congressional_record: CREC-2025-06-30-pt1-PgS4080
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| granule_id | date | congress | session | volume | issue | title | chamber | granule_class | sub_granule_class | page_start | page_end | speakers | bills | citation | full_text |
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| CREC-2025-06-30-pt1-PgS4080 | 2025-06-30 | 119 | 1 | H.R. 1 | SENATE | SENATE | ALLOTHER | S4080 | S4080 | [{"name": "Shelley Moore Capito", "role": "speaking"}] | [{"congress": "119", "type": "HR", "number": "1"}, {"congress": "119", "type": "HR", "number": "1"}, {"congress": "119", "type": "HR", "number": "1"}] | 171 Cong. Rec. S4080 | Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 113 (Monday, June 30, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 113 (Monday, June 30, 2025)] [Senate] [Page S4080] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] H.R. 1 Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I rise to explain Congress's intent regarding enactment of section 60002 of Senate Amendment 2360 to H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, OBBBA. Section 60002 both repeals Section 134 of the Clean Air Act which established the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund--GGRF--and rescinds all unobligated funds that were appropriated to carry it out. Section 134 of the Clean Air Act was established in section 60103 of the Inflation Reduction Act, IRA (Public Law 117-169). Section 60103 appropriated $27 billion to implement the GGRF nearly three times the annual appropriation for the entire EPA. Of this amount, $19.97 billion was appropriated pursuant to paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection (a)-- to finance greenhouse gas reduction initiatives. In passing section 60002 of the OBBBA, Congress is aware that the Environmental Protection Agency--EPA--acted on March 11, 2025, to terminate all grants awarded under the programs established in paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 60103 of IRA. As a result, approximately $17 billion has been deobligated from these two programs. It is the intent of Congress that the entirety of this $17 billion-- every dollar that is unobligated from the section 60103 of the IRA--be rescinded. Title VI of the OBBA includes rescissions from other IRA programs. But section 60002, addressing the GGRF, is the only provision in title VI that both rescinds all unobligated funding and repeals the relevant IRA section in full. This action reflects not only Congress's deep concern with reducing the deficit, but EPA's administration of the GGRF under the Biden administration, the Agency's selection of grant recipients, and the absence of meaningful program oversight. I wrote to then EPA Administrator Michael Regan in December 2024, highlighting the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse in the GGRF program, given the Agency's admitted rush to award grants prior to the change in administration. According to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a recipient of $2 billion of GGRF funding reported only $100 in revenue the year before receiving its grant, meaning the Federal grant was 20 million times the organization's annual revenue. And the Washington Free Beacon reported that $5 billion went to the former employer of the EPA official then serving as director of the GGRF program. Unlike the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the IRA provided no resources to EPA's Inspector General to exercise independent oversight on program funds. EPA's Acting Inspector General expressed concern with the GGRF, noting in testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the program's use of a financial agent to award funds was new to the EPA and that ``using third-party entities to determine how to distribute billions of dollars to additional passthrough entities reduces the Agency's control over and visibility of how the funds are spent. Furthermore, it complicates efforts to ensure compliance, manage financial risks, prevent fund misuse, and measure the outcomes of funded projects.'' Given these concerns, Congress decided to enact section 60002 to terminate the GGFR program by repealing its organic statute and rescinding all unobligated funds, including funds that had been obligated but were subsequently deobligated. Congress agrees with EPA's March 11, 2025, action to cancel GGRF grants. EPA has indicated in court filings that, absent action by Congress, it is required to reobligate all funding from the GGRF that is deobligated through the cancellation of grants. By both repealing Section 134 of the Clean Air Act and rescinding all unobligated funding for the program, section 60002 of the OBBBA makes clear that Congress does not want the GGRF program to continue and does not want funding to be reobligated. Instead, Congress intends that all funding that was deobligated from the GGRF program by EPA's March 11, 2025, cancellation of grant awards be rescinded, and not returned to the original GGRF grantees or reobligated. ____________________ |