[Pages S1688-S1689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Environmental Protection Agency

  Mr. President, the second point and a little longer is to discuss for 
my colleagues the disastrous legacy of the Biden-Harris 
administration's Environmental Protection Agency.
  Sadly, the recent revelations of wasteful spending by the EPA under 
the last administration are no surprise.
  If you are a Democrat and you get tired of Republicans complaining 
about something being wrong in the previous administration, hear me 
out, and I think you will 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 the Biden EPA about a program called the 
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. I asked a very simple question about how 
the EPA planned to administer and oversee the taxpayers' money that was 
going to be spent by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. I also 
expressed doubts about the EPA handling such a large program given the 
Agency's lack of oversight on how they spend the taxpayers' money.
  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 to my 
letters, the Biden EPA gave me lipservice about its commitment to the 
oversight of the spending of the money in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction 
Fund. The Biden EPA said it would require ``rigorous transparency, risk 
management, and accountability measures.''
  Now, if they had actually done that, that is a responsible way of 
handling the taxpayers' money, but the Biden EPA failed to describe how 
it would accomplish all of that rigorous transparency and also answer 
the questions I asked them to answer.
  Clearly, based upon the Trump administration's recent revelation of 
fraud, waste, and abuse, EPA's response to me was really, in the end, 
nothing but lipservice. For example, in December of last year, as the 
Biden-Harris administration neared its end, Brent Efron, EPA's Special 
Advisor for Implementation, was actually 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 that--this is Brent Efron--``it's like 
we're on the Titanic and we are throwing gold bars over the edge.'' The 
EPA official said his job was ``just how to get the money out as fast 
as possible before they came in and stopped it all.'' The ``they'' he 
was talking about is the new Trump administration.
  This conduct is an example of the contempt and the lack of respect 
the previous administration had for the American taxpayers' dollars.
  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 Mr. Zeldin took office, I wrote to him asking that he find the 
gold bars, so to speak, and take steps to get this taxpayer money back 
that was shoveled out the door the last few days of the previous 
administration.
  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. Now, that is a lot of gold bars. 
Administrator Zeldin explained that this unprecedented move by the 
Biden EPA was done to protect the program from government oversight. 
This revelation shows that 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 is an ongoing FBI 
investigation.
  I am encouraged by what Administrator Zeldin has done so far, and I 
expect him to provide records responsive to my inquiries showing the 
Biden EPA fraud, waste, and abuse.
  Now, a closer look into the recipients of the Greenhouse Gas 
Reduction Fund exposed several ethical red flags.
  Jahi Wise, President Biden's pick to lead the program, oversaw a $5 
billion grant to his former employer--that employer is 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 2 billion taxpayer dollars went to an organization called 
Power Forward Communities on August 8 to reportedly ``offer financing 
for residential carbon emission-reduction projects.''
  Power Forward Communities is made up of five nongovernment 
organizations, including Rewiring America. The leadership of this group 
is full of familiar faces from past Democratic administrations. I will 
give you four examples: Shaun Donovan, listed on Power Forward's tax 
documents as the director and cochair, was President Obama's Secretary 
of Housing and Urban Development. Ari Matusiak, also listed as a 
director and cochair, served as Special Assistant to President Obama 
and Director of Private Sector Engagement in the Obama White House. The 
vice president of Rewiring America is Cammie Croft, Deputy Director in 
the Obama White House and Senior Advisor in the Obama Department of 
Energy. A name that is pretty famous to anybody in politics and really 
famous in Georgia is Stacey Abrams. The failed gubernatorial nominee 
that President Obama campaigned for is reportedly senior counsel for 
Rewiring America.
  The FBI and the EPA Office of Inspector General must fully 
investigate this situation and determine where the money was used to 
line the pockets of well-connected Democrats.
  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 
lack of respect for the taxpayers' money enabled EPA's leftwing 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.

[[Page S1689]]

  President Trump and Administrator Zeldin must return the EPA to its 
mission of protecting the health of our environment while spending 
taxpayers' dollars with transparency and accountability.
  My message to the new director of EPA, Administrator Zeldin, is this: 
Keep exposing waste, fraud, and abuse, and provide all the records.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
  (The remarks of Mrs. BRITT pertaining to the introduction of S. 1003 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mrs. BRITT. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.