Comer asks EPA for documents on grant application process

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) on Thursday requested information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in connection with an investigation of the agency’s research grant process.

In the letter, Comer asked EPA Administrator Michael Regan for documents and a briefing on the agency’s grant administration program, as well as its procedures for safeguarding against foreign influence.

The grant process, Comer wrote in the letter, includes a loophole under which applicants must disclose any research support, including foreign sources, during the application process but not after the grant has been awarded.

“This practice is not consistent with other government agencies administering federal research funds, and raises questions of whether foreign contributions are being used after an initial award to influence or obtain access to EPA’s federally funded research,” Comer wrote.

The EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a memo on the loophole in April, Comer wrote in the letter.

“EPA must evaluate its application process and explore requiring additional disclosures during the post-award stage to avoid financial and nonfinancial conflicts, especially those involving foreign sources of research support,” he wrote.

The Hill has reached out to the EPA for comment.

The letter comes a week after another to the EPA from Comer and Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), chairman of the Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on the Environment, calling for tighter enforcement mechanisms for the agency’s environmental-justice grants.

Darya Minovi, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, blasted the March letter as an attempt to hamstring agency investments in underserved communities, “poorly veiled as a call for oversight.”

In another letter, submitted in April, Comer and Fallon requested documents from Regan relating to a proposed EPA rule relating to methane emissions, arguing the agency’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act was out of step with the statutory intention.