Biden spending challenged

 NY Post:

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick voids ‘illegal’ $7.4B payment to Biden ally-staffed nonprofit for semiconductor research

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“Rather than establishing these operations within the Department, however, Biden Administration officials spent significant time, effort, and resources creating an unaccountable, outside entity–Natcast–to administer taxpayer funds,” Lutnick wrote Natcast CEO Deirdre Hanford.

Four days before Biden left office on Jan. 20, Lutnick noted, the Commerce Department agreed to set aside $7.4 billion in “advance payments” to Natcast after spending nearly two years setting it up and tapping administration officials, advisers and allies to fill out positions.

That arrangement both effectively removed the incoming Trump administration from being involved in the process and provided “virtually all” of Natcast’s funding — prompting incoming Departments of Justice and Commerce officials to take another look at the Sunnyvale, Calif., nonprofit.
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“These actions do not just give the appearance of impropriety; they flout federal law,” Lutnick told Hanford, pointing out that no provisions in the CHIPS Act authorized an outside entity like Natcast to distribute semiconductor research funds.

“The GCCA [Government Corporation Control Act] plainly prohibits agencies from establishing a corporation to act as an agency without specific authorization, and the January 16, 2025, agreement does nothing other than set forth the terms of the Biden Administration’s attempt to do just that.”
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Lutnick’s revocation of the funding comes after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin revealed appointees of the 46th president were “rushing to get billions of dollars out the door before Inauguration Day” to lefty nongovernmental organizations.

Trump’s EPA chief recently told The Post’s Miranda Devine on her “Pod Force One” podcast that he uncovered $20 billion “parked at an outside financial institution,” later revealed to be Citibank, that was meant to be sent “through eight pass-through entities … riddled with self-dealing and conflicts of interest.”
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 This does not look like a good use of taxpayer funds. It gives the impression that the Biden team was trying to fund friends on it way out of office.