Deputy Speaker Williams questions OMB on racial equity framework and climate budgeting parallel

Okay, so more questions on my favorite topic, the racial equity.

Okay, so OMB has developed a fairly robust climate budgeting framework that evaluates capital investments through the lens of emissions reduction, flood resiliency, and heat resiliency.

Is there currently a comparable framework within OMB for evaluating racial equity or environmental justice impacts when budget decisions are made?

I know you're working on it, but wanting to understand, again, if anything exists currently.

Yeah, I mean, I think that we, so we are, yes, we are developing the plan that we have in our preliminary plan just to get there for the next budget cycle.

But the sort of the absence of a particular specific rubric or framework doesn't mean that we aren't being attentive to investing

with respect to new needs in disadvantaged communities in areas where we know have been targeted for underinvestment over the years.

And there are

areas in this budget where that sort of bears out.

There was an announcement earlier this year about Community Parks Initiative, for example.

We know that we have funded in this budget the New York City Her Future program.

That's just another example.

We know, for example, in the 2K siting, and really looking at where those districts will be.

We look at the housing plan and really how we can make sure

that the block-by-block comprehensive plan, the 200,000 new affordable homes, the 200,000 preservation, where is that investment happening, and how can we integrate an equity lens into that plan?

So all of that means that we are focused on it, but we're going to have something that is structural and formal to say, let's go through this, perhaps in the way that climate budgeting, as you noted, actually does.

We'll look to be informed by existing models to be able to improve what we have.