[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 654 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 654

  To require the head of each Federal agency in the Department of the 
 Interior to consider whether actions of the agency have any disparate 
    impact on any member of a racial, ethnic, or religious minority.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 7, 2003

 Mr. Andrews introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
    Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on 
 Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
 in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require the head of each Federal agency in the Department of the 
 Interior to consider whether actions of the agency have any disparate 
    impact on any member of a racial, ethnic, or religious minority.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Environmental Justice Act''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO CONSIDER DISPARATE IMPACTS OF FEDERAL AGENCY 
              ACTIONS.

    The head of each Federal agency in the Department of the Interior 
shall--
            (1) before authorizing, funding, or carrying out any action 
        under any Federal law, consider whether the action will have 
        any disparate impact on any member of a racial, ethnic, or 
        religious minority; and
            (2) in authorizing, funding, or carrying out any action 
        under any Federal law, seek to limit such disparate impacts to 
        the extent possible consistent with such law.

SEC. 3. ENFORCEMENT.

     A violation of section 2 with respect to any individual who is a 
member of a racial, ethnic, or religious minority shall be treated as a 
deprivation of a right of the individual for purposes of section 1979 
of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1983).

SEC. 4. AGENCY DEFINED.

     In this Act the term ``agency'' has the meaning given that term by 
section 551 of title 5, United States Code.

SEC. 5. APPLICATION.

    (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), this Act 
applies to any agency action taken on or after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
    (b) Limitation.--This Act does not apply to an agency action to the 
extent that there is involved a matter relating to agency management or 
personnel.
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