Zeldin: EPA Paid Over $2B to NGOs Before Inauguration

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Wednesday said he's discovered that the agency made over $2 billion in payments that went to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the weeks leading up to President Donald Trump's inauguration last month.

"I haven't had a chance to talk about this one publicly because I just read this about an hour ago," Zeldin said in an interview with Andrew Wilkow, host of "The Wilkow Majority" on SiriusXM's Patriot Channel. "I was reading through one of the grant agreements. On page one, it was telling this entity that they have 21 days to distribute $2.29 billion. But that's not the worst part. On page six, it gives the recipient 90 days to complete their 'How To Develop a Budget' training."

He did not disclose the name of the entity in question.

Such funding transfers happen, Wilkow said, when Congress allots money to a government department, which then gives the money to one NGO. That organization, in turn, distributes the money to other recipients, often making it difficult to trace the funds.

"This is something that by design took great measure to reduce significantly oversight and accountability," Zeldin said.

He added that he was talking about account agreements entered on Nov. 1 of last year. Then, additional account control measures are reached with sub-grantees, but the EPA is not a party to any of them.

"Many of those sub-grantees are also pass-throughs," said Zeldin. "They were amending the account control agreements right up to the inauguration. I reviewed three amended account control agreements [dated] Jan. 13."

The General Counsel's review, meanwhile, was on Nov. 5, meaning "they were signing off on a legal review of whether or not this was okay" on Election Day, Zeldin said.

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