2022 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 68
BY SENATOR FESI
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the attorney general to review the creation of the Office of
Environmental Justice within the Environment and Natural Resources Division of
the United States Department of Justice, monitor the office's operations, and take any
actions necessary, including coordinating actions with attorneys general of other
states, to ensure the office's compliance with all laws, including the United States
Constitution.
WHEREAS, President Biden signed Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate
Crisis at Home and Abroad, on January 27, 2021, declaring that environmental justice must
be a key consideration in federal governance and directing the Attorney General of the
United States to develop a comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy to
remedy systemic environmental violations, contaminations, and injury to natural resources;
and
WHEREAS, the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States
Department of Justice, in coordination with the Office of Enforcement and Compliance
Assurance within the Environmental Protection Agency, developed its Environmental Justice
Enforcement Strategy to advance the edicts of Executive Order 14008; and
WHEREAS, the express purpose of the Environmental Justice Enforcement Strategy
is to selectively utilize the federal civil and criminal enforcement apparatus to prioritize
enforcement against certain entities and to attempt to create economic equity in underserved
and marginalized communities, all under the guise of environmental justice; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Justice has created the Office of Environmental
Justice within the Environment and Natural Resources Division and has created the
Environmental Justice Enforcement Steering Committee comprised of representatives from
the Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, Office of the
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Associate Attorney General, the Environment and Natural Resources, Civil rights, and Civil
Divisions, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the Offices of Justice Programs, Tribal
Justice, and Access to Justice, the Community Relations Service, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and the Department of Justice's law enforcement agencies; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Justice strategy intends to utilize tools outside of
traditional environmental statutes in pursuit of enforcement actions, including the use of
Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEP), which often facilitate payments to
non-government third parties who are neither victims nor directly involved in the
enforcement action and which may bear a tenuous connection to redress of a violation; and
WHEREAS, monetary penalties are imposed in enforcement actions to address the
gravity of the violation and to recoup the economic gain realized through noncompliance
with the law; SEP diverts penalty funds away from the United States Treasury; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Justice previously prohibited its components from
entering into settlement agreements that directed or provided for payments to
non-government third parties, under 28 C.F.R. §50.28; however, the department has issued
an interim rule rescinding 28 C.F.R. §50.28 and reinstituting the use of SEP in enforcement
policy; and
WHEREAS, current Department of Justice policy allows for the input of unelected
officials in selecting SEP recipients and beneficiaries and does not require the authorization
of Congress, presenting a conduit for corruption and undue influence in the enforcement of
environmental law, outside the bounds of restitution; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Justice's Environmental Justice Enforcement Strategy
threatens the abandonment of the principle of equal justice under the law and presents
important questions of separation of powers, constitutional authority, and fairness.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the attorney general to review the creation of the Office of Environmental
Justice within the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States
Department of Justice, monitor the office's policies and operations, and take any actions
necessary, including coordinating actions with attorneys general of other states, to ensure
the office's compliance with all laws, including the United States Constitution.
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
attorney general.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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