Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment to the fiscal year 2016 Interior Appropriations bill that will help strengthen transparency and oversight at the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. My amendment simply provides $1 million in additional funding for the Office of Inspector General at the EPA. I thank Chairman Ken Calvert for working with me on this amendment. Under the current administration, the EPA has waged an all-out war on jobs in the beautiful Second District of West Virginia and on communities across America. With this backdrop, I think it is absolutely critical that we strengthen oversight and transparency at the EPA. Taxpayers deserve to know what is going on behind the curtain. The Office of the Inspector General plays a critical oversight role within the EPA. It is the independent office that works diligently to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. For example, a May 28, 2015, report found that two separate EPA employees were viewing pornography at work for up to 6 hours a day, and they were paid in the neighborhood of $120,000 a year while doing it. The same report found that Renee Page, who at the time was Director of the EPA's Office of Administration, allegedly sold jewelry and weight loss pills out of her office. But she didn't stop there with her abuses. She hired not one, not two, but 17 family members and friends for paid internships at the EPA.…”