Syracuse Sun

Washington, DC — On May 10, 2023, Congressman Brandon Williams (NY-22), gave his opening remarks at the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee's joint subcommittee hearing on Return on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA):

"The Department of Energy’s recent facelift has rightfully received criticism from both industry and lawmakers,” said Rep. Brandon Williams. “As members of Congress, we have a responsibility to conduct oversight of these immense new activities. We have reason to question whether DOE has the protections, personnel, and expertise in place to carry out the IIJA and IRA appropriately."

As part of the hearing, Rep. Williams highlighted that this new funding, outside of the regular appropriations process, for the DOE is being used to create 70 new programs and the hiring of more than 1,000 new employees for the Department.

Just last year, the DOE announced a $200 million IIJA award to Microvast, a company with over 80% of its assets in China. Microvast is even listed on an SEC watchlist of foreign companies not in compliance with the Holding Foreign Companies Accountability Act.

“I think we can all agree the Department’s failure to adequately vet this company before making this $200 million award is unacceptable and deeply alarming,” said Rep. Williams.

Watch Rep. Williams’ opening remarks here.

Watch the full hearing here.

Original source can be found here.