FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 9, 2024
Contact: Ashley Sullivan, ashley.sulivan@weact.org
WASHINGTON – WE ACT for Environmental Justice celebrates Representative Raúl Grijalva’s tremendous legacy during his tenure on the House Natural Resources Committee (HNRC) for more than twenty years and as Ranking Member and as Chair since 2018. We honor his unparalleled work as a steadfast environmental justice and climate champion. Throughout his time in Congress, he served his Arizona community as well as Tribal and frontline communities across the country with dignity and partnership, delivering on bold and necessary policy. We are likewise steadfast in our dedication to ensure this position and the HNRC continue to deliver on a better, more equitable future for all.
As one of the visionaries behind the landmark A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act, Representative Grijalva worked alongside the late Representative McEachin to ensure that community voices, lived experiences, and expertise were front and center in drafting the legislation. In a first of its kind effort, Representatives Grijalva and McEachin took the bill across the U.S., and solicited 350 written comments from the public. His efforts created a bill that was truly written by the people, for the people. The 300 environmental justice groups and allies supporting the bill are a testament to the profound trust and partnership the Representative fostered with Tribal, Indigenous, and environmental justice communities from Arizona to the District of Columbia.
Representative Grijalva’s leadership fostered people power in the People’s House. He and his staff have been dedicated to ensuring that HNRC witnesses reflect a diversity of backgrounds and experiences. With strategic, direct, and effective oversight during oppositional Administrations, he and his team had extensive experience protecting essential policies, and even passing vital allocations and bills while in the minority. He played a crucial role in securing transformative funding for frontline and Indigenous communities through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). With this once-in-a-generation effort, communities can now remediate orphaned oil and gas wells and abandoned coal mines, rebuild and restore coastlines, secure clean water resources, create climate resilience, and strengthen response to and prevention of wildfire.
We celebrate Representative Grijalva’s legacy and pledge to continue the work he championed during his time leading the House Natural Resources Committee. We carry this torch alongside fellow organizations and communities with pride. Together, we are devoted to seeing our communities achieve the promise of equity through clean energy, clean air, clean water, and environmental justice for all.
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WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan membership-based organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram.