Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said House Republican scrutiny of a Biden administration $2 billion grant to a Stacey Abrams-aligned nonprofit was aimed to “keep a strong black woman down.”
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, or the DOGE Subcommittee, held a hearing Wednesday about federal grants to politically connected nonprofits.
In April 2024, the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency announced a $2 billion grant for Power Forward Communities to promote zero-carbon emitting appliances. The organization was established in October 2023 and was part of a coalition led by liberal environmental group Rewiring America, which included Abrams as senior counsel and a senior adviser from 2023 through late last year, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Crockett was upset that an Abrams-aligned nonprofit would be mentioned at the government efficiency hearing, the Free Beacon reported Wednesday.
“To hear the comments about Stacey Abrams really got me going,” Crockett said at the hearing. “A lot of times when we come into this hearing room, it’s all about politics. And it made me think that there was an issue most likely with Stacey because someone actually brought up the fact that Stacey has run for governor a couple of times, and there’s a gubernatorial race that’s coming up in Georgia, and nobody knows whether or not Stacey is going to run.”
Crockett added, “So, why not muddy the waters if we can hopefully keep a strong black woman down? But again, I digress.”
Current EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin terminated the Power Forward Communities grant, among others, after he came into office with the new Trump administration.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., the subcommittee chair, brought up Abrams earlier in the hearing.
“It’s pretty eye-opening that a brand new politically connected group got such a massive federal grant,” Greene said during the hearing. “Rewiring America hired Stacey Abrams, a twice-failed candidate for Georgia governor and well-known Democrat activist, even though she has little to no knowledge of energy policy.”
Ian Magruder, the director of partnerships at Rewiring America, posted on LinkedIn, “Stacey Abrams played a pivotal role,” among others, in securing funding for its projects.