§2341c Criteria for funding environmental infrastructure projects

Summary

The Secretary must, no later than 180 days after December 27, 2020, write clear rules for how to evaluate and rank each environmental assistance project that Congress has authorized the Secretary to carry out, including projects under environmental assistance programs. The rules must at least look at local economic effects (both good and bad, such as benefits to the local economy, how the project supports local growth, jobs directly created, and whether the local partner can pay its share); the community’s type and needs (for example, rural areas or economically disadvantaged, including minority, communities); how much money the project already got; the Army Corps of Engineers’ ability to fund it; whether another federal program could do the project at the same cost to the local partner; and any other factors the Secretary thinks are appropriate. The Secretary must put these rules into the annual Civil Works Direct Program Development Policy Guidance. For fiscal year 2022, and every two years after that, when the President sends the annual budget to Congress, the Secretary must send a report to the Senate Committees on Environment and Public Works and on Appropriations, and to the House Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure and on Appropriations, showing the Secretary’s ranking of the authorized environmental assistance projects using the developed criteria.