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NEW ORLEANS, L.A. – Today, Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. shared the following statement recognizing the start of Black History Month 2022.

“Black History Month is a powerful moment for America to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments, stories, struggles, courage, joys, and essence of the Black experience in the United States of America.

As a Black man, Congressman, and proud member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I will use my role to continue to fight for the nation that I love to finally achieve its potential of justice and inclusion. I firmly believe that we can be a nation where we tackle the scourge of racism and hatred through policy changes, activism, accountability, and conversation.

This February and always, I recommit to advancing policies that defend civil and voting rights, promote racial justice, educate our children, invigorate our local economies, and improve public health and safety.

No matter what Senate Leader Mitch McConnell says, Black Americans ARE Americans. Black History IS American History. Let us take the next 28 days and use them as a launching point to a stronger future and an America that honors and uplifts the Black community all 365 days a year.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Thanks to funding from the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. announced today that Louisiana is eligible for a Phase One payment of $47,396,000 to clean up orphaned oil and gas wells across the state. Louisiana’s lifetime investment from the law for this program is expected to be around $111.5 million, but the state might also receive further funding through the Infrastructure Law’s $1.5 billion state Performance Grant program.

This announcement is part of the wider news from the U.S. Department of the Interior that $1.15 billion in funding is available to states from the Infrastructure Law to create jobs and clean up orphaned oil and gas wells across the country. This is a key initiative of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocated a total of $4.7 billion to create a new federal program to address orphan wells and protect the millions of Americans who live within a mile of an orphaned oil or gas well.

“This a critical first step to protect Louisiana’s communities and ecosystems from the hazards of orphan oil and gas wells,” said Congressman Carter. “This funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will finally help state officials address these wells, decrease dangerous methane emissions, and overall make Louisiana a safer and cleaner place to live. These projects will also create jobs and help spur more economic growth in our region and nationwide.”

Louisiana is expected to receive the seventh highest amount of total Phase One funding of all states, and this will help restore and plug the approximately 4,605 orphaned wells statewide. Along with cleaning up these hazardous sites in neighborhoods and public spaces, these investments will create good-paying, union jobs, catalyze economic growth and revitalization, and reduce dangerous methane leaks. Congressman Carter was the only member of the Louisiana House delegation to vote in support of the Infrastructure Law.

Plugging orphaned wells will help the nation hit its environmental and economic goals, such as the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan, and the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, which focuses on spurring economic revitalization in the hard-hit energy communities.

In coming weeks, the Department of the Interior will release detailed guidance for states to apply for their Initial Grants. These resources will allow state officials to begin building out their programs, remediating high-priority wells, and collecting additional data regarding the number of orphaned wells in their states. Improvements in state data, combined with more accurate Bureau of Labor Statistics will allow the Department to ensure that the final formula funding for states is pulled from the best information available.  

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WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. member of the bipartisan congressional Ethylene Oxide Task Force released the following statement about the Environmental Protection Agency’s Decision to stand by the 2016 IRIS Value of ethylene oxide (EtO):

“For too many in southeast Louisiana, environmental injustice isn’t an abstract concept, it’s a serious issue that many of my constituents face every day. Ethylene oxide is a dangerous air toxic that should be regulated in a way that prioritizes the health and safety of communities above all.

“As a member of the bipartisan Congressional EtO Task Force, I have heard firsthand how harmful EtO is to impacted communities. One of the Task Force’s top priorities has always been ensuring that the EPA upholds a strong standard in how they will regulate the chemical going forward – one that recognizes how toxic and dangerous ethylene oxide really is.

“The EPA’s decision today to uphold the 2016 IRIS value, despite the industry pushing for a weaker standard, is a huge step forward for our constituents who have been negatively impacted by EtO. I commend the EPA for listening and look forward to continued collaboration with the agency to reduce the harmful effects of EtO on our communities going forward. By locking the 2016 value into agency regulations, the EPA is demonstrating commitment to preserving public health and protecting affected communities.”

The bipartisan Congressional Ethylene Oxide Task Force advocates for stricter regulation of EtO to protect public health. EtO is an industrial chemical used in chemical manufacturing sterilize medical devices. Since 2016, EtO has been deemed a “known carcinogen” and the release of the 2018 National Air Toxics Assessment identified several Illinois communities facing dangerously high EtO emissions.

