[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rescinded.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.

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