WASHINGTON – A U.S. House committee meeting grew testy Wednesday, with Republican Rep. Clay Higgins angrily questioning the integrity of the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Democrats — including New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — scolding him for it.
“Men like Mr. Regan have carried a torch 100% driven by an agenda to smash the American energy industry.," Higgins, voice raised, said about EPA Administrator Michael Regan. "He’s the one that’s agenda-driven not me.”
Regan was appearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which was looking into what the Republican-majority called “excessive environmental regulations and abuse.”
“Economic prosperity is the cornerstone of societal advancement worldwide, and the cornerstone of economic prosperity is affordable, abundant, transportable energy product,” said Higgins, of Lafayette. “Economic prosperity is the number one driver of clean air, clean water, and reduced pollution worldwide.”
Higgins then asked Regan whether his plans include continued attacks on the energy industry.
Regan, showing a little anger himself, refused to answer, noting Higgins was "just assaulting me and saying I’m un-American.”
“You think this is an assault?” Higgins interrupted.
U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Maryland, jumped into the fray.
“We always ought to look and put a stop sign in front of ourselves when we start assailing by name the personal integrity of any witness,” Mfume said.
“This is the oversight committee,” Higgins countered. “This is where government is forced to sit in front of Congress and be held accountable for their actions. If that is an attack on a person’s personal integrity, that’s not my problem.”
“It’s not the McCarthy era,” someone yelled out, referring to a period in the 1950s when Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, used accusations of communist influence to go after various public officials.
Ocasio-Cortez then took over the questioning.
“Administrator Regan, you’ve been accused here of sabotaging the economic prosperity of this country for enforcing and introducing regulations about chemicals that this committee itself has investigated, such as PFAS,” she said.
PFAS are a category of chemicals found in many household products, such as cleaning agents, shampoos, dental floss and nonstick cookware. PFAS, dubbed “forever chemicals” because they degrade slowly, have been linked to health issues including cancer, developmental delays in children and reproductive problems for parents.
Ocasio-Cortez said Regan and the EPA have been holding large corporations accountable for allegedly dumping PFAS into streams and landfills.
“Yet there are members of this committee that want to defend the economic right for a company to poison its people, the American people,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
That Regan was received hostilely by Republican members of the committee should not have come as a surprise.
Committee Chair James Comer, R-Kentucky, said in a press release that the purpose of the hearing was to hold the EPA accountable for trying “to cement” the Biden Administration’s efforts to combat global warming “and other misguided priorities that have hurt both American businesses and consumers across the country.”