Oversight Democrats Tout EPA’s Efforts to Cut Emissions, Stop Pollution, and Protect Public Health in Hearing with Administrator Regan

Washington, D.C. (July 11, 2024)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, led Committee Democrats in highlighting the work of the Biden-Harris Administration and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fight the climate crisis, reduce pollution, and safeguard community health in a hearing with EPA Administrator Michael Regan.

“Americans today face the accelerating ravages of the climate crisis, including extreme heat waves,” said Ranking Member Raskin in his opening remarks.  “And yet, a lot of our colleagues are still in denial.  In fact, their Project 2025 plan for America would ban the use of the word ‘climate change.’  They want to delete the possibility of even talking about climate change, much less taking any action on it.  Millions of Americans are suffering the health effects of legacy pollution, dangerous air quality, and other kinds of toxic contamination.  The work of the EPA has never been more urgent.” 

Committee Democrats emphasized the urgency of addressing toxic pollution and the climate crisis–the defining crisis of our time–as alarming climate denialism pervades the Republican party. 

• Rep. Ayanna Pressley stated:  “You know, the kids say, ‘it’s 7 p.m. on Friday, 95 degrees,’ and that's because the climate crisis is real, and it is here.  Climate change isn’t an abstract problem for people of a faraway future to solve.  No one knows that better than our youth.  And I know you agree because under your leadership, EPA created the first of its kind, National Environmental Youth Advisory Council, and I’m proud that Osasenaga Idahor, one of my constituents from Hyde Park, is a member.  Voices like his are essential to addressing this crisis.  So, when my colleagues across the aisle use platforms like this hearing to pretend that climate change is some hoax, I can’t help but think about the stories I hear from our youth when I’m back home.”   
   
• Discussing a recent EPA report, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost noted that younger generations are experiencing some of the most harmful effects of climate change, stating: “Some of the key findings highlighted how climate change is expected to increase the incidence of asthma in children, increase asthma-related emergency department visits, increase climate-driven temperature increases that are projected to result in 4 to 7% reductions in annual academic achievement per child, and also, if no additional adaptations are taken, 1 to 2 million children are estimated to experience temporary home displacement or complete home loss due to the climate crisis.”   
   
• When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked about the dangerous health effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) forever chemicals—toxins dumped into water systems by companies like DuPont and 3M that are estimated to contaminate at least 45% of drinking water in the U.S—Administrator Regan noted, “They range from various types of cancers, death.  These carcinogenic elements are wreaking havoc on communities all across the country.”  Rep. Ocasio-Cortez admonished, “There are members here of this Committee that want to defend the ‘economic right’ for a company to poison its people—the American people.”   

Committee Democrats explained how EPA’s strong, evidence-based action will protect Americans’ health and the environment, including by ensuring that Americans have clean air, land, and water. 

• Responding to a question from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton regarding examples of EPA’s successes, Administrator Regan stated:  “When we think of Washington, D.C., and look at the success of our brownfields program, we are revitalizing blighted communities and turning these communities into economic centers, but also reducing the pollution to many communities, which not only increases the tax base and increases the health of communities.  You mentioned electric school buses.  We’ve issued electric buses in Washington, D.C.  We’ve also issued about $62.5 million to expand the benefits of solar energy to lower-income communities in the district, as well.  We are looking at a combination of new technologies that will make the city more competitive while cleaning up pollution and making citizens healthier.  I call that a huge success, and we’re seeing that all over the country.” 
   
• Rep. Shontel Brown highlighted the positive impact of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law on EPA’s ability to protect Americans’ health, stating:  “These funds are used to remove lead pipes leading to our homes and improve access to safe drinking water.  This May, the Biden-Harris Administration announced an additional $184 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to support safe drinking water and replace existing lead service lines in Ohio.” 
   
• In response to a question from Rep. Summer Lee about how EPA has improved conditions in communities disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, Administrator Regan stated:  “Our children now are breathing clean air, they’re not drinking lead-poisoned water, and they’re doing better in school.  They’re happier and they’re healthier.  That’s what we have been doing the last three-and-a-half years, and we’re going to keep doing that.” 

Committee Democrats detailed how Republican policies and Supreme Court decisions favor corporate polluters and Big Oil over the health and safety of the American people. 

• Rep. Robert Garcia stated: “I want to just highlight that your agency is working every day to implement the biggest climate bill in history, and we are in a climate crisis—I think we all understand that.  But I also want to look at an alternative plan for your agency.  Now, this is Project 2025, which is Donald Trump’s anti-environmental agenda, and I want to just note some of the main features of Project 2025.  It includes shredding pollution regulations, gutting clean energy programs, repealing the Inflation Reduction Act—President Biden’s climate law, which we know is landmark—and of course, empowering corporate polluters.  Now, we know that Donald Trump’s Project 2025 destroys the EPA.  He’ll let corporations dump more toxins into our air and water like he did the last time he was president.  We know that he will empower corporate polluters and fill the EPA with handpicked extremists rather than actual climate experts and who will destroy the progress that President Biden has fought for.” 
   
• When Ranking Member Raskin asked what would happen if Donald Trump’s Project 2025 proposals are enacted, Administrator Regan warned:  “We would have significant impacts to our water quality.  Emerging contaminants like PFAS would run amok.  We would continue to have lead-poisoned water all across the country.  We would not be able to look at how to clean up brownfields sites and benefit not just from a health standpoint, but from the economic vitality and opportunity of cleaning up these blighted sites.  The list just goes on and on.  America needs a strong EPA.” 
   
• Rep. Dan Goldman explained how the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Loper Bright case was “a complete power grab that was led for many years—decades—by the Koch brothers who have spent tens of millions of dollars in trying to overturn this Chevron doctrine in order to benefit their oil and gas and other industries that harm the environment.  And you know what’s interesting about this case, this Loper Bright case, is that Clarence Thomas didn’t recuse himself.  He ruled on it.  And yet Clarence Thomas took free private flights paid for by the Koch brothers went to their events, raised money for them—this is all documented.  And then after that, in 2020, Clarence Thomas just completely reversed his view of the Chevron doctrine.”
   
• In response to a question from Rep. Melanie Stansbury about what it was like at the EPA after the Trump Administration, Administrator Regan stated:  “I’ve worked at EPA—started as an intern—worked there for 10 years before I left and came back, and it wasn’t the EPA that I had left.  It was a completely different place.  And in my conversations with old colleagues and new colleagues, talking to me through tears, they talked about feeling disrespected.  Science was ignored.  They were asked to leave meetings.  So, the culture was not the best.  We lost, as you said, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of scientists, and with that we lost decades of experience.”