EPA has released "EJ 2020 Action Agenda," its action plan
for addressing environmental justice ("EJ") for 2016
through 2020. The Agenda builds on the foundation established
in its last EJ strategic plan, Plan EJ 2014, which laid the
groundwork of EJ practices with guidance and tools to integrate EJ
in EPA's programs and policies. The Agenda is framed by three
overarching goals with priority areas and examples of key actions
for each goal, as well as measures to evaluate progress.
The first goal is to deepen EJ practice within EPA programs to
improve the health and environment of overburdened communities. The
priority areas for this goal are rulemaking, permitting, compliance
and enforcement, and science, and EPA is also assigning specific
offices and regions as co-leads for implementing each goal for each
priority area. For example, the co-leads for the
compliance and enforcement priority area under this goal are the
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
