The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) underreported a staggering $7 billion in incentive-level obligations and expenditures during fiscal year 2022, according to an inspector general audit released this week.
The EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced that the agency will spend $5.8 billion (99.9%) on incentive-level spending in fiscal year 2021 (October 2021-October 2021-October 2021), determined that it had underreported its level obligations by $1.2 billion (12.9%). September 2022. The agency also did not report any Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act spending and underreported spending related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“A lack of complete and accurate reporting may have initially misinformed taxpayers about EPA spending and prevented policymakers who relied on the data from effectively tracking federal spending.” “The OIG report concludes.
Following the audit, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) condemned the EPA and called for more transparency in its activities.
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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan is preparing to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 3, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“It is outrageous that the EPA cannot keep track of its spending and cannot inform Congress and the American people how taxpayer dollars are being spent,” McMorris Rogers said in a statement Thursday. It is unacceptable.” “This eye-opening report only further highlights the need for more transparency at EPA.”
“This also raises the question of whether the agency is incapable of managing record-high budgets, or whether it is trying to hide the amount of taxpayer dollars it is spending to advance the government’s radical environmental initiatives. “This raises questions,” she added. “The Energy and Commerce Committee will continue to hold the government accountable for actions that are driving up costs and harming Americans across the board.”
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As a result of the OIG audit, EPA ultimately revised its fiscal year 2022 numbers in May 2023 and made the composition changes a month later. Overall, the inspector general made five recommendations that the agency said it agreed to make.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) speaks at a hearing on March 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Meanwhile, the report comes as the EPA administers a massive green energy fund and continues to push for a bigger budget. Democrats' massive climate change and tax inflation reduction bill passed in 2022 would establish a $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which would establish a national green bank to fund . Green projects nationwide.
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And the White House is asking Congress to approve a record $12 billion EPA budget for fiscal 2024. Republicans aim to cut the EPA budget to about $6 billion, which would be the agency's smallest budget since the early 1990s.
President Biden met with EPA Administrator Michael Regan during an environmental justice event at the White House. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“The Biden administration is using the EPA as a tax pass-through to fund left-wing groups that seek to elect Democrats rather than improve the environment,” said Davidson, a Heritage Foundation visiting scholar who served as EPA chief of staff during the administration. said Mandy Gunasekara, who served as the director. Trump administration told Fox News Digital.
“While the $7 billion in reporting failures are absurd and unacceptable, they are also emblematic of Team Biden's commitment to putting their own political goals ahead of the needs of the American people,” she continued. “I am pleased that Chairman Rogers is monitoring this matter, and I hope the committee will hold the agency's chief financial officer accountable for this serious oversight.”
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EPA did not respond to requests for comment.