The Task Force includes Congressman Troy Carter (LA-02), Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10), Congressman Jody Hice (GA-10), Sean Casten (IL-06), Bill Foster (IL- 11), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Barry Loudermilk (GA-11), David Scott (GA-13), Lauren Underwood (IL-14) and Susan Wild (PA-07).

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WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. celebrated announcements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will promote environmental justice throughout Louisiana’s Second Congressional District. Among several other initiatives, the agency’s actions respond to his calls for increased air quality monitoring and accountability that were outlined in a letter on August 12, 2021.

“I would like to thank the Administrator for assisting the City of New Orleans with their infrastructure issues, as well as initiating first steps toward accountability, especially regarding air quality enforcement, monitoring, and data collection, which I called for back in August,” said Congressman Troy Carter. “To my constituents, this is their home and it is the primary duty of government to ensure that the people are safe and protected in their communities. The environmental justice actions announced today will allow collection of independent, reliable data that will inform the path forward to improve public health.”

The EPA’s actions range from policy changes to community-driven efforts and will help deliver environmental justice and work towards building a better America. They are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s wider whole-of-government approach to taking on environmental justice issues in communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution. 

The EPA also announced a series of broad, agency-wide policy actions including:  

• Committing the EPA to aggressively use its authority to conduct unannounced inspections of suspected non-compliant facilities, as needed to protect public health. When facilities are found to be non-compliant, the EPA will use all available tools to hold them accountable.

• Deploying a new program to expand air monitoring capacity called the Pollution Accountability Team (PAT). This program will utilize assets such as the ASPECT airplane, GMAP mobile air monitoring vehicle, and additional air pollution inspectors to enhance enforcement. Combining high-tech air pollution monitoring with boots-on-the-ground inspectors, PAT will address pollution and enhance enforcement at a community scale. This pilot program will also work to develop and/or acquire new instrumentation to measure newly emerging contaminants, such as chloroprene and ethylene oxide. More details on this program will be available in the coming weeks.

• Mobilizing agency resources to invest in community air monitoring to better protect people and public health in vulnerable areas.

• Pressing state and local elected officials to take urgent action to better protect the most overburdened communities.

• Holding companies more accountable for their actions in overburdened communities with increased monitoring and oversight of polluting facilities.

• The EPA will apply the best available science to inform the agency’s policymaking in order to best safeguard public health and protect the environment. 

• To ensure facility compliance with environmental laws, the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) has been directed to aggressively use its authority to conduct unannounced inspections at suspected non-compliant facilities, as needed, to protect public health.

• The Agency is also directing resources to better protect people and public health in overburdened areas across the nation, making $20 million in grants available from the American Rescue Plan to enhance local air monitoring for pollutants of greatest concern in communities facing health disparities.

• The EPA is proposing to reaffirm their peer-reviewed scientific assessment showing that ethylene oxide is significantly more toxic than previously understood, and going forward will use this assessment as a basis in taking regulatory actions to reduce this harmful pollutant. This notice responds to several petitions for reconsideration of a 2020 rule revising emission standards for chemical plants in the Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing source category and will be open to public comment.

Several of EPA’s announcements today reference actions in several specific regions, including the Second Congressional District that Congressman Carter represents.  They include:

• As was announced in December, the EPA is providing a $275 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan to New Orleans’ Sewerage and Water Board to modernize the city’s aged and storm-damaged sewer system.

• The new Pollution Accountability Team will begin its pilot air monitoring project in Mossville, St. James Parish and St. John the Baptist Parish. The EPA will work with residents and community leaders to determine the routes to be traveled by the mobile monitoring vehicle and the contaminants to be monitored. EPA Region 6 will make this data available to the public.

• The EPA will also invest more than $600,000 to procure mobile air pollution monitoring equipment and will deploy the monitors in Mossville, St. John the Baptist Parish and St. James Parish, among other communities located in the south. This equipment will measure volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including air toxics, and will dramatically improve EPA’s ability to measure pollution quickly and assess situations in real-time. The EPA will work with local organizations to host trainings for community members to introduce them to the technology and the Agency’s process for its air monitoring.   

• In St. John the Baptist Parish, the EPA used its authority to require the Denka facility to install fenceline monitors to identify sources of emissions onsite. These monitors will allow both the EPA and communities to better understand air pollutants through this quick and reliable system. This month, Denka complied with EPA’s request to install these monitors.  

