GOP lawmakers demand answers from John Kerry over ‘effectively outsourcing’ US policy-making
- September 30, 2022
McCaul said they ‘need to know the extent to which’ Kerry is ‘farming his work out to progressive environmentalists,’ which could violate federal law
Houston Keene and Thomas Catenacci, Fox News
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a letter to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry over reports his office is “effectively outsourcing” American foreign policymaking to left-wing environmental groups.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Michael McCaul, R-Texas, led the letter with the GOP members of his committee following Fox News Digital reports that green groups were consulted and given a key role in crafting U.S. foreign policy. The reports, based on internal State Department emails, showed outside non-governmental organizations acting as an apparent middleman in key global climate policy talks.
“We need to know the extent to which Special Envoy John Kerry is farming his work out to progressive environmentalists, which could be a violation of federal law,” McCaul told Fox News Digital in a statement Friday.
Emails obtained by Fox News Digital via government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) showed that staffers and advisers in Kerry’s office actively sought the advice of prominent groups like the Sierra Club and the United Nations Foundation. His office also scheduled Zoom briefings with such organizations.
“For an administration claiming to be guided by the science, there are more than a few indications that the input of their political allies may be a bigger driver of policy,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain told Fox News Digital at the time. “Little wonder that the American public’s trust in its government is in free fall.”