Frank Pallone Grills EPA Head Lee Zeldin On Proof Of 'Supposed' Review Process For Canceled Grants

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During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin for proof of review processes for canceled EPA grants.

Transcript

00:00The gentleman yields. The chair recognizes the ranking member of the committee, Mr. Pallone,

00:04for his five minutes of questioning. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I have to disagree with

00:09the administrators' vision. I don't think anyone in America voted last November to harm, to ask

00:16the government to harm their health and safety. And if you're talking about grocery prices,

00:20they're not lower, they're higher. And if you talk about our energy dominance, that has to be

00:26linked to clean energy, which you and the Trump administration just are completely getting rid

00:31of. And if you talk about getting a permit, well, under the reconciliation bill, which is the reason

00:37I think most of our colleagues aren't here on the other side of the aisle, is because the president

00:42is here trying to convince him to vote for that garbage. And under that bill, if you just pay

00:48a million dollars, I guess that's for the LNG permit, or you pay 10 million for a pipeline permit,

00:54then you automatically get the permit, and you don't have to go through any kind of EPA review

01:00whatsoever, because the permit and the payment of the check is deemed in the public interest.

01:07So, you know, you've undertaken multiple waves of utterly arbitrary and harmful cause to important

01:13programs and grants. Thankfully, courts have recognized that your actions are illegal and have

01:18ordered a hold on these mass terminations and withholding of funds unless you could show that grants were

01:24only terminated after an individual review. And EPA officials have attempted to exploit that loophole

01:30by asserting that grants have been individually reviewed without offering evidence to support such

01:35claims. Fortunately, the courts have not been falling for it. One judge recently wrote that even

01:40after reviewing thousands of pages of documents produced by the EPA, there was not a single document

01:46demonstrating an individual review of any individual grantee. In another case, an EPA official

01:52submitted a sworn declaration stating that, and I'm quoting now, EPA leadership conducting an

01:57individualized grant-by-grant review to determine which grants should continue, which should be

02:01modified, and which should be terminated. But a declaration in a separate case indicates that

02:06another Trump appointee in a single day conducted a review and determined that nine entire programs

02:13constituting hundreds of grants should be terminated. And I'd ask unanimous consent to enter the

02:18declarations of Daniel Coogan and Travis Boyles into the record. Mr. Chairman, these are actually

02:23court records. They're two EPA Trump employees that have contradicted each other, in my opinion,

02:29on an individual review issue. In any case, I'll hold them so I can reference them if necessary and then

02:35give them to you, Mr. Chairman. And is it the complete transcript of their testimony or just an affidavit?

02:41If it's a complete transcript of their testimony. If it's a complete transcript, then that should be acceptable.

02:44All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. But I want to clear this up with a question of the administrator.

02:49Please explain what, if any, process EPA has undertaken to individually review grants prior to their

02:55termination. Who was involved in that process and what records exist documenting the supposed process

03:01of this review for each individual terminated grant, if you could?

03:04That's been an extensive process. First, it's important to point out that one of the two

03:12employees you mentioned are actually a career EPA employee. It's not a Trump political appointee.

03:19When we came in, we started working with the career staff that was here previously that includes

03:26career staff involved with oversight or lack thereof of the greenhouse gas reduction fund.

03:34But Mr. Zeldin, I know, because I'm going to be cut off by the chairman, not that he's,

03:40you know, trying to do it, but the time is there. I would like what records exist documenting the

03:46supposed process of this review for each individual terminated grant. If you can't give that to me

03:51today, then I would ask that you submit it through the chairman in the future as soon as possible.

03:56Would that be okay?

03:57Whatever explanation that you're looking for, again, we have a process that we follow with every individual.

04:06Okay, you said you'll provide it. Now, let me issue one more question and then I'll close.

04:09Do you think that one EPA official deciding in a single day that nine separate programs with hundreds of

04:15grants should be terminated constitutes an individualized review? That's what one of the employees said

04:21in to the court. You think that that I was the one who made the decision and I made the decision

04:28after doing an individual review of every grant specifically, I personally did not reviewed every

04:34single grant that I canceled. Okay. Now in the time, in my opinion, you know, in the time that you've

04:41led this agency, you've decimated the critical work the EPA does. You've left communities across the country

04:46scrambling with few answers. Your polluter first agenda will have a damaging impact on American

04:52workers, families, and children for years to come. And if this is the great American comeback,

04:58then I pray for the country. And with that, I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

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