The Environmental Protection Agency is spending millions of dollars to build its own inventory of military-grade hardware, including advance combat equipment and reconnaissance gear. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, wants to know why.
Grassley has written a letter to the agency asking for the justification for such heavy militarization.
“As of September 14, 2023, the Biden administration EPA has already spent $2,892,770 on these items, which is 143 percent more than what was spent during the entire Trump administration,” Grassley wrote, in his role as a member of the Senate Budget Committee.
The list of equipment, according to Grassley, includes:
- From 2008 to 2023, the EPA spent $167,657 on “Night Vision Equipment, Emitted and Reflected Radiation.”
- From 2007 to 2022, the EPA spent $1,826,070 on “ships, small craft, pontoon, docks.” One of those transaction descriptions included $40,119 for “hovercraft.”
- From 2007 to 2019, the EPA spent $151,018 on “Radar Equipment, ExceptAirborne” and “Radar Equipment, Airborne.”
- From 2005 to 2023, the EPA spent $8,193,741 on “motor vehicles, cycles,trailers.” Some of those transaction descriptions include “mobile command vehicle,” “mobile command post,” “segway,” and “all terrain vehicles.” There is also a $61,362 purchase for “unmanned ground vehicle.”
- In 2013, the EPA spent $33,690 on “unmanned aircraft,”13 as well as $147,300 from 2021 to 2023 for instruments for the unmanned aircraft14 and $97,403 in 2023 for “unmanned aircraft systems flight services.”
- From 2009 to 2023, the EPA spent $323,576 on “armor, personal.”
- In 2010 and 2011, the EPA spent $207,442 on “camouflage and deception equipment.” Deceptive equipment can include dummy artillery, aircraft, and vehicles, as well as garnished nets.
Grassley characterized the militarization of the EPA as “frightening” to the Washington Free Beacon, which first obtained the letter.
In 2013, the EPA’s Environmental Crimes Task Force descended on miners in Chicken, Alaska with their loaded weapons and bullet-proof clothing. Then-Gov. Sean Parnell convened a task force to look into the harassment of the miners.
For Grassley, it’s about farmers in the nation’s breadbasket states.
“If the EPA had its way, nearly 97 percent of land in Iowa would be subject to onerous federal red tape. You’d have to get permission from Uncle Sam before moving dirt on your own land under this administration’s WOTUS regulations. Farmers could’ve faced steep fines if water pooled in a ditch after a rainstorm because of the EPA’s far-reaching rules. Thankfully, the Supreme Court saw through this federal overreach and unanimously determined that it violated the Clean Water Act,” Grassley said in May.
During the Obama Administration, the EPA spent nearly $6.6 million on guns, armor, radar equipment, mobile command posts, and various advanced weapons.
Then came the Trump Administration, which spent more than $2 million on these armaments. President Joe Biden has already spent nearly $3 million making the EPA into a weaponized force.
In all since 2003, the EPA has paid $8,193,741 for vehicles, some of which fit the description of mobile command vehicles, mobile command posts, and unmanned ground vehicles. The EPA has also spent money on camouflage and deception equipment and drones.
The EPA has staffed up with about 200 federal law enforcement officers armed with 857 guns and approximately 500,000 rounds of ammunition, Grassley said.
Grassley’s letter is here:
