Comer, Fallon Call on EPA to Provide Docs on Environmental Justice Grants Paid for by Inflation Reduction Act

Request information and staff-level briefing related to grantees under the IRA that failed to meet health or environmental needs

WASHINGTON — House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon (R-Texas) are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist in conducting oversight of the agency’s administration of environmental justice (EJ) grants. In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, the Republican lawmakers are requesting documents, information, and a staff-level briefing to ensure that the EPA is mitigating risk of waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer resources.

“The Committee of Oversight and Accountability is conducting oversight of Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) administration of environmental justice (EJ) grants. On January 10, 2023, the EPA published two Requests for Applications for approximately $100 million in grant funding to support EJ initiatives—the largest allocation of its kind. However, despite this ‘unprecedented level of funding,’ the EPA’s own case studies for EJ grant programs demonstrate weak standards for grantees to practically address environmental concerns.To better understand the applications and disbursements of EJ grants, particularly those included in the $60 billion dollars allocated to EJ initiatives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), we request the EPA provide documents, information, and a staff-level briefing,” wrote the Republican lawmakers.

The Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act allocated $60 billion dollars “to accelerate environmental justice work.” A portion of these funds will be issued via grants through the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Program (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreement Program and the Environmental Justice Government-to-Government (EJG2G) Program. Along with ill-defined issuance metrics for grant programs, the sheer volume of money flowing through the EPA prompts review of the agency’s ability to properly manage its rapidly inflated budget to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Republican lawmakers continued, “Case studies of the EJCPS Program have already found that grantees failed to clearly define health or environmental concerns, articulate intended results, identify causes, and continued to engage in activities that ‘may not be effective’ and did ‘not logically lead to the desired environmental and/or public health [result].’ Oversight mechanisms in these programs are lacking, and adequate metrics for applicants must be imposed to avoid funneling money into vague projects that will enable a $100 million slush fund for far-left organizations.”

The letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan can be found here.