Senator Robert Stewart, a state senator from Alabama’s Black Belt region, told the Judiciary subcommittee that a Department of Justice civil-rights agreement that helped secure wastewater infrastructure for Lowndes County was dismissed after a change in Civil Rights Division leadership and that roughly $24 million tied to those efforts was removed from a federal funding allocation.

Stewart said the federal agreement had supported connection of nearly 100 homes to working septic systems and credited the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program, congressional support and prior presidential administrations for helping secure the upgrades. “My grandchildren grew up using straight pipe. My great grands are now growing up with a working septic system, finally,” Stewart said in his opening statement, describing the public-health effects of failing septic systems.

When Senator Welch asked whether the new assistant attorney general had “gotten out of that settlement,” Stewart said yes and said funds that had been part of an infrastructure bill were removed. He characterized the program as a bipartisan, nonpartisan remedy to longstanding infrastructure neglect in rural communities.

Gene Hamilton, president of America First Legal, testified at the same hearing that the Civil Rights Division should not be involved in septic-system or sewer-line projects, saying that “the civil rights division of the Department of Justice doesn't need to be involved with septic tanks.” Hamilton called the notion that sewer infrastructure is a civil rights issue “ludicrous” in his exchange with senators.

Context and claims: Stewart described the wastewater program and federal investment as transformative for the Black Belt and said the dismissal of the settlement and the removal of funds threatened continued progress. Hamilton disputed treating infrastructure remediation as a civil-rights enforcement matter and suggested Congress could pursue other remedies.

The hearing record shows the competing claims in the committee testimony but does not include a DOJ document in the transcript establishing the rescission or the specific budget action. Stewart attributed the change in the settlement to policy decisions after the new assistant attorney general took office; the assistant attorney general, Harmit Dhillon, did not describe this settlement during her opening statement or in her answers on other items at the hearing.

Senators on both sides raised the broader point that federal investment in infrastructure and enforcement of civil rights can intersect. Stewart urged continued federal support for wastewater systems and said the constituents he represents had “skin in the game” by paying maintenance fees after upgrades. Hamilton said the proper remedies for infrastructure shortfalls lie in congressional action and programmatic funding rather than civil-rights enforcement.