Mike Simpson Questions EPA's Lee Zeldin About The Rural Drinking Water Technical Assistance Program

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At a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) questioned EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

Transcript

00:03Kind of following up on what

00:05Ms. Pingree asked from a different perspective.

00:08As I mentioned in my opening statement, the President's skinny budget request

00:11proposes deep cuts in the EPA that might not be able to be fully replicated.

00:17I'm not opposed to significantly reducing the size of the EPA.

00:20My House bill last year cut the EPA by nearly 20%.

00:23The first budget requested by President Trump in his first term was a 30% reduction of the EPA.

00:29A 54% cut may be a bridge too far to be able to achieve, but we'll see.

00:36I just wanted to start off with a question about this.

00:38If Congress chooses to provide discretionary appropriations for the agency

00:42that are at levels above the President's budget request, how would you handle that?

00:47In other words, would you spend the amounts provided in the enacted bill

00:50and for the specific programs that Congress identifies in the bill?

00:55Yes, we will absolutely follow the law.

00:59It's also my commitment to Congress that we have a zero-tolerance policy towards wasting any tax dollars.

01:06So we also want to make sure that every dollar that's appropriated by Congress is spent efficiently.

01:10We don't want to spend money just to spend it.

01:13We want to make sure that if I'm coming back before this committee,

01:16that I'm able to explain how the money is getting spent, we're not going to just spend it to spend it.

01:25But we will follow the law.

01:27Appreciate it.

01:28Now I want to ask you about the Rural Drinking Water Technical Assistance Program.

01:31I have supported this program for many years because it works for Idahoans and I think across especially rural America.

01:37EPA funding goes directly to rural water technical assistance providers that are located across the country

01:44to help rural water systems comply with federal statutes to ensure safe and clean water

01:49and to evaluate system needs and to access funding opportunities.

01:53And because these TAs providers are state-based at rural system operators is talking to someone who is from their state

02:03and is well-suited to help solve the unique challenges of that town or service area,

02:08prior budget requests from both Democratic and Republican administrations have eliminated funding for this program.

02:13I think that's because it's an easy money saver in the budget request

02:16and Congress always restores funding for it because it has such strong bipartisan support.

02:21I hope that when we see the full budget request we'll be seeing funding for this program.

02:25Over the years I've worked to address some of the issues in this program

02:29like pushing back against efforts to shift the model of the program to a nationwide call center

02:34in which someone based in New York could be assigned to a rural Idaho town

02:38and opposing proposals will shift away from awarding this funding on an annual basis.

02:44Can you commit to the following congressional direction as it relates to this program,

02:50including selecting awardees that are the most qualified and experienced in providing training

02:55and technical assistance to small public water systems and awarding funding on an annual basis?

03:01Yes, I can commit to that, Chairman.

03:03In the full year continuing resolution which provided government funding for the remainder of the fiscal year 2025,

03:09Congress included an additional $17 million for the EPA to modernize its IT systems

03:15that were used to process chemical risk assessments under the TSCA program.

03:21Can you give us an example of what is the outdated system

03:24and what it means that the agency is increasing their IT?

03:30Chairman, the system has been unstable.

03:34The system will crash.

03:35It's outdated, and the investment will be used to help obviously address those concerns

03:44as it relates to stability, but also to make sure that the agency is operating more efficiently.

03:51We inherited a lot of different backlogs.

03:53I mentioned earlier the state implementation plans.

03:57We inherited a missed deadline as it relates to biofuels.

04:01We inherited a big backlog on the pesticide program, New Chemicals Office,

04:08and we want to work through all of that.

04:11And the RE-ORG is going to help us get through these backlogs,

04:16and this funding appropriation that you all included is going to help in dealing with our IT concerns.

04:30Ms. McComb.

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