SENATOR MARKEY INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE, ASSESS, AND INFORM FEDERAL AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Press Release

Today, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, introduced the Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act, legislation to authorize $55 million over five years for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to annually update and expand its online air quality toolbox with best-available monitoring technologies and associated uses of data, connect the toolbox with environmental justice mapping and screening tools, and create full-time equivalent positions to support the work. The legislation would also establish a working group consisting of representatives from EPA regional offices, air agencies, environmental justice networks, data science, and public health science to develop templates for integrated monitoring systems. In addition, it would direct the EPA and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an inventory of the locations and operation statuses of air monitors, existing data infrastructure, high-priority areas for monitoring deployment in environmental justice communities, and workforce needs to improve air quality management across scales.

"Now, more than ever, we need to address the deep-rooted injustices of air pollution and its disparate effects on our communities' public health," said Senator Markey. "As air quality technologies continue to improve, we must use those improvements to institute better, bolder, more adaptive, and more equitable assessments and management of air quality nationwide."

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