EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made a decisive move on Tuesday evening by terminating $20 billion in grants allocated by the Biden administration for climate programs under the Inflation Reduction Act. This action intensifies a legal dispute surrounding whether the Trump administration overstepped its bounds vis-a-vis Congress’s authority.
Concerns Over Program Integrity
Over the past month, Zeldin has been vocal in his criticism of the spending, alleging, without substantiation, that the program was rampant with fraud. This decision coincides with a federal judge’s impending hearing on a lawsuit filed by one of the grant recipients seeking access to funds frozen in a Citibank account during the Trump administration’s investigation of the program.
Explaining the termination, Zeldin stated in an online video, “This termination is based on substantial concerns regarding program integrity, objections to the award process, programmatic fraud, waste and abuse, and misalignment with the agency’s priorities. These issues collectively undermine the fundamental goals and statutory objectives of the awards.”
It remains unclear whether the EPA has taken the necessary measures to instruct Citibank to return the funds to the federal treasury.
