Support of Infrastructure Funding to Rebuild, Expand, and Rehabilitate Public Works Infrastructure to Benefit Communities of Color

WHEREAS, communities of color are disproportionately located in disaffected, dilapidated and too often lacking maintenance and appropriate resources; and

WHEREAS, building and repairing much-needed infrastructure related projects and facilities such as public housing, community outdoor spaces, roads, ports, flood protection projects, drinking water and wastewater systems, and other infrastructure projects are costly to local communities, and the project permits required to build them is difficult to obtain in a timely and efficient manner; and

WHEREAS, communities of color have experienced disproportionate, adverse impacts from the lack of access, and maintenance of, safe, clean water due to aging, crumbling infrastructure as evidenced by the recent water quality crisis in  Flint, Michigan; and

WHEREAS, given the high costs to build and rehabilitate such infrastructure and the extensive permitting process required to build and rehabilitate them, these infrastructure projects often cannot be built using only local funding and need additional funding from state and federal resources; and

WHEREAS, the federal infrastructure plan can also provide a path for streamlined permitting for these critical infrastructure projects in our communities through a well-structured and protective set of guidelines that could cut months if not years off the federal permitting process; and

WHEREAS, the combination of federal and state funding and a streamlined permitting process that improves necessary protections could substantially accelerate the implementation of infrastructure development and improvement projects needed by states and local communities.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP will advocate to influence all federal infrastructure initiatives to ensure that communities of color are not missed or left behind in the distribution of infrastructure dollars.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP will also advocate that the regulatory process for these projects can be streamlined without compromising the environmental protections, and local controls and securities which are in all American communities.