Nebraska Panhandle News

Yesterday, U.S. Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, led a press conference to discuss concerns about the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) allocation of funds through the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The senators highlighted that these funds are being directed to what they described as extremist organizations.

Senator Ricketts expressed his disapproval of the EPA’s funding of groups such as the Climate Justice Alliance and NDN Collective, which he claimed hold anti-American positions like abolishing military, police, and border security. He emphasized that American taxpayers do not want their money supporting such radical views.

“When you’re giving money to organizations, like the Climate Justice Alliance, and they are funding the March on Washington, and they are waving the free Palestinian flags and so forth, we’re paying them to lobby our government,” Ricketts said. “I got to tell you. Everyday Nebraskans don’t think that’s a good idea – that our tax dollars should go to radical organizations to lobby our own government.”

“That’s not how they want their money spent. They want their money spent here in Washington, D.C. wisely,” Ricketts continued. “And when you see the frustration that people have for Washington DC, this is a prime example of why they have that frustration.”

The senators noted that funding continues to flow from the Inflation Reduction Act’s $3 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program.

In his remarks, Senator Ricketts stated: “Well, thank you Senator Capito, for highlighting this and showing some transparency and some sunlight on what’s going on here with regard to these grants through the Inflation Reduction Act.

“But as you all more aptly named it, the Investment In Radical Activists Act because that’s exactly what we’re doing here. When you’re giving money to organizations like the Climate Justice Alliance, and they are funding the March on Washington, and they are waving free Palestinian flags and so forth, we’re paying them to lobby our government.

“I got to tell you. Everyday Nebraskans don’t think that’s a good idea – that our tax dollars should go to radical organizations to lobby our own government.

“That’s just crazy. And you’re talking about the NDN Collective and the things they want to do like abolishing the military, abolishing the police, abolishing Customs and Border Protection, abolishing Immigration Customs Enforcement.

“Again, everyday Americans think those organizations are important organizations. And we want to keep them to keep us safe. They are way out of step with what everyday Americans want to see. This is really radical stuff that they’re promoting.

“And then we have organizations like Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs who are spreading climate alarmism and again funding left-wing groups.

“This is not what our tax dollars are supposed to go for; your point about the EPA because all this money is going through the EPA; I was just talking to a company yesterday who said ‘hey we need more help with getting permits done.’ We can’t get permits fast enough frankly for some of these environmental projects even.’

“And it’s because the money is going to fund these radical organizations. And nobody’s paying attention to how many people they’ve got working in their different regions to be able to help get these permits processed.

“So on one hand, the EPA has legitimate business they’re not getting done; on the other hand they’re funding these radical environmentalists and other sorts of organizations. And again it just gets back everyday Americans; that's not how they want their money spent; They want their money spent here in Washington D.C wisely.”

“And when you see frustration people have for Washington DC this is a prime example of why they have that frustration.

“So I want again thank Senator Capito for highlighting this for shining some sunshine on this so we can get some changes made.

“We are now sitting at $35 trillion in debt; We have got get our spending under control spending on this kind radical activism is not way we should be spending our tax dollars.”