'Unprecedented' federal focus on inequality at risk

Ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, US cities are racing to safeguard momentum on what backers see as historic action on environmental justice and a range of new efforts to tackle racial, economic and geographic inequality. After the COVID pandemic and protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020, racial and economic inequality moved to the centre of federal policymaking. That includes, for instance, a mandate that 40% of benefits from federal climate, clean energy, housing and other investments go to communities considered under-invested or "overburdened by pollution", strategies that are now translating to new workforce development, cleaning up decades-old pollution and more. Yet many worry the billions available in funding for such "environmental justice" and related considerations could be imperilled by a second Donald Trump administration.

Cristina Calva, a public information officer for the city of Albuquerque in New Mexico said the new federal support had had "a huge impact" on the ability of cities to respond to concerns that inadequate investment in marginalised communities had left them uniquely vulnerable to pollution and climate change. A first-ever city committee in Albuquerque is preparing to release a five-year environmental justice plan covering pollution remediation, clean energy, transit, affordable housing and more, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "With all of this work we're doing to bring equity throughout the city, we're looking for ways to implement things that will not just disappear with a new administration," she said. Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an email that the former president's first term in office showed he was able to create a thriving economy. She pointed to a platform that includes pledges to end inflation, cut taxes for workers, rebuild urban areas and more.

"President Trump's 20 promises to the forgotten men and women represent a winning agenda to make our country strong, safe, healthy, wealthy, and great again," Leavitt said. Vice President Kamala Harris is broadly expected to continue the current administration's approach to prioritising marginalised communities. As a US senator, Harris wrote several bills on the issue, including the Environmental Justice for All Act and the Climate Equity Act, while her presidential campaign focuses on creating an "opportunity economy" and highlights her work promoting an equitable post-pandemic recovery. Even as the federal government is now helping local governments act on issues that have long proved intractable, the election uncertainty is prompting concerns that momentum could disappear before it has had a chance to have an impact.

"Communities are terrified that funding is going to go away," said Ella Mendonsa, a senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund, which is affiliated with the Natural Resources Defense Council think tank. Even with some money already out of the door, implementation of new programmes would be taking place well into the next administration, she said. "Cities are really feeling threatened by the possibility of lawsuits and trying to make sure this money is already dispersed, because that threat of losing this funding or having it clawed back is very high," Mendonsa said. Still, US cities gained significant experience in filling a perceived gap in federal policy during the first Trump administration, Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb said in an interview.

"We've been here before," said Bibb, who also chairs the national Climate Mayors group of nearly 350 mayors. "America's mayors and Climate Mayors will work to continue to ensure that we take full advantage of the incentives, as we need to make sure we're addressing the climate crisis at the local level. We're already planning for either scenario," he said of the election outcome. Those experiences also offer insight on steps cities can take today to seek to safeguard current policy priorities, said Deborah Archer, faculty director of the Community Equity Initiative at New York University School of Law. Some of the most far-reaching aspects of the Biden administration's focus on inequality are concerned with undoing past damage to marginalised communities, Archer said, pointing to the example of an unprecedented $1-billion programme to reconnect Black communities divided by highways a half-century ago.

"Localities can Trump-proof some gains from the Biden administration by writing progressive federal policies into state laws and local ordinances," said Archer, who is also president of the American Civil Liberties Union. For example, the Biden administration has created new federal rules aimed at removing barriers to housing - guidance that could now be vulnerable under a new administration. Yet California, Maine and others have codified these rules into state law.

The past four years have seen a sea change in putting inequality at the core of local economic development, expanding beyond the traditional metrics of job creation and growth in gross domestic product, said M. Yasmina McCarty, CEO and president of the New Growth Innovation Network, which works with cities across the country. She pointed to new inclusive economic models in cities such as Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Topeka, Kansas, which have expanded their concept of economic growth to include poverty reduction and participation of traditionally marginalised groups. Sector-specific work is adopting similar approaches, such as new jobs development in the marine economy along Rhode Island's coast or the aeronautics industry in Texas, which actively seek to involve marginalised applicants.

Such work has been made possible through an "unprecedented prioritisation of equity" from the federal government, well beyond a traditional focus on gender and race, McCarty said. "To walk away from that would be regrettable and would leave a lot of cities and regions stuck in poverty." For now, new local partnerships focused on this work are looking for funding alternatives, she said, expressing confidence the work would continue, if under other names.

As cities increasingly recognise the importance of inclusion for economic development, they have built on local efforts that grew under the Trump administration to provide "sanctuary" to migrants, said Rachel Peric, executive director of Welcoming America, a non-profit that works with cities. "In the last Trump era, cities were the first line of action and the last line of defence," and today they are preparing to do the same, she said. Cities increasingly recognise that openness to outsiders is important to address demographic and economic headwinds, Peric said, pointing to Dayton, Ohio. The former industrial city, Peric said, had "reversed 50 years of population decline and is now seeing economic gains, with people moving in, putting down roots, opening businesses".

Welcoming America lists hundreds of communities with similar policies, seeking to ensure they are open to newcomers including migrants, by boosting affordable housing and economic opportunities, tamping down on racism or school bullying, and more. Ahead of the election, interest in such policies is again high, Peric said. "We did see a big uptick in interest in 2016 in our membership, so we're expecting that again, as people want to be outspoken in their values."

Meanwhile, Democratic US Vice President Kamala Harris held a marginal 46% to 43% lead over Republican former President Donald Trump, with a glum electorate saying the country is on the wrong track, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Harris' lead in the six-day poll, which closed on Monday, differed little from her 45% to 42% advantage over Trump in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted a week earlier, reinforcing the view that the contest is extraordinarily tight with just two weeks left before the Nov. 5 election. Both polls showed Harris with a lead within the margin of error, with the latest poll showing her ahead just 2 percentage points when using unrounded figures. The new poll showed that voters have a dim view of the state of the economy and immigration — and they generally favour Trump's approach on these issues. Some 70% of registered voters in the poll said their cost of living was on the wrong track, while 60% said the economy was heading in the wrong direction and 65% said the same of immigration policy.

Agencies