Mr. President,
[I’m here] to discuss with my colleagues the disastrous legacy of the Biden-Harris administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Sadly, the recent revelations of wasteful spending by the EPA under the last administration are no surprise.
If you’re a Democrat and you get tired of Republicans complaining about something being wrong in the previous administration, hear me out - and I think you’ll agree that a lot of things happened at the end of the last administration that are just a violent misuse of taxpayers’ money.
Two years ago, I wrote to the Biden EPA about a program called the “Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.”
I asked how it planned to administer and oversee taxpayer money that was going to be spent by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
I also expressed doubts about the EPA was handling such a large program, given the agency’s historical lack of oversight.
And, as you would expect, I requested its plans to ensure this money would be spent responsibly.
These are pretty simple questions that Congress and the taxpayers ought to be given an answer to.
In its response, the Biden EPA gave me lip service about its commitment to oversight.
The Biden EPA said it would require, “rigorous transparency, risk management and accountability measures.”
Now if they had actually done that, that’s a responsible way of handling taxpayer’s money.
But, the Biden EPA failed to describe how it would accomplish all of that rigorous transparency and answer all my questions.
And clearly, based upon the Trump administration’s recent revelations of fraud, waste and abuse, EPA’s response to me really was lip service.
For example, in December of last year, as the Biden-Harris administration neared its end, Brent Efron, EPA Special Advisor for Implementation, was filmed saying the agency had rushed taxpayer money out the door.
That EPA official called the effort an insurance policy against the incoming Trump administration to make sure the money was out the door so the Trump administration couldn’t stop it.
The EPA official also stated, “It’s like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge.”
The EPA official said his job was “just how to get the money out as fast as possible before they come in and stop it all.” The ‘they’ he was talking about was the new Trump administration.
This conduct is an example of the contempt and lack of respect the previous administration had for the American people’s money.
In January of this year, I met with Lee Zeldin in my office before his confirmation as President Trump’s EPA Administrator.
I was encouraged by his shared commitment to transparency and accountability.
After he took office, I wrote to him asking that he find the “gold bars,” so to speak, and take steps to get the taxpayer money back that was shoveled out the door.
Since that letter, Administrator Zeldin found that in the months leading up to President Trump taking office, the Biden-Harris EPA sheltered $20 billion of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund outside of the Treasury at Citibank.
That’s a lot of gold bars.
Administrator Zeldin explained this unprecedented move by the Biden EPA was done to protect the program from government oversight.
This revelation shows the Biden EPA not only obstructed my investigations, but the oversight assurances it tried to offer me were dishonest!
Administrator Zeldin also referred this mismanagement to the EPA Acting Inspector General and noted that there’s an ongoing FBI investigation.
I’m encouraged by what Administrator Zeldin has done so far, and I expect him to provide records responsive to my inquiries showing the Biden EPA’s fraud, waste and abuse.
Now, a closer look into the recipients of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund exposes several ethical red flags.
Jahi Wise, President Biden’s pick to lead the program, oversaw a five-billion-dollar grant to his former employer, the Coalition for Green Capital, on August 8, 2024, to “build the national green bank and a network with self-sustaining community lenders in every state.”
Another two billion taxpayer dollars went to Power Forward Communities on August 8, 2024, to reportedly “offer financing for residential carbon emission-reduction projects.” Power Forward Communities is made of five non-government organizations, including Rewiring America.
The leadership of this group is full of familiar faces from past Democratic administrations. For example:
The FBI and EPA Office of Inspector General must fully investigate this situation and determine whether money was used to line political pockets.
As my oversight has shown, the legacy of the Biden-Harris administration’s EPA will be one of unprecedented spending with no accountability and transparency.
This blatant lack of discipline and respect for the taxpayers’ money enabled EPA’s left-wing allies to profit at the expense of the American taxpayer.
All the while the Biden EPA obstructed my efforts to conduct independent and objective oversight.
President Trump and Administrator Zeldin must return the EPA to its mission of protecting the health of our environment while spending taxpayer dollars with transparency and accountability.
My message to the new director of the EPA, Administrator Zeldin, is this: keep exposing waste, fraud and abuse, and provide all records.
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