WATCH: Biden official not worried about inflation, says children won't 'have a life if we don't deal with climate change'

Biden's Commerce Secretary was grilled about how allocating billions to fight climate change will help struggling Americans. Inflation is wreaking havoc on the lives of Americans across the nation, as the price of everything continues to go up.

Despite this, the Biden administration continues to pour massive amounts of money into programs that are not expected to do much to ease the burden on citizens.

On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo answered questions from Congress about the budget for Fiscal Year 2023.

Among those who grilled Raimondo about the budget's contents was Virginia congressman Ben Cline.

"I'm interested in some of the allocations within your budget when inflation is so critical at this point," he began, citing the $7 billion in funding allocated to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"Roughly 59 percent of the entire budget requested is dealing with climate change while Americans are struggling and seeing their paychecks shrink," Cline continued.

"A 24 percent increase over FY21 levels for NOAA doesn't really help families put food on the table or clothes on the back at a time when inflation is at a forty-year high. Can you talk about how this massive allocation of funds helps to combat inflation, or deal with supply chain issues that you say are so important?"

"Look, we believe climate change is an existential threat," Raimondo replied, "so, you know, children won't–forget about clothes on their back, they're not gonna be able to have a life if we don't deal with climate change."

"My constituents can't forget about the need to put clothes on their kids' backs right now," Rep. Cline said, and climate change, as you say, being an existential threat, is not going to solve the problem of making sure that kids are clothed and fed and off to school."

"Inflation is real," Raimondo continued, "I am not diminishing that, but these are job-creating investments, not consumption."

Raimondo previously said that "equity" was the most important concern.

Rep. Cline then cited the fact that in the budget, climate change is mentioned twice as much as supply chain challenges. He called out the Biden administration for proposing a "rapid energy transition" that will leave the US largely dependent on China and other such nations in the pursuit of climate change goals."