Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Chair Bill Johnson (R-OH) today sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan requesting information regarding the agency’s spending plans.  

The letter comes ahead of a Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing titled “Follow the Money: Oversight of President Biden's Massive Spending Spree” where EPA Inspector General Sean O’Donnell is slated to testify. 

KEY LETTER EXCERPT: 

“According to the EPA [Office of Inspector General] OIG, a heightened risk of fraud accompanies the recent influx of funding. Potential concerns include inexperienced program participants, the large increase in funding, and the push to distribute funding quickly.” 

[…] 

“EPA has already emphasized its desire to ensure it spends all of its appropriated funding expeditiously. In an informational video posted on its website, an EPA representative stated, 'we have to spend all three billion dollars of the IRA funding for environment and climate justice by September 30th of 2026, that is less than four years from today, every dollar has got to be out the door from EPA or it disappears, and it goes back to the Treasury.' However, attempts to spend money quickly can exacerbate challenges accompanying the financial awards process. For example, GAO examined lessons learned from grant management of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funding and noted that President Obama’s push to spend funds quickly created a 'large spike in spending' for some agencies, and that this law required an accelerated rollout of funding. As a result, GAO concluded that some federal agencies encountered oversight challenges. 

“Finally, EPA announced in September 2022 that it would establish the new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, which will administer this program. The EPA OIG noted in its annual report on upcoming management challenges that increased resources for this new office could produce challenges for workforce planning, execution, and business operations."

In order to assist with oversight of EPA’s implementation of its programs and stewardship of taxpayer dollars, the Chairs have requested the following information as well as answers to the following questions no later than April 11, 2023: 

1. In the RFA, EPA states, “The EPA provides extensive guidance to pass-through entities in the EPA Subaward Policy and related materials available on the EPA website.”20 Please describe and list all policies, procedures, and guidance documents EPA will provide to Grantmakers, including any specific to this program, and provide a copy of each. 

2. Given EPA’s goal of removing barriers to participation in its programming, how will EPA prepare Grantmakers to assist subrecipients who have little or no experience with federal agencies or federal awards? 

3. The RFA states that applicants shall submit “participatory governance framework” that, among other things, “describe controls for ensuring that representatives of community-based nonprofit organizations involved in the design and decision-making for the subgrants program do not have relationships with organizations competing for subgrants or receiving noncompetitive funding that create actual or apparent conflicts interest.”

• Will EPA impose any minimum standards for these controls? If so, please describe them.  
• Please describe and list all policies, procedures, and guidance documents, that EPA will provide to Grantmakers regarding conflicts of interest policies, and provide a copy of each.  

4. EPA provided some very general lists of examples of eligible projects and stated that eligible activities are described in section 138(b)(2) of the Clean Air Act. 

• Please describe and list all policies, procedures, and guidance documents EPA will utilize or provide to Grantmakers to determine which activities or projects are eligible for funding under this program and provide a copy of each. 
• How does EPA plan to ensure that none of the funding is utilized for ineligible activities, such as lobbying? Please describe and list all policies, procedures, and guidance documents that EPA will provide to Grantmakers or utilize to monitor compliance with these requirements, and provide a copy of each. 

5. Which employees or contractors at EPA will be responsible for administering this program? Please provide their names, job titles, and program office.  

CLICK HERE to read the letter.