Jessica Juarez Scruggs

Director of Training and Capacity Building | Congressional Progressive Caucus Center

Pronouns: She/Her/Ella

Jessica joined the CPC Center after nearly 2 decades of experience in political communications, organizing, and progressive policy. Most recently, she served as Interim Policy and Legislative Director for People’s Action Institute, a grassroots network active in 30 states that fights for racial, economic, and gender justice on issues including healthcare, housing justice, the climate crisis, fighting toxic contamination, mass liberation, and consumer protection. She has a Masters in Political Communication from American University and a Bachelor's in public policy and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Presentations from Facing Race 2024

Building Racial Justice into the Inflation Reduction Act with Direct Pay

The Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Direct Pay program allows tax-exempt entities including states, counties, cities, tribes, schools, houses of worship, and non-profit organizations to receive tax-free cash funding. This comes in the form of a refund covering 30–70% of the cost of renewable energy projects like solar, wind, EV chargers, commercial EV vehicles like EV, batteries, and more.

Imagine solar panels on every public building lowering energy costs with publicly-owned clean energy or EV school buses that clean up diesel emissions and reduce childhood asthma or EV chargers that help neighbors access EV vehicles and fund community initiatives.

This funding can supercharge publicly-owned power, community institutions, good green jobs, and community-led demands—but only if communities are in the driver's seat. Big corporations are already lined up to take advantage of free federal funds, and greedy for-profit utilities are digging in their heels.

Join the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center (CPCC) and the Missouri Workers Center for an interactive workshop to imagine how your community can pull tax-free cash funding out of the federal government for sustainable energy projects—and leave with a plan to make it happen. We’ll share lessons from communities across the country, break down this new opportunity, and explore how sustainable energy can help us dismantle systemic racism—if we do it right.

Speakers: Jessica Juarez Scruggs, Jeremy Al-Haj, Nick Christian