Whitehouse, Van Hollen Lead 30 Colleagues in Demanding EPA Obey the Law and Restore Solar for All, Other Green Bank Program Funding

Lawmakers warn Trump Administration is violating the law by terminating $27 billion in congressionally obligated funding for affordable clean energy

Washington, DC—Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) led 30 of their Senate colleagues in demanding Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin obey the law and restore all previously obligated funding for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), which includes Solar for All, the National Clean Investment Fund, and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator.

Despite the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s (OBBBA) unambiguous terms on “unobligated balances,” Administrator Zeldin has falsely claimed that rescissions also apply to obligated funding and has recently used that to justify illegally terminating $7 billion in previously obligated Solar for All investments.  Under the Solar for All program, states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations in all 50 states have already been obligated $7 billion for initiatives that lower household energy bills by expanding access to affordable solar energy.  Across the country, energy officials are raising the alarm that the loss of Solar for All funding could undermine grid resilience, cost jobs, and increase household energy costs.

“When the proposed repeal and rescission of unobligated GGRF funds was initially proposed in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, CBO scored the provision as saving $19 million, the remaining appropriated funding for EPA administration and oversight of the program,” wrote the Senators. “If the OBBBA had somehow clawed back GGRF money that the federal government had already obligated, that estimate would have been as much as $27 billion: $7 billion for Solar for All, $11.97 billion for the NCIF, and $8 billion for the CCIA.  CBO confirmed, further, that repeal of the program language did not create any additional savings.  The rescission and repeal together only saved $19 million.”

Even Republicans have made clear that already obligated funding is not subject to rescission in the OBBBA.  During the markup of the Energy and Commerce Committee title for the House version of the bill, then-Chair of the Environment Subcommittee Morgan Griffith (VA-09) stated, “I just want to point out that these provisions that we are talking about only apply as far, as this bill is concerned, to the unobligated balances.  So if a grant was already given, as far as this bill is concerned, then that would still be going forward …. If the grant has already been granted and the money is obligated, then this—then our language does not affect that… [W]e can’t rescind expenditures that have already been obligated.”

Mandy Gunasekara, EPA Chief of Staff in the first Trump administration and author of the EPA chapter in Project 2025, told a reporter that, “Once money is out the door, I don’t know of a way you can claw it back.”

“Despite [EPA’s] baseless attacks, the bottom line is that neither CBO nor Republicans understood the repeal and rescission of the GGRF to save anything more than EPA’s unspent oversight dollars. Wishful statutory interpretation on the part of EPA does not enable EPA to cancel lawfully obligated grants,” concluded the lawmakers.

In addition to Senators Whitehouse and Van Hollen, the letter was signed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Mark Warner (D-VA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Whitehouse previously condemned the Trump Administration’s illegal termination of the Solar for All program and its illegal attempts to use the OBBBA as justification for clawing back already obligated funds.  He has also led colleagues in demanding answers from Administrator Zeldin about the agency’s lawless crusade to terminate GGRF, including a previous freeze on Solar for All funding.  Tellingly, the lawmakers have received no substantive responses to those inquiries.  Administrator Zeldin gaslit the American public, fabricating claims of fraud in those programs without producing any evidence, and he lacks the legal authority to terminate agreements with GGRF grantees in all three programs absent a clear record of waste, fraud, or abuse—something multiple courts have said he has failed to provide.  Litigation against the Trump Administration for freezing and attempting to terminate legally obligated GGRF grants remains ongoing.

The full letter is available here.