Ernst to EPA: Get the Lead Out

WASHINGTON – After a series of shocking reports revealed mass teleworking by federal bureaucrats is causing stagnant and unsafe drinking water in federal buildings, including child care centers, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) demanded answers from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan on how and why the agency was completely unaware that buildings housing its own offices have had toxic water for years.

Ernst blasted EPA for being more focused on fighting to regulate water in ditches in Iowa than on ensuring government buildings have safe drinking water.

“Employees and visitors to government offices serving veterans, senior citizens, and the disabled were also allowed to be exposed to harmful levels of lead, copper, and bacteria for months before warnings were issued about the dangerous toxins that had been detected in the water. The conditions are a direct result of lead, copper, and Legionella accumulating in stagnant water in the buildings after being abandoned by bureaucrats at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Four years later, the dangers persist because bureaucrats refuse to come back to work. Federal agencies around the Washington, D.C.-area are using just 25 percent or less of the space in most government buildings, according to the Government Accountability Office,” wrote Ernst.

Click here to view the full letter.

Background:

Ernst has fought to expose telework and locality pay abuse by federal bureaucrats and to get them back into the office working for the taxpayers who pay their salary.

In June 2024, an audit she requested revealed one in four Department of Commerce employees had moved to areas with lower rates of pay but still received the higher pay rates associated with higher cost of living areas.

Ernst demanded an investigation into locality pay abuse at the U.S. Agency for International Development after an inspector general failed to investigate glaring examples of timecard fraud.

In March 2024, Ernst introduced the Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act to track the total amount taxpayers are subsidizing federal employee unions.

Earlier this month, Senator Ernst demanded an explanation from U.S. Housing and Urban Development Acting Secretary Adrienne Todman after a whistleblower revealed a federal employee was paid in full and received no discipline for being arrested for drinking and driving and spending time in jail – all while on the clock.

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