By Matthew Daly, Associated Press
Washington (AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency has issued new guidelines indicating that spending over $ 50,000 now require the approval of the Elon Musk government ministry.
The directives, published this week, increase the role that the new efficiency group, known as Doge, plays in EPA operations.
“Any assistance agreement, contract or transaction of contract internsitations (valued at) $ 50,000 must receive the approval of a member of the EPA DOGE team,” said the EPA directives, according to the documents obtained by the Associated Press.
To facilitate the examination of the DOGE team, EPA staff were responsible for submitting a brief explanation of a page of each financing action between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., Eastern Directives. Other relevant forms must also be completed.
President Donald Trump instructed Doge to digest what he and Musk call waste, fraud and abuse. The Republican President suggested on Thursday that the members of the cabinet and the agency managers would take the lead on expenditure and staff cuts, but he said that Musk could push stronger on the line.
“If they can cut, it’s better,” said Trump about agency leaders. “And if they don’t cut, then Elon will cut.”
EPA did not respond to a request for comments on Friday.
The Senator of Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse, the best democrat of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, qualified the new “disorder” directive, adding that it means agency actions, including routine contracts and grant prices, “are now facing unnecessary bureaux delays”.
Routine expenditure such as subsidies for monitoring air and water quality, laboratory equipment purchases, elimination of hazardous waste on federal sites and money for municipal recycling programs are part of the expenses that will probably be affected, he said.
Whitehouse, a frank critic from Musk and Trump, said that the involvement of “the inexperienced team not appreciated by Musk raises serious concerns concerning an inappropriate external influence on the specialized decision -making of agencies”.
On Friday, in a letter to the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, Whitehouse said that spending actions above $ 50,000 are often complex and require specialized knowledge of environmental sciences, policies and regulations. “Allowing unskilled and self -proclaimed” experts “”, “not verified to conflicts of interest, to have the veto power on funding determinations is inappropriate and the risks compromising the agency’s mission to protect public health and the environment,” wrote Whitehouse.
A directive of the EPA indicates that the new guidelines aim to comply with the decrees published by Trump which seek to restrict federal expenses.
Whitehouse described these illegal orders, adding: “It is already established by the court order that it is the congress which authorizes and appropriates the funds for specific purposes, not the management and budget office or the president by executive decree or DOGE.”
The dispute concerning the expense directives comes while Zeldin has promised strong drops in spending up to the agency 65%.
“We don’t need to spend all this money that crossed EPA last year,” Zeldin said last week. “We don’t want it. We don’t need it. The American public needs it and we have to balance the budget. »»
President Joe Biden asked about $ 10.9 billion for EPA during the current budgetary year, an increase of 8.5% compared to the previous one, but Zeldin said that the agency needed much less money to do its job. He also criticized EPA subsidies authorized under the 2022 climate law, including $ 20 billion for a so-called Green Bank to pay for climate and clean energy programs.
Zeldin has promised to revoke contracts for the still emerging banking program which should finance tens of thousands of projects aimed at combating climate change and promoting environmental justice.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said last week that Trump, Doge and Zeldin were all “determined to reduce waste, fraud and abuse”.
A 65% reduction in expenses would be devastating for EPA and its mission, said Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238. Basic actions such as air and water quality monitoring, responding to natural disasters and lead reduction, among other agency functions, are in danger, she said.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
