During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) questioned EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin over the cancellation of an EPA grant.
Category
š
NewsTranscript
00:00Administrator, good to see you and welcome. Thank you. Administrator, are you
00:03familiar with Thomasville, Georgia? I've been a lot of parts of Georgia. I was in
00:09Georgia about a week and a half ago. Thomasville is in southwest Georgia. It is
00:13a great town known for sovereign hospitality, great people. Mayor Mobley,
00:19Pastor Rich, there's a lot of agricultural activity around there. There's
00:21also a history, a legacy of heavy industry that has led to significant air
00:29pollution, and there remain significant concerns about air pollution, specifically
00:32particulate matter 2.5, and reported high levels of leukemia, leukemia and pneumonia
00:39in and around Thomasville. And as you know, oftentimes these rural communities
00:46don't get the love and attention of the federal government. They can be
00:50forgotten. In Georgia, big cities tend to get a lot of the federal support. So there
00:57was great news for the good people of Thomasville last year when they won an
01:01EPA grant to help build a new health clinic, rehabbing the the gym and the
01:06school to build a new federally qualified health center near three daycare centers,
01:11as well as to upgrade wastewater infrastructure. Earl Williams, who leads
01:17the Thomasville Community Development Corporation, called the grant a game
01:20changer. Mayor Mobley said the award represented a, quote, transformative
01:25opportunity to make vital health and safety improvements. But Administrator, you
01:30canceled the grant, and I'd like to know why. So I'm looking at, this was part of the
01:37environmental and climate justice block grant program. That's right. So the, and this
01:43gets to an earlier interaction that we hear, that we had, and center rounds got, got
01:48added as well. When Congress appropriates a block of funding, an administration is
01:56going to apply their policy priorities to how that money is going to get spent. A new
02:03administration comes in, we still have to spend the appropriated funding unless
02:09something changes. Administrator, with respect, I understand the appropriations process. My question is
02:13why you canceled this grant. What is it about building a new health clinic and upgrading wastewater
02:19infrastructure for my constituents in Thomasville, Georgia, but it's inconsistent with administration
02:24policy? So I don't have the full grant in front of me. I only have a top line that which program it
02:30came out of. So when a new administration comes in and they apply their policy priorities, President
02:34You're repeating yourself. My question is why you canceled this grant. So when a new administration
02:39comes in, in this case, President Trump put out executive orders as it relates to environmental justice
02:44with regards to DEI, I would imagine that. What does this have to do? Is, is, is, is a new health clinic
02:50for Thomasville, Georgia woke? As I imagine, as we look through the details of the particular program, there,
02:56there must be some aspects of this applying the last administration's priorities on environmental justice.
03:03Uh, here, here's a community. Here's a community that suffered from air pollution,
03:07has a high disease burden as a result. Finally, the federal government comes. They're going to help
03:12build a health clinic and upgrade some infrastructure. You canceled the grant, devastating for the
03:16community. Here's what the head of the Community Development Corporation said about your decision
03:22to cancel this grant, denying my constituents a new health clinic and new wastewater infrastructure,
03:29a decision you made that hurts my constituents in Thomasville. Here's what he said, quote,
03:34we all worked so hard for this and we won. And then all of a sudden, one day it's gone. And it was just
03:40a great sense of disappointment. It was almost like I lost a good friend. He sent me another letter, said,
03:46quote, our community is devastated. You hurt my constituents and I don't need a civics lesson on
03:53the appropriations process or a broad critique of this program. I want to know why you canceled this grant.
04:00Senator, when you go back to them and ask, well, did you find out why the grant got canceled? Well,
04:07do you know why? I'm asking you. You canceled the grant. I don't need to ask them why the grant got
04:13canceled because it was your decision. So tell me why you canceled the grant. You could say I asked the
04:16question and then decided to spend the entire five minutes cutting him off eight times in the middle of
04:22his first answer. So I was unable to get a full response. Why don't you answer the question specifically,
04:27indirectly? Why did you cancel this grant? Why are you denying my constituents a new health
04:33clinic and new wastewater infrastructure? Do you want me to repeat anything that I said in the past?
04:36I want you to actually answer the question with specificity and not give a broad critique of
04:40this overall program or a lesson on how the appropriations process works. If you were listening
04:42to anything that I said, Senator, I've heard an answer. Okay, you don't have an answer.
04:45Sure. Say whatever you want, Senator. Thank you, Madam Chair.