WASHINGTON, D.C. (WBOY) — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) is drawing attention to oversight findings that $50 million in taxpayer funding went to a group that engages in “pro-Hamas” activities through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Fellow West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) worked closely with Sen. Maj. Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to create the IRA back in July 2022. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office did not believe that the IRA was going to have an impact on inflation when it was passed, but the bill did include investments in green energy. Last year, Manchin criticized the implementation of his bill.
On Tuesday, Capito said one of her staffers discovered that in December, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $50 million grant through the IRA to a group called the Climate Justice Alliance, which Capito said “engages in pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic activities.”
Capito said her staff went to the Climate Justice Alliance’s website and found images, including one of “the bulldozer that went through the fence when Hamas attacked Israel on October the 7th.”
“If you dig deeper [on their website] they want to defund the police, defund the military, either them—or their affiliates—want to have very radical, drastic initiatives that I think are anti-American,” Capito said. “And they certainly are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.”
Capito questioned if the Climate Justice Alliance would really be cleaning up the environment, or funding things like recent protests.
Capito concluded her comments by saying the Environment and Public Works Committee would continue to follow the money to see where American taxpayer dollars are going.