The Biden Admin Is Scrambling To Spend $27 Billion ‘Slush Fund’ Before Congress Claws It Back
President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making plans to rapidly invest billions of dollars in green energy and technology projects before the money must be returned to Congress in just over a year, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) is one of several funding opportunities for green projects established by Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that Democrats are hoping to fully spend before Republicans have a chance to take back control of Congress, the Post reported. The GGRF is unique, however, because the IRA mandates it fully disburse its funding by September 30, 2024, a move by Democrats to shield the program from GOP efforts to recover the funds, an anonymous Democratic aide told the outlet. (RELATED: Biden’s World Bank Head Promises To Spend ‘As Much As We Possibly Can’ On Climate Change)
“We did craft it with the motivation to have EPA stand up the program quickly to save it from the risk of potential future repeal efforts,” the aide said, according to the Post. Democratic Sen. Thomas Carper of Delaware, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said that he had instructed the EPA to “waste no time” on disbursing the funds because “we are running out of time” to combat climate change, the Post reported.