Cleaner Air Spaces Act of 2023

II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1948 To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to pro- vide grants to air pollution control agencies to implement a cleaner air space program, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 13, 2023 Mr. BENNET (for himself, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. WHITE- HOUSE, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mr. WYDEN, and Mrs. GILLIBRAND) intro- duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Environment and Public Works A BILL To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to provide grants to air pollution control agencies to implement a cleaner air space program, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cleaner Air Spaces 4 Act of 2023’’. 5 SEC. 2. CLEANER AIR SPACE PROGRAM GRANTS. 6 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •S 1948 IS (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis- 1 trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ- 2 mental Protection Agency. 3 (2) AIR POLLUTION CONTROL AGENCY.—The 4 term ‘‘air pollution control agency’’ has the meaning 5 the term given in section 302 of the Clean Air Act 6 (42 U.S.C. 7602). 7 (3) CLEAN AIR CENTER.—The term ‘‘clean air 8 center’’ means 1 or more clean air rooms in a pub- 9 licly accessible building. 10 (4) CLEAN AIR ROOM.—The term ‘‘clean air 11 room’’ means a room that is designed to keep levels 12 of harmful air pollutants as low as possible during 13 wildland fire smoke events. 14 (5) COVERED HOUSEHOLD.—The term ‘‘covered 15 household’’ means a household that— 16 (A) is located in a low-income community; 17 and 18 (B) includes a person who— 19 (i) is at high-risk of experiencing a 20 wildland fire smoke event; and 21 (ii) is vulnerable to negative health ef- 22 fects caused by wildland fire smoke due to 23 factors such as an underlying health condi- 24 tion, a disability, or age. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •S 1948 IS (6) ELIGIBLE AIR FILTRATION UNIT.—The 1 term ‘‘eligible air filtration unit’’ means an air filtra- 2 tion unit that— 3 (A) is certified by the Association of Home 4 Appliance Manufacturers to have a Clean Air 5 Delivery Rate of at least 97 for smoke; 6 (B) is certified under the Energy Star pro- 7 gram established by section 324A of the Energy 8 Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 9 6294a); 10 (C) does not emit ozone; and 11 (D) uses a true high-efficiency particulate 12 air filter rated to remove 99.97 percent of par- 13 ticles measuring 0.3 micrometers or greater. 14 (7) LOW-INCOME COMMUNITY.—The term ‘‘low- 15 income community’’ has the meaning given the term 16 in section 45D(e) of the Internal Revenue Code. 17 (b) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—Subject to the avail- 18 ability of appropriations, the Administrator shall provide 19 grants to air pollution control agencies to implement a 20 cleaner air space program in accordance with this section. 21 (c) GRANT REQUIREMENTS.— 22 (1) AMOUNTS.—Under this section, the Admin- 23 istrator may not provide a grant to an air pollution 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •S 1948 IS control agency in an amount that exceeds 1 $3,000,000. 2 (2) GRANTS FOR TRIBES.—The Administrator 3 shall provide at least 1 grant under this section to 4 a Tribal agency that has jurisdiction over air qual- 5 ity. 6 (d) APPLICATION.— 7 (1) IN GENERAL.—To apply for a grant under 8 this section, an air pollution control agency shall 9 submit to the Administrator an application at such 10 time, in such manner, and containing such informa- 11 tion as the Administrator determines appropriate, 12 including a proposal for the implementation of a 13 cleaner air space program. 14 (2) PROPOSAL FOR CLEANER AIR SPACE PRO- 15 GRAM REQUIREMENTS.—A proposal for the imple- 16 mentation of a cleaner air space program of an air 17 pollution control agency under paragraph (1) shall 18 include the following: 19 (A) Certification of partnering with a com- 20 munity-based organization. 21 (B) Details on the responsibilities of all 22 parties involved with the cleaner air space pro- 23 gram, including the responsibilities of— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •S 1948 IS (i) the air pollution control agency; 1 and 2 (ii) any community-based organiza- 3 tions with which the air pollution control 4 agency is partnering under subparagraph 5 (A). 6 (C) Information with respect to which geo- 7 graphic population or community of covered 8 households may be receiving eligible air filtra- 9 tion units under the cleaner air space program. 10 (D) Information on how the air pollution 11 control agency plans— 12 (i) to distribute educational materials 13 related to eligible air filtration units; and 14 (ii) to advertise the availability of 15 clean air centers. 16 (E) Information on how the air pollution 17 control agency plans to establish a clean air 18 center, including— 19 (i) the facility in which a clean air 20 center may be established; and 21 (ii) the capacity and ventilation char- 22 acteristics of that facility. