Hearing Wrap Up: Biden Administration’s Massive Spending Exacerbates Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at DOE
WASHINGTON—The Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs held a hearing titled, “Spending on Empty: How the Biden Administration’s Unprecedented Spending Increased Risk of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at the Department of Energy.” Subcommittee members discussed with witnesses the lack of existing oversight infrastructure within the Department of Energy to track the spending of taxpayer dollars. The Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats more than doubled the Department of Energy’s budget in a single year, which exposes taxpayer dollars to increased risk of waste, fraud, and abuse. Subcommittee members also discussed Democrats’ radical Green New Deal policies that ignore the punitive impact on American consumers and allow foreign adversaries like China to continue polluting at significantly higher rates.
Key Takeaways:
Lack of existing and adequate oversight controls combined with historically large and fast-moving sums of money from the Biden Administration has led to a substantial increase in the prospect of waste, fraud, and abuse at the Department of Energy.
- Teri L. Donaldson—Inspector General at U.S. Department of Energy—testified that the unprecedented expansion in the Department’s funding and mission, coupled with the lack of oversight infrastructure, have drastically increased the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse: “Numerous reports issued over the years by the OIG and the Government Accountability Office have noted the Department’s lack of oversight resources in particular areas. These reports typically include the Department’s concurrence that it lacked the resources to accomplish the internal controls referenced in the particular reports…It is against this backdrop that the new funds, over $128 billion in authorizations and appropriations, and $350 billion in loan authority, will move through the Department. Inevitably, many program-specific risks will emerge and create enormous challenges for the Department.”
The Department of Energy is unprepared to provide the U.S. with domestic infrastructure needed for the Biden Administration’s electric vehicle push.
- Dr. Kathleen Hogan— Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Infrastructure at the Department of Energy—admitted she was unsure why no permits have been issued for domestic reactors needed to produce elements critical to supply power to America’s electric grids to support the Biden Administration’s electric vehicle utopia, showing a glaring lack of planning: “I think they have the capability to issue more permits…Uh, I don’t know.”
Member Highlights:
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) discussed with Inspector General Donaldson how previous IG reports have expressed concerns with the Department of Energy’s ability exercise oversight and how those concerns have grown with Democrats’ rapid spending:
IG Donaldson: “I inherited a lot of reports noting that there were problems during the audits and the Department would even acknowledge they were under-resourced for oversight. So there were a set of requirements, only some of them were being met or followed, they simply didn’t have the people. So that was a real theme that I inherited in this job. So when the new bills came along…are you going to be able to make up some of that shortfall.”
Rep. Fallon: “So what you’re saying is even when they were at a budget of $46 billion there were concerns about their oversight capability?”
IG Donaldson: “Noted by my predecessors and GAO.”
Rep. Fallon: “Now with their double of that kind of budget, that now explodes, fair enough to say? That that concern would be greatly increased?”
IG Donaldson: “They’ll need to dedicate a lot more resources to oversight, that is correct.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) discussed Democrats’ hypocrisy as they continually push so-called clean energy when it is tied to large polluters like China.
Rep. Luna: “One of the biggest issues that I’m currently seeing exist in Congress is a lot of people will talk about clean energy but it’s not really clean especially when it’s tied to China or Chinese productions…instead of facing a global climate crisis we are facing a global China crisis. Do you agree that China is one of the biggest threats to our climate as a whole?”
Dr. Hogan: “China is a big emitter of greenhouse gases.”
Rep Luna: “And those greenhouse gases do not stay contained in the China region, correct?”
Dr. Hogan: “Correct it is a global pollutant.”
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) spoke on the Biden Administration pushing for broad use of electric vehicles while not providing the U.S. with domestic infrastructure to allow that reality.
Rep. Donalds: “Is the position of the Biden Administration, and frankly Secretary Granholm, that every American should buy an electric vehicle to the tune of $61,000 dollars a year when most Americans can’t afford to buy that? If that’s her position, is she aware that by doubling the size of the electric vehicle market in the United States that we don’t have enough electricity on the grid? And what’s the plan at DOE to prevent the grid from going essentially dark?”
Dr. Hogan: “We are very interested in figuring out that roadmap going forward. At the same time, we understand that electric vehicles take more electricity than the alternative.”
Rep. Donalds: “It’s not clear to me that Secretary Granholm and the Biden Administration have a plan for actually putting enough electricity on the grid.”
READ MORE:
Fallon: Biden Administration’s Spending Spree Has Left DOE Vulnerable to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
CLICK HERE to watch the hearing.