WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� A plan by President Donald Trump’s administration to slash budget by half has been the focus of contentious congressional hearings over the future of an agency that Democrats to protect the environment and public health.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will sit before a Senate committee Wednesday, the last of three budgetary hearings this week, to argue for sharply reduced funding for an agency that has already to its lowest level in decades under his leadership. He took an aggressive approach, responding to Democratic lawmakers with his own questions and at times accusing them of being unprepared or failing to care about the agency鈥檚 track record.
Zeldin has eliminated major climate change programs, he calls the biggest in American history and canceled billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice grants to halt what he calls 鈥淓PA鈥檚 radical diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.鈥�
The Republican administration鈥檚 proposed $4.2 billion EPA budget would sharply reduce support for state environmental programs and state-administered loans for water projects. It also would halt what it calls 鈥渞adical climate research鈥� and slash resources for enforcement and compliance. Officials also asked for more money for faster project permitting and to address drinking water disasters.
Zeldin aggressively responded to questioning from Democrats
Congress gets final say, which commonly departs from White House requests. Last year, lawmakers rejected most of Trump鈥檚 proposed cuts, reducing agency spending by just 3.5% despite an administration request to . Democrats said the budget plan shows that Zeldin is a friend to industry and ignores the cancers, asthma and other consequences of pollution.
鈥淭he budget proposal reads like a climate change deniers鈥� manifesto,鈥� said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. At a hearing Monday, she asked how the EPA can justify abandoning its duty to protect Americans 鈥渦nder the false flag of economic growth?鈥�
The EPA has that climate change is dangerous, loosened Biden-era rules limiting pollution from coal plants and proposed scrapping greenhouse gas emission limits for certain vehicles.
In response to DeLauro, Zeldin asked where the Clean Air Act mentions fighting climate change and whether she had heard of a recent Supreme Court decision that .
鈥淵ou do not have the right to say climate change does not exist, that it鈥檚 a hoax,鈥� DeLauro said.
Zeldin said that he understood she was upset and that she should know about major Supreme Court decisions. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e just somebody who likes to have the microphone on,鈥� he said.
It devolved from there. DeLauro said that the Trump administration’s behavior is 鈥渁rrogant鈥� and that it was 鈥漨aking a mockery of what the agencies are all about.鈥�
Zeldin told California Democratic Rep. Josh Harder that data he cited on the agency’s rollback of certain coal plant emissions limits was worthless 鈥� 鈥淗ave your dog pee on it. It is not accurate.鈥� Harder’s office later provided the EPA report that it said the numbers came from.
Zeldin’s vision for the EPA
Zeldin argued that even with less money, the agency has continued to enforce environmental laws and achieved significant wins: into the heavily polluted Tijuana River and sped-up work to address radioactive contamination in the St. Louis region, as examples.
That work complements strict adherence to the law, a departure from what Zeldin says was the regulatory overreach of President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration that wanted to strangle vital industries such as coal.
Republicans were largely supportive of Zeldin鈥檚 message that, 鈥淣ot only will we be able to fulfill all of our statutory obligations, we will be able to do more with less.鈥�
The 2021 provided tens of billions of dollars for drinking and wastewater loans through programs administered by states. That boost, however, ends this year, and the EPA鈥檚 proposed budget would cut off most of the agency鈥檚 support.
鈥淚t was never intended to be a new norm for spending,鈥� said Virginia Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith.
But that would choke off . The agency鈥檚 contention that better technology could do the job for less was unpersuasive, according to Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts.
鈥淗ow do we get rid of PFAS in municipal water supplies with 90% fewer dollars?鈥� he asked.
Zeldin responded that technologies were promising and then mentioned congressional earmarks, which members have used to fund projects in their districts with money that would otherwise go to states for loans 鈥� a practice many experts have criticized.
鈥淚 know that members of Congress are going to raid it, and they have been doing it for a long time,鈥� said Zeldin, a former New York congressman.
Auchincloss replied that Zeldin wasn鈥檛 in charge of earmarks and that 鈥渉ope is not a strategy.鈥�
Zeldin was also questioned about industry influence on policymaking, with a particular focus on the Make America Healthy Again movement, which has attacked environmental harms from products like fertilizer. The movement’s biggest champion is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Maine Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree asked Zeldin whether he understood and the Trump administration’s support of more pesticides.
He called much of the lengthy question inaccurate and then mentioned plans to look at microplastics as a potential contaminant in drinking water and an upcoming review of the high-profile herbicide glyphosate.
鈥淚 get it, you have an agenda,” Zeldin said. 鈥淚 mean, I understand you鈥檇 like to have a gavel in your hand.鈥�
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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
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