• This week, EPA Region 6 also issued a Notice of Violation and Opportunity to Confer (NOVOC) to Nucor Steel Louisiana LLC in St. James Parish. The EPA notice requires Nucor to address unauthorized emissions of hydrogen sulfide and sulfuric acid mist, and exceedance of permitted limits for sulfur dioxide emissions at Nucor’s Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) facility. 

• In Mossville, the EPA will assess compliance at facilities that present potentially elevated risks to the community based on recent EPA helicopter flyovers and mobile air monitoring of the area. EPA also provided $38,886 for LDEQ to purchase a NAAQS quality PM 2.5 continuous monitor to be placed across the road from Sasol’s Lake Charles Complex. 

• The EPA will monitor and review the data and conduct an independent assessment to determine if NAAQS standards are exceeded in the Lake Charles area. The EPA will also conduct Technical System Audits on a rotating basis of the State’s monitoring system operations as well as reviewing LDEQ’s annual data certifications and LDEQ’s annual monitoring network plan.

• EPA Region 6 also issued a Notice of Potential Violation and Opportunity to Confer (NOPVOC) Letter to Sasol Chemicals USA, LLC. The Louisiana Sasol facility uses natural gas and by-products from refinery operations to produce specialty chemicals for detergents and cosmetics. The chemical complex uses or produces several regulated flammables such as ethylene, propane, butane, propylene, ethane, butane, hydrogen, methane and pentane. The EPA notice follows a January 2021 Compliance Evaluation conducted by inspectors from EPA Region 6 and LDEQ, and requires Sasol to address potential Risk Management Plan violations found during the inspection.

• In New Orleans’ Gordon Plaza neighborhood, residents have been negatively impacted by living on the former site of the Agriculture Street Landfill. As part of addressing their concerns, the EPA will now expedite a review of the site which was previously slated for review in 2023. Now, the accelerated review will begin in March 2022 and will include 9 homes that were not included in the previous review process. The Agency is taking this step to re-evaluate its previous decision, to communicate the results to the community, as well as consider future community-based solutions.

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WASHINGTON, D.C.  – This week, the bipartisan Small Business Advocacy Improvements Act of 2022(H.R. 128) was introduced in the House of Representatives. Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. is the Democratic co-lead for the legislation and Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-3), Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee, is the Republican co-lead.

The bill makes clear that the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy has the authority to examine international economic data, and represent small business interests in international discussions, particularly in trade negotiations.

Established in 1976, the Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) is the independent voice for small businesses within the federal government. Advocacy is also charged with overseeing the Regulatory Flexibility Act and is a source of small business statistics and research.

Since 2012, the Office of Advocacy has participated in a number of international regulatory cooperation and international trade initiatives that have impacted small businesses, but their role would benefit from clarification in statute.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and we need to uplift them at every opportunity,” said Congressman Carter. “Louisiana's Second District is an international one. We have some of the most important ports in the country and our businesses here connect with others across the globe every day. Opening up new markets overseas helps our businesses here at home. This bill assures that our small business owners have someone in the federal government fighting for our nation’s small businesses at home and abroad.”

This legislation was previously passed the House in 2019 under leadership by House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) and Representative James Comer (R-KY).

"Today's small businesses are more global than ever, selling their products and buying goods from countries around the world. So, when the U.S. makes decisions around trade and other international economic issues, the concerns of small firms must be considered," said Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, Chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee. "This bill will empower the SBA Office of Advocacy and help ensure that the interests of small businesses are represented when it comes to the international issues that impact them."

H.R. 128 will now be considered by the House Small Business Committee, of which both Congressman Carter and Congressman Luetkemeyer are members.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Troy Carter released the following statement after the Senate attempt to change the filibuster rules and protect voting rights:

“The right to vote is the beating heartbeat of democracy, but it’s currently faltering.

As many states impose dangerous voting restrictions that make it more difficult for citizens to access the ballot, Congress can bring the defibrillator and keep the blood of our democracy pumping.

We cannot afford to wait.

We must take action at the federal level to enact protections nationwide. We must ensure that every eligible voter is granted their Constitutional right to vote.

These attacks at the state level and from elected officials undermining our election systems showcases the fragile pillars upon which our democratic principles are balanced.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act that the Senate considered tonight would shore up the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and implement voter protections that would overturn state laws that limit early voting and other important voter access measures.

Policies like these have historically experienced bipartisan support, enjoying reauthorization by both Democratic and Republican Presidents.

