Nanette Barragán Demands Lee Zeldin Show Evidence For Accusations About Grant Awardees

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During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-CA) questioned EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on his accusations made about EPA grant awardees.

Transcript

00:00Neil's back now recognizes the gentlelady from California, Ms. Barragan, for five minutes.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is a transformative

00:07program that will leverage private capital to support community-led projects that reduce pollution,

00:13create good-paying jobs, and lower energy costs. Several organizations applied and were

00:18competitively awarded funding to deploy to these economic development projects just to have their

00:24money frozen. You, Mr. Administrator, have made several accusations at awardees of the fund and

00:31former employees at EPA, but EPA's attorneys have not presented these accusations in court.

00:38A judge in a case brought by an award recipient asked EPA's lawyer from DOJ, and I'm quoting,

00:44can you pro-offer to me the evidence of commission of a violation of federal criminal law involving

00:52fraud, conflict of interest, bribery, or gratuity violations? And any one of those things,

01:02and the EPA lawyer responded, and I'm quoting, I cannot, Your Honor. Just last week, the New York

01:09Times reported that the Department of Justice's investigation to the program is coming up empty

01:14as well, stating that the investigation has, quote, so far failed to find meaningful evidence of

01:20criminality by government officials, end quote. Mr. Chairman, I asked unanimous consent to enter

01:26a recent New York Times article entitled, Investigators See No Criminality by EPA Officials

01:32in Case on Biden-Era Grants, as well as a transcript from the Climate United v. City Bank Court hearing

01:39into the record. And is that the full transcript? It is. All right. Without objection? So ordered.

01:47Okay. So I want to know what actual evidence you have of any fraud or wrongdoing, and I'm talking

01:54about actual evidence of fraud or criminality, you know, documents or statements, hard proof,

01:59not just theories or hunches or policy disagreements. So Administrator Zeldin, what evidence is there

02:07of any fraud or criminality if it exists? And why have you not provided it to us or to the Department

02:16of Justice? That's a great question, Congresswoman. So I'll start with a Biden political appointee

02:21saying, quote, now it's how to get the money out as fast as possible before the Trump administration

02:28comes in. It's like we're on the Titanic and we're throwing gold bars off the edge.

02:32Okay, Mr. Zeldin, I'm going to stop you for a second. I'm going to stop you for a second.

02:37I'm going to reclaim my time. You mentioned gold bars. You mentioned gold bars. That structure,

02:44one former employee that was secretly recorded and it was not even talking about the Greenhouse

02:51Gas Reduction Fund is not evidence of fraud or wrongdoing. So do you have something else,

02:57something better than that, that's actual fraud or criminality?

03:02So Congresswoman, I don't know if you're going to allow me to go through the list. That's the

03:06first. I'm talking about the Greenhouse. The second is, in June 2024, a watchdog organization

03:11revealed that David Hayes, a Biden administration climate advisor, previously on the board of the

03:16Coalition for Green Capital, rejoined the board in 2023. Mr. Administrator, did you say the name?

03:20Hold on. I want to clarify the name. Did you say the name Jai Weiss? Is that who we're talking about?

03:26I did not. What's the name you said? David Hayes. David Hayes. Okay. Can you repeat that?

03:32I was trying to get the name. Okay. I wish you had about 30 minutes for me to go through the list,

03:38but in June 2024, a watchdog organization revealed that David Hayes, a Biden administration climate

03:44advisor, previously on the board of Coalition for Green Capital, rejoined the board in 2023 while the

03:50organization was applying for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which it ultimately received.

03:55March 4th, 2025, media article identified a number of potential conflicts of interest

04:00regarding personnel at several grantees. Beth Bafford, Climate United Funds.

04:04Mr. Zeldin, I'm going to reclaim my time because I want to make sure that we can have a meaningful

04:09exchange about some of the things that you are citing to. You just mentioned two examples.

04:17Have you or EPA lawyers actually given that to the Corps or used that, cited that as fraud or

04:23criminality? Well, first off, the standard. It's a yes or no. Have you? You're a lawyer.

04:29Yes. They have mentioned this. Which hearing was it at? Because I don't see it in the transcript

04:33that happened in the United Climate conversation. As a matter of fact, I'm going to read to you the

04:40court transcript. Can you proffer any evidence that there was illegal or evidence of abuse or fraud,

04:45that any of this was improper or lawful? EPA lawyer. I'm certainly not suggesting any of that

04:50was illegal or improper. Just yesterday, an EPA lawyer at the hearing suggested we're not accusing

04:58anybody of fraud. Did you understand that the evidence for EPA is not to establish criminality

05:04at the agency? Well, you're alleging criminality. You did so in a Fox News interview. You said

05:08that's what this greenhouse reduction fund was. You shouldn't be doing that if you cannot pro-offer

05:14the evidence. But Congresswoman. This is not Fox News. We're not going to just allow you to just make

05:18allegations here without that evidence. Well, if this isn't a media interview, you should allow me

05:23to go through the entire list rather than just going through. Well, unfortunately, I only have five

05:27minutes and I don't have time for you to filibuster. If you're truly interested in the entire list of all the

05:31evidence that's been cutting me off and allowing me to get through the list. General Lady's time has expired.

05:39General Lady yields back now.

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