Advance the 21st Century Conservation Corps Act to address COVID-19-related unemployment, western wildfires, land and community restoration, and climate change.
Congressman Joe Neguse's 21st Century Conservation Corps Act would tackle multiple challenges simulatenously, addressing unemployment rates caused by COVID-19, tackling western wildfires, restoring our lands and communities and addressing climate change.
The priorities page says Neguse's 21st Century Conservation Corps Act would address unemployment, wildfires, land restoration, and climate change.
21st Century Conservation Corps Act: A bold proposal to reimagine the conservation corps of the 1930s by investing $9 billion in the creation of a 21st Century Civilian Climate Corps and making major investments in wildfire preparedness, access to the outdoors and support for outdoor retailers and guides.
Neguse presents the 21st Century Conservation Corps Act as a proposal to invest $9 billion in a civilian climate corps, wildfire preparedness, outdoor access, and outdoor economy support.
Congress.gov identifies Neguse as the Democratic House member for Colorado District 2 in the 116th through 119th Congresses and lists official member activity, including sponsored legislation and 119th Congress activity filters.
This establishes the relevant federal service period for the 2024 reelection promise. In the official sources searched, I did not find a 119th Congress bill record showing Neguse introduced or advanced a 21st Century Conservation Corps Act by 2026-07-01; because the 119th Congress was still ongoing, this is not a final end-of-term failure finding by itself.
The archived White House fact sheet says Biden launched the American Climate Corps by executive action to train over 20,000 people for clean-energy, conservation, climate-resilience, land and water restoration, forest-health, and wildfire-prevention work.
This partially matches the policy goal of conservation/climate jobs and wildfire mitigation, but it happened before Neguse's 2024 reelection term and was an executive initiative, not passage or same-term advancement of the named Act.
Executive Order 14154 directed that American Climate Corps activities, programs, and operations be terminated immediately and ordered termination of the December 2023 memorandum of understanding.
During the same 119th Congress term, the closest existing federal corps initiative was terminated rather than expanded or codified. This weighs against the promise being fulfilled as of 2026-07-01.
GovInfo's text of Public Law 116-9 includes Section 9003, the John S. McCain III 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Act, amending the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993.
A similarly named conservation service corps provision was already law in 2019, before the 2024 campaign and without the COVID unemployment framing. It does not show same-term fulfillment of Neguse's specific 2024 promise.
AP reported Biden used executive authority after Congress had not enacted the climate-corps proposal; it also reported Neguse supported stronger pay and benefits for the program.
This supports that a corps-style policy advanced outside Congress before the 2024 term and that Neguse publicly supported the broader idea, but it does not prove he advanced the named Act in the 119th Congress.