However, something has changed of late, with nearly every Senate Republican lining up in unwavering opposition to these voting rights bills.

Why, we must ask? Why are they so afraid of letting the people vote?

I want to make something clear: the majority of Senators in the chamber today support both of these voting rights measures.

However, it is a travesty that every single one of the nation’s GOP Senators, plus two Democratic members, have chosen to prioritize the rule of the filibuster over the sacred right to vote.

The Senate has made exceptions to the filibuster many times – 163 times in its history, to be exact. The last two were just last month.

Policy as critical to the lifeblood of our democracy such as voter protections absolutely deserve the same treatment.

The model of bipartisanship that Senators Manchin and Sinema tout so fiercely has not worked out so well for Black Americans in the past.

In fact, the Voting Rights Act passed the Senate on a purely party-line basis.

That means that if the current 60-vote iteration of the filibuster was in place back in 1965, Black Americans would not have been granted the same voting rights as their fellow Americans.

Unless we act, widespread disenfranchisement in favor of a single party is dangerously close to reality.

The people’s voice could be silenced.

Today, members of the Senate have gone on record for their support or opposition of voting rights.

The roll has been called. We know where they stand.

Now, both history books and voters will hold them accountable.

As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a son of the South, today’s results in the Senate are personal.

Black Americans and our allies in justice have sacrificed so much and fought for so long for the civil rights we hold dear.

We have bled, cried, and died for the ballot.

One thing is for certain: though we are stymied by the Senate today, we are not done.  The fight is not over.

In every fashion, and in every avenue, we will continue the battle to protect the sacred right to vote and strengthen the very foundation of our democracy.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. announced over $2.6 billion in funding for projects in Louisiana to repair damage caused by storms and start new projects to protect communities from future disasters. This funding comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the 2021 Disaster Supplemental. Congressman Carter was the only member of the Louisiana House delegation that supported passage of both of these laws.

This funding will go to vital projects in Louisiana’s Second District and across the state. Important projects receiving funding include:

• Morganza to the Gulf - $378 million for construction of levees to protect communities in Louisiana
• New Orleans to Venice Hurricane Protection - $783 million for construction of levee on the east and west banks of Plaquemines Parish
• West Shore Lake Pontchartrain - $450 million for a resiliency assessment to improve the ability of the vital West Shore project to withstand future natural disasters. This project protects communities in the River Parishes from flooding and storm damage.
• Southeast Louisiana (SELA) - $94.3 million to complete more features of the important drainage projects in the Algiers sub-basin
• Comite River Diversion Project - $125 million for reinforcement and armoring to better protect it from future natural disasters. This project helps protect the people of Central and nearby communities from flooding.

“These projects all have one thing in common – they protect people in Louisiana from flooding,” said Congressman Carter. “Many other projects being funded today repair damage caused by previous storms. Providing better protection from storms and flooding is one of the most important thing government can do for our communities. For decades, these projects have sat without any, or sufficient funding. I was proud to vote for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act so that communities from Algiers to LaPlace to Baker can get the protection and investment they deserve.”

The Biden Administration announced today that the Army Corps of Engineers will invest $14 billion in 500 projects across the nation to focus on strengthening critical supply chains. Due to decades of underinvestment, accelerating climate threats and pandemic interruptions, supply chains have struggled to keep pace. This has slowed the nation’s economic recovery and burdened families and businesses with added costs and delay. These new investments will create jobs and economic opportunity, while strengthening key water infrastructure projects, improving resiliency to the climate crisis and restoring the environment.

The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed by President Biden on November 15, 2021. The Disaster Relief Supplemental was signed by President Biden on September 30, 2021.

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WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. of Louisiana’s Second Congressional District tested positive for COVID-19 and shared the following statement:

"This morning, I tested positive for COVID-19 and am experiencing cold-like symptoms.

I am so thankful to be fully vaccinated and have received my booster shot, measures which are highly protective against more severe symptoms and illness.

I will isolate while recovering and will continue to follow the guidance of the House Attending Physician. Throughout my isolation I will continue to work remotely on behalf of my constituents of southeast Louisiana.

My sincere thanks to all of the healthcare workers who have been working tirelessly throughout this public health crisis to protect all of us.

If you have not yet been vaccinated or boosted, please take this as a sign and get your shot today. Along with wearing masks, vaccinations are the best way to protect ourselves, our health systems, and our communities.”

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