed his attorney general to take were to establish an Office of Environmental Justice. The fiscal 2023 budget request is a first step toward that goal (E&E News PM, March 28).

Capito yesterday closed out her questioning of Garland by expressing doubt about DOJ's climate and environmental justice plans.

“I think I mentioned about three things I would put in front of this,” she said.