Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon has been introducing a a series of bills to highlight and cut wasteful taxpayer-funded programs government-wide. Salmon’s latest bill would eliminate federal funding for the Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science and Technology Account.
Salmon issued a statement upon introduction of the EPA bill, “Duplicative programs can be found throughout the behemoth known as the federal government and the EPA is certainly no exception. The EPA’s Science and Technology Account is used to direct funding for climate change research. Regardless of what you think about climate change, this research should actually be, and in fact already is, done through the Department of Energy and not the agency charged with regulation enforcement.
“To achieve streamlined and efficient research spending, we should cut funding to this duplicative account and focus research in one agency and save U.S. taxpayers funds,” continued Salmon. “Through the SOS Initiative, I will continue to identify duplicative or wasteful programs that many are unwilling to even review and eliminate them as a matter of government efficiency and cost effectiveness.”
The EPA’s Science and Technology account is used to direct federal funding for research related to global warming and climate change research. Additionally, their science and technology research areas include sustainable practices, ecosystems, health, and more. This research should be consolidated and conducted through the Department of Energy. Having it spread across departments and agencies results in duplication and lack of streamlined, efficient research spending. Funding for this account for FY14 amounted to $759,156,000.