Washington, D.C. - House Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Republican Leader Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan asking for transparency and accountability on how the agency spent $100 million for Fiscal Year 2021 from the nearly $2 trillion stimulus spending bill (H.R. 1319) that President Biden signed into law on March 11, 2021.
Leader Rodgers and Senator Capito sent this letter in advance of Administrator Regan’s participation in today’s Energy and Commerce Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee hearing on the EPA’s Fiscal 2022 budget.
Excerpts from their letter:
“Six weeks ago, President Biden signed into law H.R. 1319, the “American Rescue Plan" (ARP, Public Law 117-2). Section 6002 of ARP provides $100 million to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for fiscal year 2021 through two separate appropriations “to address health outcome disparities from pollution and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“Shortly, we will be evaluating the President’s proposed EPA preliminary budget for fiscal year 2022-a requested amount that appears to exceed levels of funding provided to EPA through the appropriations process," the letter says. “In undertaking this review, it is necessary to evaluate EPA’s currently available resources and to assess its ongoing use of federal funding and execution of legal obligations. We request that EPA provide a full accounting to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works of how EPA has expended and plans to expend any of the $100 million appropriated to it under section 6002 no later than May 7, 2021, and on an ongoing basis every three months thereafter for as long as funds remain unexpended."
