EPA’s internal watchdog is warning it needs more resources for tough oversight as the agency braces for the return of the Trump administration.
EPA’s Office of Inspector General, in its latest semiannual report, touted investigative work rooting out waste and fraud while delivering cost savings. Yet the agency remains flush with cash, set to take in more than $100 billion from President Joe Biden’s trademark climate and infrastructure laws together, which ups the risk for misuse at EPA.
EPA Inspector General Sean O’Donnell said in a message to Congress accompanying the report that “systemic issues” his office has found with the agency’s handling of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act spotlight the need for oversight of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The watchdog office has funding from the infrastructure law to monitor its implementation but none from the climate law to do the same.
