Implementation of Justice40: Challenges, Opportunities, and a Status Update

President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, during his first week in office in January 2021. The EO includes a directive that 40 percent of the benefits of certain federal climate and energy investments flow to communities that are disadvantaged, marginalized, and overburdened by pollution. Nearly three years after its launch, the Justice40 initiative now covers 518 programs across 16 federal agencies.In this study, we take stock of Justice40 implementation. The report is divided into two parts. In the first part, we describe the basics of how Justice40 works and the timeline of program design and implementation since the EO, followed by a discussion of specific challenges the initiative faces and opportunities it provides. In the second part of the report, we assess the pace of Justice40 progress across 445 programs based on program-level analysis, including reviews of federal funding opportunities and conversations with agency staff.Justice40 TimelineThe White House released interim guidance for Justice40 in July 2021. That guidance delegated many decisions to agencies, including which programs are covered by Justice40 and how to measure and define benefits. Agencies were directed to submit benefits methodologies to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by December 2021. In February 2022, the White House released a beta version of a new screening tool for identifying disadvantaged communities for the purposes of Justice40. The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) was finalized in November 2022 after a public comment period. In January 2023, the White House issued an addendum to the interim guidance, which stated that agencies must fully transition to using the CEJST by October 1, 2023, for the purposes of implementing Justice40. A list of 463 Justice40-covered programs was released in April 2023. A new list of 518 programs was released at the end of November 2023; this list removed a handful of programs that had been on the April list and added programs from the Inflation Reduction Act.Justice40 Implementation ChallengesThe first challenge in Justice40 implementation is related to how federal funding programs work. The federal government sends money to state and local governments and directly to individuals, households, farmers, and other entities. Some funding goes to states in the form of block grants or formula categorical grants, in which money goes to states based on particular rules and formulas and states are given latitude in how and where to spend the money. In these programs, it may be difficult for federal agency staff to ensure that 40 percent of funds (and benefits) ultimately go to disadvantaged communities. With project categorical grants, state and local governments apply for federal funding, usually in a competitive process, to pay for specific projects and activities. In these cases, federal agencies have more control over where the money goes, but the ability to direct it to underserved communities depends on how many of those communities apply for funding. Many underserved communities lack the capacity and resources to undertake what can be an arduous application process. As a result, federal agencies may have a limited pool of applicants that makes it difficult to reach the 40 percent goal. A similar problem can arise in programs that provide financial assistance directly to individuals and households.The second Justice40 challenge is associated with the definition of disadvantaged communities. Agencies are required to use the CEJST to identify which communities are disadvantaged for the purposes of Justice40. Although CEJST has some strengths, it also has some limitations. The first is that it does not include race among its criteria, even though many studies have shown race to be a determining factor—possibly the most important factor—in who bears the burden of environmental injustices. A second is the reliance on national census tract level data to populate the tool. Census tracts are a geography that can be problematic in some areas, especially rural areas, because of the wide heterogeneity in socioeconomic characteristics of the population within the tract. Moreover, some well-recognized environmental problems are not captured in the tool because national data are not available.Defining the benefits of federal investments is the third challenge in Justice40 implementation. The language in the EO explicitly states that the “benefits of certain federal investments”, not the dollar amounts of the investments themselves, should flow to disadvantaged communities. For many federal programs, this aspect of Justice40 is proving the most difficult. In most cases, thus far, the best that is being done is measurement of the investments; in a few programs, other outcomes—contaminated site cleanups, for example—are being measured. The Department of Energy (DOE) has developed a list of eight benefits criteria that must be individually addressed in funding applications.Justice40 OpportunitiesDespite the implementation challenges, Justice40 is also providing some opportunities. We identified five.The first is the improvement in data measurement and collection that the initiative seems to be bringing about. To figure out whether the 40 percent goal is being met, agencies need to be able to track exactly where spending occurs and benefits are delivered. Ultimately, this should allow better program evaluation, even beyond Justice40.The second opportunity is the development of new technical assistance programs in federal agencies. As we stated above, unless agencies receive a pool of funding applicants that includes disadvantaged communities, they may not be able to meet the Justice40 goal, and the technical hurdles in many grant applications are often overwhelming for disadvantaged and underresourced communities. The new programs should help.The third opportunity Justice40 presents is the ability of the federal government to lead by example on justice and equity. Many decisions on environmental policy and infrastructure investments fall to state and local governments, but the federal government has enormous policy influence. It generally brings larger amounts of money to problems than individual states, sets national standards and regulations, provides information and technical assistance, and defines priorities in ways that states often follow. Thus, Justice40 could have a ripple effect at lower levels of government.A fourth opportunity is provided by the setting of a specific numerical target. Compared to procedural requirements, agency strategic plans, equity scorecards, and the like, Justice40 sets a goal based on program outcomes. One may question whether 40 percent is the “right” number, but it provides a quantitative focal point.Finally, the Justice40 initiative is improving community engagement in federal programs. Engagement with disadvantaged communities is a requirement laid out in EO 14008 and in the initial Justice40 guidance released by the White House in July 2021. While stakeholder engagement has long been a part of many federal government programs, the specific focus on engagement with disadvantaged communities is new.A Status UpdateWe began our review of implementation progress with the programs listed on the April 2023 Justice40 covered programs list. We reviewed 445 of the 463 programs on that list. The Department of Energy has the most covered programs at 165. The agencies with the second- through fourth-most programs are, respectively, the Environmental Protection Agency with 73, and the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior with 65 each.We devised a 1-5 scale for measuring the status of implementation. A rating of 1 indicates that we were unable to find any information about Justice40 for the program, including in funding announcements and on program webpages. Programs received a 2 if we found acknowledgement that the program was covered by Justice40 but no additional information. A rating of 3 was assigned to programs that provided preliminary Justice40 implementation guidance but no clear information on funding prioritization methods. A rating of 4 indicates that we found thorough program-specific Justice40 guidance, including clear definitions of prioritization metrics, but no statement (yet) that 40 percent or more of investments (or benefits) currently go to, or definitely will go to, disadvantaged communities. Category 5 indicates full implementation and achievement of the 40 percent goal. We divided 5 into two subcategories: 5A are programs that state that 40 percent or more of investments/benefits are currently going to Justice40 disadvantaged communities or will go to disadvantaged communities through set-asides and specific requirements; 5B are tribal and low-income programs that “automatically” achieve the Justice40 goal. All tribal communities are defined as disadvantaged for purposes of Justice40, and we made a decision to assign programs that are limited to low-income populations also to the 5B category. We could not track down reliable information for 42 programs on the April 2023 covered program list and thus left them uncategorized (U).The following table summarizes our findings.