Gary Palmer Slams EPA Commissioner Regan For ‘Taking The Lawmaking Authority Away From Congress’

3 months ago

Earlier this month, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) questioned EPA Commissioner Michael Regan on document storage during a House Oversight Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you very much. We'll now begin our five minutes of questions. The chair recognizes Mr. Palmer from Alabama for five minutes.

00:09Thank the chairman.

00:11Mr. Reagan, you and my colleague, Democratic colleague, mentioned the great work of the EPA. I just want to point out that

00:19the photograph that he showed and and and the subsequent cleanup of the Cuyahoga River

00:26is indicative of all of our commitment to

00:30cleaning up our environment, and we've made remarkable progress since 1980. Our economy has grown by seven hundred ninety-one percent.

00:38Vehicle miles traveled has gone up 113 percent. Populations increased by 47 percent, and that's probably not counting the illegals

00:45that have crossed our border. Energy consumption is up 29 percent, but the six criteria gases that the EPA

00:52attracts have all gone down 60 percent, and that's your data.

00:57One of the things that concerns me is about

01:00how you've gone about things, and

01:02basically taking

01:04the lawmaking authority away from Congress. I'm very encouraged by the

01:10overturning of the Chevron deference that the Supreme Court

01:13did last week, because it restores the responsibility for

01:18lawmaking and the accountability for lawmaking to Congress where it belongs.

01:22But there's another thing that the EPA has been engaged in that concerns me, and that's basically sue and settle.

01:28In March of this year, the Inspector General issued a report that found the EPA does not properly store its

01:35procurement data, paving the way for fraudulent

01:38collusive behavior with vendors receiving contracts and subcontracts. This prevents the Inspector General from adequately conducting oversight.

01:46Are you doing anything to correct this?

01:48We have. Say yes or no. We have, yes. Okay, good.

01:51I'd like to know if you would report to the committee in writing what you've done to correct this,

01:57because it's not the first time these questions have been raised about

02:00the EPA's potential collusion with friendly outside parties, especially with environmental groups during litigation.

02:08As I said, it's sometimes referred to as sue and settle litigation. So when was the last time the government

02:14audited the EPA

02:16litigation? Have you had an audit?

02:19I'm not quite sure of which specific audit you're referring to, but we welcome all audits.

02:24Well, I would like to know and report to the committee whether or not you've had an audit of

02:31EPA involvement in litigation.

02:34The Biden administration revoked the Trump administration's policies to publish and notice settlement details in pre-litigation

02:42announcements, and I want to know what efforts the EPA has made to reduce the settlement costs using taxpayer dollars.

02:48Can you report to that to the committee as well?

02:51Yes, we can report to the progress we've made to evolve that document to provide more transparency, which is what those changes are.

02:58But I want to know how much you've spent taxpayer dollars in these

03:02settlement cases, and

03:04if the government auditors cannot access access data to adequately track

03:09management of contracts or litigation costs,

03:12then what resources are available to Congress and the public to track the taxpayer expenses for these activities? Do you have any

03:19response to that in terms of your oversight?

03:22Because you should be reporting to Congress

03:27with full transparency about your litigation efforts in these suing settle cases.

03:31I do believe that we are reporting responsibly to Congress. I meet frequently with my inspector general.

03:38We have taken just about all of the recommendations. Your inspector general, as I said,

03:44reported that you do not properly store your procurement data, which paves the way for fraudulent, collusive behavior,

03:52and that's one of my big concerns, is that there's been collusive behavior and violence with these outside groups.

03:58I want to move to something else that concerns me, too, is

04:03the House of Representatives sent two letters to the EPA, one was in December of last year, one was April of this year, signed by

04:1122 members respectively, including 10 members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

04:18Both the letters raised serious questions about whether the EPA's proposed $2 billion regulation on the lime industry is

04:27necessary, given that the EPA's own

04:30scientists have determined that the emissions from lime plants are already acceptable with an ample margin of safety.

04:36And in September of last year, the House Science Committee held an oversight hearing, and you testified that you think

04:43and you said this,

04:44I think what we want to do is to ensure that we're meeting the letter of the law with as much flexibility as possible.

04:50I think we have to be reasonable, and I think we want to do

04:53what we want to do is protect public health and ensure that these industries can be productive.

04:57How in the world is finalizing a $2 billion regulation providing as much flexibility as possible and being reasonable?

05:04Well, I think if you look at that finalized action, we took into consideration many of the recommendations that industry asked us to

05:11You know what lime is used for?

05:14Mr. Reagan, you know what lime is used for? I absolutely do. What's it used for? What can be used for a lot of things.

05:21Yeah, but what is it primarily used for in the construction? You can use lime for agriculture. You can use lime for construction.

05:28I mean, there's a lot of you can't make

05:30It's it's a key ingredient in concrete cement. It's a key ingredient in a lot of things.

05:35It's not just cement. And you just imposed a two billion dollar

05:39regulation on it, then all that cost can be passed on to consumers to increase food prices.

05:43We put protective standards in place so that workers and people who are exposed to lime.

05:47But your own your own administration says that you've determined it's acceptable with an ample margin of safety. That's not reasonable.

05:55It's acceptable in certain instances.

05:57I think that's a narrative or a context that I'd love to have this conversation.

06:02Maybe we could look at the full breadth of the statement that the scientists are making.

06:06I'm very aware of the statements that our scientists are making and so I think that may be out of context.

06:11Well, I'm very encouraged by the Chevron deference being overturned because it will restore to Congress our

06:17lawmaking authority and remove it from these agencies. I yield back.

06:21And gentlemen, time's expired. We went a minute over so the Democrats can have that extra minute at some point.

Gary Palmer Slams EPA Commissioner Regan For ‘Taking The Lawmaking Authority Away From Congress’

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