Comer, Burlison Investigate Biden Administration’s Green New Deal Grift Benefitting Radical Environmental Groups, Wasting Taxpayer Dollars

The lawmakers commend the Trump Administration’s efforts to expose and fight waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars at the EPA

Today, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin requesting a briefing to better understand information uncovered by the agency showing former Biden Administration EPA officials purposely rushed billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to outside groups with minimal oversight. The lawmakers commended the Trump Administration EPA’s ongoing efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funds at the agency, including recent actions taken to cancel Biden-era environmental justice grants and contracts, and aim to assist EPA in its work to protect American taxpayers.

“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the Biden Administration’s policies that led to higher energy costs and placed burdensome restrictions on consumer choice. Specifically, the Committee is interested in evaluating ‘the regulatory costs, bad policies, and veiled special interests that defined the Biden Administration.’ As such, we commend your efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse at the Environmental Protection Agency, which includes cancelling Biden-era environmental justice grants and contracts. As we share your commitment to protect taxpayer dollars, the Committee requests a briefing to better understand what EPA is uncovering about the Biden Administration’s allocation of funding resources to outside groups and its novel agreements with financial institutions to escape oversight,” wrote the lawmakers.

“The Biden Administration’s EPA partnered with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and entered into an unprecedented arrangement with a financial institution to hold $20 billion for environmental groups to be dispersed later with minimal, if any, guardrails. The Committee shares your alarm that ‘this scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history and it was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.’ The assessment of the Biden Administration EPA and the financial institution’s coordination should include a review of the individuals involved in establishing this anomalous arrangement because of apparent conflict of interest concerns and the lack of oversight for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and IRA funds—including in the months before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Further, the Committee seeks to better understand potential entanglements or conflicts of interest between former Biden Administration EPA officials who directed funds and their destination. At least one former Biden Administration EPA official who appears to have worked on a team dedicated to the BIL and IRA implementation between November 6, 2024, and January 20, 2025, is seeking employment with a recipient of the funds,” continued the lawmakers. 

Read the letter to EPA Administrator Zeldin here.