Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released the following statement after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to accurately report $7 billion of its fiscal year 2022 spending as revealed in an EPA Inspector General report: 

“It’s outrageous and unacceptable that the EPA cannot keep track of its spending or inform Congress—and the American people—of how it is using taxpayer dollars. This eye-opening report only further highlights the need for more transparency at the EPA. It also raises questions about whether the agency is incapable of managing its record-high budget or if the agency is attempting to hide the amount of taxpayer dollars it is spending to advance the administration’s radical rush-to-green agenda. The Energy and Commerce Committee will continue holding this administration accountable for its actions that are driving up costs across the board and hurting Americans.” 

What the EPA IG found: 

• The EPA’s initial reporting of its fiscal year 2022 spending in USAspending.gov was not complete or accurate. 
• As a result, the EPA’s fiscal year 2022 award-level obligations were underreported by $1.2 billion, and its fiscal year 2022 award-level outlays were underreported by $5.8 billion.
• This means that 12.9 percent of the EPA’s total award-level obligations and 99.9 percent of the EPA’s total award-level outlays were not reported in fiscal year 2022.
• The EPA also did not report any of its Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act outlays and underreported its coronavirus pandemic-related outlays. 

KEY REPORT QUOTE: 

“The lack of complete and accurate reporting also led to taxpayers being initially misinformed about the EPA’s spending, and policy-makers who relied on the data may not have been able to effectively track federal spending” - EPA Inspector General Report, January 9, 2023.