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •S 1948 IS (F) A description of the costs that may be 1 associated with the cleaner air space program, 2 including any administrative costs. 3 (e) CLEANER AIR SPACE PROGRAM REQUIRE- 4 MENTS.—Subject to satisfaction of the partnership re- 5 quirement described in subsection (f), an air pollution con- 6 trol agency implementing a cleaner air space program pur- 7 suant to a grant provided under subsection (b) shall— 8 (1) establish at least 1 clean air center that 9 is— 10 (A) located in an area at risk of being ex- 11 posed to wildland fire smoke; 12 (B) accessible to individuals that reside in 13 covered households; 14 (C) open, accessible, and staffed during 15 wildland fire smoke events with the option of 16 being open, accessible, and staffed before or 17 after wildland fire smoke events; 18 (2) advertise to the public— 19 (A) during a wildland fire smoke event, the 20 availability of a clean air center; and 21 (B) the cleaner air space program that the 22 air pollution control agency is implementing, in- 23 cluding information about the cleaner air space 24 program, the availability of free air filtration 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •S 1948 IS units (if applicable), eligibility requirements to 1 receive those free air filtration units, and infor- 2 mation on who to contact for more information 3 with respect to the cleaner air space program; 4 (3) at no cost to covered households— 5 (A) distribute not less than 1,000 eligible 6 air filtration units to those covered households; 7 and 8 (B) provide 1 air filter replacement for 9 each eligible air filtration unit distributed under 10 subparagraph (A); 11 (4) distribute educational materials that include 12 information with respect to how to best utilize an el- 13 igible air filtration unit to create a clean air room 14 in a home; 15 (5) collect, and provide to the Administrator, 16 information on— 17 (A) each type of eligible air filtration unit 18 distributed under the cleaner air space pro- 19 gram; 20 (B) the number of eligible air filtration 21 units so distributed; and 22 (C) the cost of each type of eligible air fil- 23 tration unit so distributed; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •S 1948 IS (6) not later than 6 months after providing an 1 eligible air filtration unit to a covered household, 2 conduct an anonymous survey of an individual of the 3 covered household that received the eligible air filtra- 4 tion unit through the cleaner air space program with 5 respect to— 6 (A) whether the individual understood how 7 to properly set up a clean air room and how to 8 utilize the air filtration unit; 9 (B) how often the individual utilized the 10 air filtration unit; 11 (C) the largest barriers to properly uti- 12 lizing the air filtration unit or creating a clean 13 air room; 14 (D) whether the individual reported better 15 air conditions in the clean air room compared 16 to other parts of the home of that individual; 17 and 18 (E) how the implementation of the cleaner 19 air space program could improve. 20 (f) PARTNERSHIP.—In implementing a cleaner air 21 space program pursuant to a grant provided under sub- 22 section (b), an air pollution control agency shall partner 23 with at least 1 community-based organization to carry out 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9 •S 1948 IS the requirements of the cleaner air space program de- 1 scribed in subsection (e). 2 (g) REPORT.—Not later than 3 years after the date 3 of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit 4 to Congress a report that includes— 5 (1) information on each cleaner air space pro- 6 gram implemented using a grant provided under 7 subsection (b), including— 8 (A) the name of the air pollution control 9 agency that received the grant; and 10 (B) the information described in subsection 11 (e)(5) collected by the air pollution control 12 agency; 13 (2) responses from the surveys described in 14 subsection (e)(6); and 15 (3) recommendations with respect to— 16 (A) whether the grant program under this 17 section should be expanded; and 18 (B) how the grant program under this sec- 19 tion can be improved. 20 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 21 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 22 appropriated to the Administrator to carry out this 23 section $30,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 24 2024 through 2026. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10 •S 1948 IS (2) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—Of the funds 1 made available under paragraph (1), the Adminis- 2 trator may use not more than 10 percent for ex- 3 penses relating to administering the grant program 4 under this section. 5 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1948.IS S1948 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB