Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Federal watchdogs raised concerns at a House hearing Wednesday about agency efforts to push IRA and IIJA money out the door during the Biden administration.
Why it matters: Those potential problems could be key to the GOP's efforts to maximize cuts to the laws to pay for their reconciliation bill.
Between the lines: President Trump's firing of agency IGs created a strange situation for Energy and Commerce's oversight subcommittee.
- Acting officials and deputies testified about problems with programs that Republicans dislike — as those officials' offices bleed staff who are responsible for uncovering those problems.
- E&C Ranking Member Frank Pallone said that by holding the hearing with acting IGs, Republicans had effectively sanctioned those "illegal" firings.
- "I am genuinely shocked that we are having this hearing today," he said.
Driving the news: Acting EPA Inspector General Nicole Murley told the subcommittee that her offices' warnings to the agency two years ago about implementation of the IIJA "have come to pass."
- "We found that the EPA did not adequately monitor the deployment status and use of over $836 million of the 2022 rebates" under the Clean School Bus Program, she said in written testimony.
- Jonathan Black, one of the top officials left in DOE's IG office, testified that the Biden administration accelerated loan approvals after the election.
- "Our overriding concern is that the [Loan Programs Office] may not have given appropriate consideration" to experts performing due diligence, he said.
Yes, but: Officials said the administration's IG firings, buyouts and hiring freezes will affect their oversight work.
- Black offered some assurances that the work would continue, but said 39 DOE OIG staffers — 13% of the workforce — had taken the deferred resignation offer. His own last day is Friday.
- In the EPA OIG, 32 people in various stages of hiring had their processes frozen, Murley said.
