Priyanka Tiwari
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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff members have been ordered to seek permission from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk for any orders surpassing $50,000. New guidance from The White House is making waves as it gives further power to DOGE over the workings of the EPA.
At the moment, DOGE has the responsibility of making sure any assistance agreement, contract, or interagency agreement around is valued at $50,000 must get the approval of a DOGE team staff member.
In order to ensure the DOGE team order is achieved, the guidance says that all funding actions need to be accompanied by a one page paper during the given time slot of 3 to 6 pm Eastern. There are several other paperwork that needs to be done as well.
Trump put DOGE in charge of collecting waste, fraud, and abuse as explained by him and Musk. Trump also mentioned his expectation for other cabinet leaders to take charge of the Trump’s orders to reduce costs attached to staffing and funding.
“They can cut, so it’s better,” Trump said regarding agency leaders. “If they choose not to cut, Elon will do the cutting.” The EPA did not respond to a request Friday for comment.
The most recent directive, in Whitehouse's view, was worrisome. He believes it implies that agency functions, including the awarding of routine contracts and grants, are subject to “needless red tape.” In his view, federal spending is likely to be constrained in areas like issuing air and water quality monitoring grants, purchasing laboratory equipment, disposing of hazardous waste at federal sites, and funding municipal recycling programs.
Critics of Musk and Trump, Whitehouse remarked, said, “Musk's unvetted, inexperienced team raised flags of undue hyper concern of specialized agency decision-making.” Whitehouse, addressing EPA head Lee Zeldin, said more than \$50,000 in spending actions are frequently multi-faceted and require an understanding of environmental science and policy, as well as regulations. According to Whitehouse, “granting control over funding decisions to unskilled, self-proclaimed experts without vetting for conflicts of interest is reckless and puts the agency's capacity to safeguard public health and the environment at risk.”
According to an order issued by the EPA, the new guidelines are designed to align with Trump’s executive orders aimed toward minimizing federal expenditures.
The Office of Management and Budget along with the president, by means of an executive order or DOGE, does not have the power to unilaterally dictate which funds require authorization and appropriation. Congress possesses that authority, and it is enforced by a court ruling, claimed Whitehouse while recalling his orders. The disagreement about the expenditure policy comes at the same time Zeldin has guaranteed up to 65% spending reduction at the agency.
“We do not need to be utilizing all that money that passed the EPA last year,” claimed Zeldin, “The American public truly requires us to aid in balancing the budget, hence these funds are not only unwanted, but greatly needed.” Last week, President Joe Biden proposed $10.9 billion in funding to the EPA for the current fiscal year. This is an 8.5% increase compared to the previous year’s budget. However, Zeldin claimed the agency does not require nearly that amount of money to function and criticized other EPA funding, like the 2022 climate law where $20 billion was allocated to a green bank for climate and clean energy initiatives.
Zeldin, alongside self-proclaimed cryptocurrency experts, has pledged to cancel several contracts associated with the still-burgeoning bank program that is expected to spend billions of dollars funding thousands of climate change and environmental justice projects.
Last week, White House press aide Taylor Rogers claimed that Trump, DOGE, and Zeldin “dedicated themselves to slashing waste, fraud, and abuse.” Spending of this magnitude, forfeiting 65% of the budget, would effectively terminate the EPA and everything it stands for, said Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238. She claimed that critical steps such as air and water quality management, disaster response, lead removal, and many more agency activities are in danger.
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