Sec. 525. Climate Resiliency Corps
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/bill/116/hr/7516/ih/section-525·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
In this section: The term energy transition workers means workers, including workers employed by contractors or subcontractors, terminated, laid off from employment, or whose work-hours have been reduced, on or after the date of enactment of this Act, from a coal-related facility, coal-related industry, or other energy-related entity. The term members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces means members of the— Army National Guard of the United States; Army Reserve; Navy Reserve;
Marine Corps Reserve; Air National Guard of the United States; Air Force Reserve; and Coast Guard Reserve. The term underemployed means individuals who are employed at less than full-time because they are unable to obtain full time employment or who are employed at jobs inadequate to their training or economic needs. The term veterans of the Armed Forces means a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable.
In order to relieve distress and unemployment in the United States and to provide for the restoration of depleted natural resources in the United States and the advancement of an orderly program of useful public works, the President shall establish and operate a Climate Resiliency Corps to employ residents of the United States, who are unemployed or underemployed, in the construction, maintenance, and carrying out of works of a public nature in connection with, but not limited to— coastal restoration, including— adaptive management; exposed element relocation, elevation, or removal; flood and storm surge barrier; sea dikes; seawall or revetment; spatial planning and integrated coastal zone management planning; temporary and demountable flood defenses; rainwater harvesting; sustainable urban drainage systems; and wet and dry proofing; resilient infrastructure, including— deployment and management of resilient transportation and other infrastructure systems; sustainable urban underground structures development; and earthquake resiliency and interaction of above- and below-ground infrastructure; natural solutions, including— restoration of wetlands, mangroves, marshes, seagrasses, and oyster reefs, and the installation of living shorelines; green roofs; rain gardens; bioswales; urban tree canopies; and permeable pavements; and other activities that are deemed necessary by the President, with guidance from the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Interior, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, or other relevant agency leaders.
To operate the Climate Resiliency Corps, the President may utilize existing Federal departments and agencies, including the Department of Labor, the Department of Defense, the National Guard Bureau, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Federal governmental corporations. For the purpose of carrying out this section, the President may enter into such contracts or agreements with States as may be necessary, including provisions for utilization of existing State administrative agencies.
States entering into such contracts or agreements shall provide written assurances to the President that all laborers and mechanics employed by contractors or subcontractors in the performance of construction work financed in whole or in part with assistance under this section shall be paid wages at rates not less than those prevailing on similar work in the locality as determined by the Secretary of Labor in accordance with subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40, United States Code.
The President, or the head of any department or agency authorized by the President to construct any project or to carry on any public works under this Act, may acquire real property for such project or public work by purchase, donation, condemnation, or otherwise. If the President determines that amounts appropriated to carry out a Climate Resiliency Corps under this Act for a fiscal year will be insufficient to employ all of the citizens of the United States described in section
(b)who are seeking or likely to seek employment in the Climate Resiliency Corps and continue the employment of current employees who desire to remain in the Climate Resiliency Corps, the President shall give priority to the hiring of additional persons in the Climate Resiliency Corps to— energy transition workers; unemployed veterans of the Armed Forces and unemployed members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces; unemployed citizens who have exhausted their entitlement to unemployment compensation; unemployed citizens, who immediately before employment in the Climate Resiliency Corps, are eligible for unemployment compensation payable under any State law or Federal unemployment compensation law, including any additional compensation or extended compensation under such laws; and other citizens from minority groups, including, religious and ethnic minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities. The President may provide housing for persons employed in the Climate Resiliency Corps and furnish them with such subsistence, clothing, medical attendance and hospitalization, and cash allowance, as may be necessary, during the period they are so employed. The President may provide for the transportation of persons employed in the Climate Resiliency Corps to and from the places of employment. In employing citizens for the Climate Resiliency Corps, no discrimination shall occur, in accordance with Federal employment law, except that no individual under conviction for crime and serving sentence therefore shall be employed under the provisions of this Act. The President may use any moneys previously appropriated for public works and unobligated as of the date of the enactment of this Act to establish and operate a Climate Resiliency Corps under this section. Not less than 80 percent of the funds utilized pursuant to this subsection must be used to provide for the employment of individuals under this section. Paragraph
(1)shall not apply to— unobligated moneys appropriated for public works on which actual construction has been commenced as of the date of the enactment of this Act or may be commenced within 90 days after that date; and maintenance funds for river and harbor improvements already allocated as of the date of the enactment of this Act. The authority of the President to establish and operate a Climate Resilience Corps under this section expires on September 30, 2035.