From Investor's Business Daily:
Does EPA Need Guns, Ammo And Armor To Protect The Environment?
The Environmental Protection Agency spent millions of dollars over the last decade on guns, ammo, body armor, camouflage equipment, unmanned aircraft, amphibious assault ships, radar and night-vision gear and other military-style weaponry and surveillance activities, according to a new report by the watchdog group Open the Books.
The report raises questions about why EPA's enforcement division employs well-armed "special agents" who appear to be conducting SWAT-type operations on American businesses and households it suspects of wrongdoing.
Illinois-based Open the Books scanned tens of thousands of checks written by the EPA and totaling more than $93 billion from 2000 to 2014.
The audit discovered hundreds of millions of dollars of questionable expenses, including high-end luxury furnishings, sports equipment and "environmental justice" grants to raise awareness of global warming.
It also revealed that seven of 10 EPA workers make more than $100,000 a year and that more than 12,000 of its nearly 16,000 employees were given bonuses last year despite agency budgets that were supposed to be constrained by budget caps and sequester cuts.
EPA's $8 billion budget also found room for more than 1,000 attorneys, which would make the agency one of the largest law firms in the nation.
A bit more:
But the eye-grabber in the report is the agency's ongoing military-type purchases. Some $75 million is authorized each year for criminal enforcement, including money for a small militia of 200 "special agents" that appear to be snooping on industry and preparing to use deadly force to enforce EPA edicts.
More:
Asked for comment on the Open the Books findings, EPA said purchases of armaments are necessary for "environmental crime-fighting."
"For more than 30 years," it said, "there has been broad, bipartisan agreement about the importance of an armed, fully-equipped team of EPA agents working with state and federal partners to uphold the law and protect Americans."
The equipment is needed to "access potential crime scenes as quickly as possible," it added.
One former EPA administrator with more than 30 years at the agency says of the Open the Books report: "EPA has been increasingly captured by the environmental left, and the purchases of military-style armaments has increased accordingly."
They are a rogue agency and need to have their funding cut by 80% - let them get back to their core competencies.
The report is here: Open The Books Oversight Report - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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