WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 The head of the Environmental Protection Agency clashed with Democratic senators Wednesday, accusing one of being an 鈥渁spiring fiction writer鈥 and saying another does not "care about wasting money.'' Democrats countered that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin鈥檚 tenure will likely mean more Americans contracting lung cancer and other illnesses.
The heated exchanges, at a Senate hearing to discuss President Donald Trump's proposal to slash the agency's budget in half, showed the sharp partisan differences over Zeldin's deregulatory approach. Zeldin, a former Republican congressman, has said his tenure will turbocharge the American economy while ensuring clean air and water. Democrats say he is endangering the lives of millions of Americans and abandoning the agency鈥檚 dual mission to protect the environment and human health.
Zeldin, who took office in January, has proposed a flood of changes that would , terminate approved by the Biden administration and including landmark regulations on climate change and pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Sharp words, back and forth
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Zeldin that a plan means that, to Zeldin and Trump, 鈥渕ore than half of the environmental efforts of the EPA ... to make sure Americans have clean air and clean water are just a waste.鈥 If approved by Congress, the budget cuts 鈥渨ill mean there鈥檚 more diesel and more other particulate matter in the air" and that 鈥渨ater that Americans drink is going to have more chemicals,鈥 Schiff said.
鈥淵our legacy will be more lung cancer," he told Zeldin. "It鈥檒l be more bladder cancer. It鈥檒l be more leukemia and pancreatic cancer ... more rare cancers of innumerable varieties.''
Replied Zeldin: 鈥淚 understand that you are an aspiring fiction writer. I see why.鈥
Schiff said the real fiction was Zeldin's apparent belief that he can cut the EPA's budget in half 鈥渁nd it won't affect people's health, or their water or their air." Schiff said the Republican administrator was 鈥渢otally beholden to the oil industry,鈥 adding: "You could give a rat's ass about how much cancer your agency causes."
Zeldin engaged in a similar rhetorical match with Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Whitehouse said Zeldin and others at EPA have made 鈥渂aseless accusations of fraud鈥 about grants awarded under Democratic President Joe Biden, removed 鈥渃areer officials who stood up for the rule of law鈥 and deployed FBI agents "to harass career civil servants.''
Questions over whether Zeldin reviewed canceled grants
Whitehouse also challenged Zeldin's contention that he had personally reviewed 781 Biden-era grants totaling nearly $2 billion that the Trump administration later canceled. The grants were intended to address chronic pollution in minority communities and jump-start clean energy programs across the country, but Zeldin said they were plagued by conflicts of interest and unqualified recipients.
鈥淵ou don't care about wasting money, but the Trump administration does, Senator," Zeldin said.
When Whitehouse pressed to see Zeldin's schedule to prove he personally reviewed the grants before canceling them, Zeldin said he's worked on the issue 鈥渁lmost every single day鈥 since taking office.
"We are cracking down on every waste, every aspect of abuse,'' Zeldin said, adding that Whitehouse seemed unable to grasp that more than one person could review EPA's grant program.
"I am insisting on the facts,'' Whitehouse said.
American taxpayers 鈥減ut President Trump in office because of people like you,鈥 Zeldin replied. 鈥淭hey have Republicans in charge of the House and Senate because of people like you. You don't want me to go through the list of all the evidence of waste and abuse."
Whitehouse replied that Zeldin should explain why Justice Department lawyers, speaking under oath on behalf of the agency, have 鈥渟aid that everything you just said is not true. That's what I want.鈥
A lawyer for the EPA told a federal appeals court this week that the agency was 鈥渘ot accusing anyone of fraud鈥 in a separate dispute over its termination of $20 billion in grants under a so-called program to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects nationwide.
