Latine Community Priorities and The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

The report analyzes 308 projects totaling over $3.1 billion in IIJA expenditures across California, Colorado, Florida, New York, and Texas. It finds that while significant funds are reaching these states, investments are heavily skewed toward large-scale infrastructure projects managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, with relatively low funding for public lands and greenspaces. The analysis highlights a gap in orphaned well remediation near Latine communities and notes that carbon capture investments in Texas primarily benefit private industry. However, it identifies successes in fenceline air monitoring and climate pollution planning grants that have reached grassroots organizations and Latine-led initiatives.

• Across the five analyzed states, the 23 selected programs resulted in 308 projects with total federal expenditures of $3,169,794,916.
• The Army Corps of Engineers is the dominant funding agency, spending nearly $2.5 billion, which far exceeds the combined spending of the other four analyzed agencies.
• Florida received the highest total investment among the five states, totaling $1.2 billion, primarily driven by a nearly $1.1 billion investment in the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration program for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration project.
• Investments in parks and public lands are disproportionately low compared to other categories, with only $12.8 million invested in public lands (excluding oil well remediation).
• Carbon capture investments in Texas, totaling $95,241,114 across four projects in Houston, are the only instances in the study where public funds were awarded to private industry, such as the $33,411,193 grant to BP Corporation North America, Inc.
• There is a critical lack of orphaned well remediation projects located near communities; all identified awards for this program were on public lands in California, Colorado, and Texas.
• EPA grants for Fenceline Air Monitoring and Climate Pollution Reduction Planning have successfully reached grassroots and nonprofit organizations in major Latine metropolitan areas, including Houston, El Paso, Denver, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Miami-Dade County.
• Latine-led program investments are limited to California and Texas, totaling nearly $36.9 million, with the largest being the USDA's NEXTGEN program.

APA

Mendoza, M., Hernández, P., & Santos-Santiago, D. (n.d.). Latine Community Priorities and The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. GreenLatinos. https://www.greenlatinos.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a42c65_58332d5f8e0b49888c65e87f84baa245.pdf

Chicago

Mendoza, Maritza, Pedro Hernández, and Dharma Santos-Santiago. Latine Community Priorities and The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. GreenLatinos, n.d. https://www.greenlatinos.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a42c65_58332d5f8e0b49888c65e87f84baa245.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mendoza |first1=Maritza |last2=Hernández |first2=Pedro |last3=Santos-Santiago |first3=Dharma |title=Latine Community Priorities and The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act |publisher=GreenLatinos |url=https://www.greenlatinos.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a42c65_58332d5f8e0b49888c65e87f84baa245.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mendozandlatine, author = {Mendoza, Maritza and Hernández, Pedro and Santos-Santiago, Dharma}, title = {{Latine Community Priorities and The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act}}, institution = {GreenLatinos}, url = {https://www.greenlatinos.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a42c65_58332d5f8e0b49888c65e87f84baa245.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }