Susan Collins: “The job description of a Member of Congress is real short. It is to take care of your constituents and have oversight of…”

“The job description of a Member of Congress is real short. It is to take care of your constituents and have oversight of the Federal Government. This amendment deals with the oversight portion. It is oversight of an unauthorized Federal agency, of which we have over 1,200 unauthorized agencies. An unauthorized agency is one that was simply not approved by Congress. In this case, the agency was approved through the executive branch to help with overseeing the implementation of NEPA back during the Nixon administration. Since then, it has become one of the rogue, woke, climate control warriors for the Biden administration, pushing rules and regulations. As a matter of fact, the budget for this unauthorized agency was around $3.75 million. It happened to grow during the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act to over $62 million. Now, the Council on Environmental Quality is just one of a long list of unauthorized agencies in this Federal Government. During recent oversight hearings, on four occasions, Director Brenda Mallory was requested to come and testify. Now, she only showed up one time. During that time, she decided that she would refuse to answer questions. She didn't have to answer our questions on any subject. Let me make that even clearer. She wasn't refusing to answer my questions or the committee's questions. She was refusing to answer to the American people, the very taxpayers that foot the bill for that agency.…”