QUESTIONS  $13.3 BILLION IN UNSPENT FUNDS

WASHINGTON, OCT. 12, 2011 – In another in a series of hearings on President Obama’s pledge to have all agencies conduct a “line-by-line” budget review to identify spending reductions, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations looked at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).   Said Stearns, “Today, we will look at the actual results of the EPA’s efforts thus far to meet the President’s pledge to comb through the federal budget line-by-line, cutting spending.  We are aware of several initiatives related to that worthy goal.  But what measurable results have been achieved?” 

After listening to the opening statement of Barbara J. Bennett, the EPA’s Chief Financial Officer, Stearns asked a series of questions on $13.3 billion for FY 2010 in unexpended appropriations held by the EPA last year when it was about to request $9 billion for its upcoming budget.  Asked Stearns, “When I look and you have this budget, but you’re still not explaining how you can have $13.3 billion of funds that have not been spent…is this money in a bank account, money that you can get from the Treasury, what is this money doing and why can’t you just give it back to the Treasury and reduce the deficit?”  Bennett responded, “Well, actually most of our funds go to the states and tribes in tribal assistant grants and many of these projects are multiyear…most of the funds have been obligated and have not been spent.”  Stearns then requested a report outlining when these funds were obligated and when they are due to be spent.

This lack of clarity was noted in the testimony of David Trimble, Director of Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO):  “While we have observed progress in recovering these funds, we have also observed that EPA’s budget justification documents do not describe the amount of deobligated and recertified funding available for new obligations. We have also observed that such information could be useful to Congress because the availability of recertified amounts could partially offset the need for new funding.”

Stearns concluded the hearing by noting that the EPA is requesting more money to study issues concerning its labs, even though the GAO already has performed an audit and issued recommendations to the EPA.  Stearns stated, “You need more money to save money?”