At a Senate Republican press briefing on Wednesday, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) spoke about the Inflation Reduction Act.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Yeah.
00:01Josh.
00:02Yeah.
00:03Thanks for doing this.
00:04I mean, as far as you said, you know, if it takes back to Congress, you would take,
00:05you know, roll back this program.
00:06I mean, as far as in the universe of IRA components, do you view this as more of a kind of a right
00:07to start?
00:08Is it something you think Trump should prioritize?
00:09Well.
00:10Well, I mean, because he's talking about almost the entirety of the bill.
00:29Okay.
00:30We know.
00:31Well, number one, there's, there's been a recent rush to get this money out and that's
00:35because they know that there's a likelihood.
00:38We like to think a high likelihood that the administration will change come November.
00:43And so they're rushing to get the money out and you see who they're sending it to.
00:48So we have that how in this pot of money, in the $3 billion for the EPA, it would probably
00:54be predicated on how much is left.
00:56We would certainly try to claw that back, but at the minimum, we would have more opportunity
01:01for sunlight here and more opportunity for oversight.
01:04In terms of other parts of the IRA, I think some of the tax provisions, I mean, it was
01:09just such a bloated, you know, Pete's talked about our debt.
01:15We talked about the inflation, everybody who knows anything attributes our inflationary
01:21rise over the last two years to this IRA and the bloated spending, and then cap that
01:26with the expansion of our debt.
01:29So I think, I think this is something that would be a top priority for all of us.
01:34And I don't know if you want to say anything about what we could and would do.
01:37Yeah.
01:38I mean, when you look at partisan bills that are passed that include reckless spending,
01:42it's one of the things that's driving inflation.
01:45We've got to control that in, if we're going to get inflation under control, there's other
01:48things that we have to do, like being able to use our own energy resources to help bring
01:52prices down.
01:54But we've got to get the spending under control.
01:55And so if we have a new administration, a new opportunity, we got to be able to start
01:59rating some of this money in, especially when it's being wasted on radical political activities,
02:03which is not what the American taxpayers signed up for.
02:05Yeah.
02:06Do you have any, do you feel like you have any recourse more immediately to try to figure
02:07out what these groups are doing with this money?
02:09Well, EPA is well aware of our extreme concern on this.
02:25I mean, here's a small victory, Climate Justice Alliance redid their website and took all
02:33that down.
02:34I mean, what does that, oh, is that okay now?
02:37I mean, so I feel like our voices are being heard, at least in a small way.
02:44No response from the administration at all, no response from the administrator on this.
02:51And so right now we're just, I think our best path is to just shine a light on it and talk
02:56about it.
02:57And this isn't going to be the end of this.
02:58I think this is just the beginning.
03:00Yes.
03:02So in the past, in response to your investigation of these groups and uncovering what exactly
03:08they stand for, the EPA has said, you know, political message or political beliefs are
03:15not in our criteria.
03:16They don't play a role in how we choose and how we score these grants.
03:23And they've also said that the specific money of the grants that are pending or go out can't
03:30be used for messaging activities.
03:31It can only be used for the specific purpose of outlining.
03:35I have a response, but do you want to go first?
03:39Well, I mean, common sense tells you, if you have a hundred million dollars coming into
03:45your nonprofit organization and you have certain political beliefs that you've been espousing
03:53all through your existence, not just in your social media, but for years, to say that you
04:01would never use that money to be guided towards anti-police or anti...
04:10What happens?
04:11It frees up the anti-police money so you have more anti-police money.
04:15I mean, that just makes sense to me.
04:17If somebody's going to get a hundred million dollars, you're going to have much more to
04:20do your political events or your political espousing through that.
04:25And there's no coincidence that just today they've announced they're going to endorse
04:31the person who announced them.
04:33And the EPA administrators, I like him, but his response to this has been very, very deficit.
04:41He told the House members when questioned about this, because they got the information
04:45from us, he told the House members, well, they haven't gotten it yet.
04:50Well, why are you putting a press release out that these are the people that are going
04:53to get it, these are the organizations that are going to get it, if you don't intend to
04:56actually give them the money?
04:58I mean, that to me is either at the least sloppy or at most deceptive and, oh, you kind
05:05of got caught being unaware or tried to slip something through.
05:11So I don't know.
05:12Yeah, I would just build upon that.
05:13Money's fungible, right?
05:14Right.
05:15You can move money around.
05:16And so if you've got money that covers administrative expenses, you're paying part of the rent,
05:20that part of the rent means that you don't have to go up and raise the money to do your
05:23political activities, right?
05:24So the money's fungible.
05:26The other thing I'd point out is that there's been such a lack of diligence from the EPA
05:31that allows the money to go to these groups.
05:33Why would we have any confidence that they're doing any sort of audit to make sure the grant
05:38money is being spent in the way that it's supposed to be spent?
05:42I don't have any confidence the EPA is checking up on these groups after even just seeing
05:46the groups they've gone to.
05:48So zero confidence that the EPA actually knows how this money is being spent.
05:52Do you believe that when they say that political affiliation or messaging has nothing to do
05:57with their criteria, it's not involved?
06:00I would question that back and say, why are we paying for any political activity?
06:06It should be a criteria.
06:07You should say, you cannot have this if you are going to, you know, lobby the federal
06:12government with the money that we're giving you, right?
06:14And again, unless you're actually auditing to find that out, we can't have any confidence
06:18in that.
06:19I mean, I'll go back to what I said earlier.
06:22If you have no political messaging and you're not supposed to be a political group, why
06:27are you endorsing somebody for president if you're not interested in the political environment?
06:33Yeah.
06:34Okay.
06:35Is this something that you've asked the EPA Inspector General or GAO to look into?
06:41We haven't asked yet.
06:42I don't believe I got my staff back here, but I will tell you this.
06:47In the IRA, the authors of the bill did not include, while they're getting $3 billion,
06:55did not include one single dollar for extra oversight of those dollars.
07:00So the EPA has an Inspector General, and what we get back from the Inspector General
07:05or from the EPA is, well, we need more resources within our agency to be able to move forward
07:12on this.
07:13So we did get $5 million through Senator Murkowski's bill of the, I think it's 30 that they get
07:20for their IG.
07:21$5 million is directed towards this, so that's a minor victory.
07:25I had an amendment that would have said we need to move this up to $20 million, because
07:30to try to follow the money of $3 billion, that's a pretty hefty load.
07:35And that's what happens when you pour so much money in so fast, it gets wasted.
07:41We see it all the time.
07:42Why don't we learn the lesson of this?
07:44And now it's not only getting wasted, it's getting poured into radical activists.
07:49So thanks a lot.
07:50Yep, did you have the next question?
07:51I was just going to say, following up on that, are you sort of keeping that option in the
07:57quiver?
07:58Right.
07:59Depending on the answers you get at this stage.
08:01Well, this is not the end of this, so yes, I think we will.
08:04We will pursue it.
08:05By the way, nice flower.
08:06I like it.
08:08Okay, thanks guys.
08:09Thanks folks, appreciate it.
08:10Thanks.