Senator Sheldon Whitehaus (Dr.I.) and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Lee Zeldin entered a calling match to cancel the agency during the Senate hearing on Wednesday.
Whitehouse was questioning Zeldin about whether the EPA conducted individual examinations of grants she canceled amid a reduction in the reduction of funding in the government with President Trump.
The Democrat of Rod Island stated that the testimony of agency officials and statements made in court by government attorneys contradicts the administration’s comments about the depth of the examinations.
Moreover, he indicated a court document in which the official Travis Voylis said: “On February 25, 2025, I conducted an individualized review of EPA grant programs,” as well as Zeldin’s own comments that the administrator himself had a grant review.
Whitehaus also said that “May 16, doj [Justice Department] Career lawyers … filed an application to the Federal Court, in which they admitted that you did not make individualized, grants to grant. “
“The problem with your statement here today is that it is justified by the statements of your own court staff and the decision of the Ministry of Justice to admit that what you say is not true,” Whitehouse told Zeldin.
“No, you don’t understand the fact that we will have many employees who look at these grants. This concept just avoids you,” Zeldin fired back.
After back and forth, Zeldin said, “We will not lose dollars just because you insist that you light the dollars of EPA taxpayers.”
“US taxpayers, they put President Trump to their post for people like you. They have Republicans who are responsible for the House and the Senate for people like you because you don’t care 99 percent of this story,” he continued.
In response, Whitehouse said that what he actually wanted was Zeldin to explain why the lawyers of the Ministry of Justice, representing EPA in court, under the duty of honesty, said that everything you had just said was not true. “
Zeldin also went into a tense exchange with Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) With regard to the renewal of the agency’s environment and a specific grant.
Schiff Opened His Remarks by Rattling Off RollBacks at the Trump Epa and Saying “IF you’re Successful in Eliminating Half of Our Efforts to Clean Lore Lep Bladder Cancer, It’ll Be More Head and Neck Cancer, It’ll Be More Breast Cancer, It’ll Be More Leukemia and Pancreatic Cancer, More Liver Cixer, More Skin Cancere, More Kidney -Colorectal cancer, more cancers of countless varieties.
He also asked about a particular grant related to the prevention of lead poisoning in children in Santa Anna, California.
Since he seems to be reviewing a list of this particular grant, Zeldin said, “With this habit, by the way, I understand that you are an ambitious fiction writer. I see why.”
“I understand your opinion that you can cut half of the agency and this will not affect people’s health or their water, their air. This is a great fiction for me.
“If your children were drinking water in Santa Anna, Mr. Zeldin, you might not be so cavalry about whether there was lead in their water,” he continued. “You could give a rat’s ass for how much cancer your agency causes.”
Lead exposure can cause brain damage to children.
The agency has also stated that it plans to Loosen restrictions on various pollutantsIncluding some that cause cancer.
-Thni at 15:42 EDT
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