Quote:

---

LEE ZELDIN: Hi, this is EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. One of my very top priorities at EPA is to be an excellent steward of your hard-earned tax dollars. There will be zero tolerance of any waste and abuse.

An extremely disturbing video circulated two months ago featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about how they were tossing gold bars off the Titanic, rushing to get billions of your tax dollars out the door before Inauguration Day. The gold bars were tax dollars, and tossing them off the Titanic meant the Biden Administration knew they were wasting it. Following this revelation, during my meetings with members of Congress, I made a very important commitment to them and to the American people, which I reiterated at my confirmation hearing that if confirmed, I would immediately get a full accounting.

Fortunately, my awesome team at EPA has found the gold bars. Shockingly, roughly $20 billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution by the Biden EPA. This scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.

Even further, this pot of $20 billion was awarded to just eight entities that were then responsible for doling out your money to NGOs and others at their discretion with far less transparency. Just under $7 billion was sent to one entity called the Climate United Fund. I'm sure you and I now have some of the same questions.

How do these organizations decide how to allocate funding? How much money have they given out so far and to whom? Are there any former Biden EPA staffers who are now working at these entities?

Let me make one thing abundantly clear. At this point, there is zero reason to suspect any wrongdoing by the bank. Here's my position as EPA Administrator.

The financial agent agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated, and the bank must immediately return all of the gold bars that the Biden administration tossed off the Titanic. EPA needs to reassume responsibility for all of these funds. We will review every penny that has gone out the door.

I will be referring this matter to the Inspector General's office and will work with the Justice Department as well. The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over. The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years.

We take our obligations under the law as seriously as it gets. I've directed my team to find your gold bars, and they found them. Now we will get them back inside of control of government as we pursue next steps.

As President Trump has vowed, we are going to usher in a new golden age of American success for the citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed.

---