Environmental Protection Agency boss backs big budget cuts but Congress
will get the final say
[April 30, 2026]
By MICHAEL PHILLIS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats accused the Trump administration of
abandoning the Environmental Protection Agency's mission to protect
human health and the environment at a congressional hearing Wednesday,
slamming agency leadership over a proposal to cut its budget in half.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's appearance before the Senate environment
committee was his last of three budget hearings this week where he
argued for sharply reduced funding for the agency, which already has
seen its staffing reduced to its lowest level in decades under his
leadership. During much of the week, the former Republican congressman
from New York took an aggressive approach, responding to Democrats in
the House and Senate with his own questions and at times accusing them
of being unprepared or failing to care about the EPA’s track record.
Zeldin has eliminated major climate change programs, promoted
deregulatory efforts he calls the biggest in American history and
canceled billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice grants
to halt what he calls “EPA’s radical diversity, equity, and inclusion
programs.”
“This budget proposal captures significant efficiencies and a return
focus on what Congress has directed us to do, demonstrating our
commitment to a leaner, more efficient and accountable EPA" that
directly benefits Americans, Zeldin told senators Wednesday.
The Republican administration’s 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 “radical climate research” and cut resources for enforcement and
compliance. Officials asked for more money for faster project permitting
and to address drinking water disasters.
“Zeldin has executed the fossil fuel industry’s agenda. A massive
reckoning is coming," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
Aggressive responses to Democratic questioning
On budgets, Congress gets the final say and lawmakers commonly depart
from White House requests.
Last year, they rejected most of Trump’s proposed cuts, reducing agency
spending by just 3.5% despite an administration request to cut spending
by more than half. Democrats said the new budget plan shows Zeldin is a
friend to industry and ignores the cancers, asthma and other
consequences of pollution.
“The budget proposal reads like a climate change deniers’ manifesto,”
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 people in the United States
“under the false flag of economic growth?”
The EPA has proposed rescinding a landmark finding that climate change
is dangerous, loosening rules from the Biden administration limiting
pollution from coal plants, and proposing to scrap 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 restricted the EPA’s authority to write aggressive
regulations.
“You do not have the right to say climate change does not exist, that
it’s a hoax,” DeLauro said.
Zeldin said she should know about major Supreme Court decisions. “You’re
just somebody who likes to have the microphone on."
DeLauro said the administration's behavior was “arrogant” and that it
was ”making a mockery of what the agencies are all about.”
Zeldin told Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif., that data he cited on the
agency's rollback of certain coal plant emissions limits was worthless.
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President Donald Trump, left, speaks during an event with
Environmental Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin in the Roosevelt
Room of the White House, Feb. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
 “Have your dog pee on it. It is not
accurate,” Zeldin said.
Harder's office later provided the EPA report from which it said the
numbers came.
Zeldin's vision
Zeldin argued that even with less money, the EPA has continued to
enforce environmental laws. As examples, he cited an agreement with
Mexico to reduce sewage flows into the polluted Tijuana River and
sped up work to address radioactive contamination in the St. Louis
region.
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’s message that the
agency will be able to do more with less.
The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law 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’s proposed budget would cut off most of the agency’s support.
“It was never intended to be a new norm for spending,” said Rep.
Morgan Griffith, R-Va.
But that would choke off money to remove harmful chemicals known as
PFAS, which take decades or more to break down, from drinking water.
The agency’s contention that better technology could do the job for
less was unpersuasive, according to Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass.
“How do we get rid of PFAS in municipal water supplies with 90%
fewer dollars?” he asked.
Zeldin responded that technologies were promising and then mentioned
congressional earmarks. Lawmakers have used them to fund projects in
their districts with money that would otherwise go to states for
loans — a practice many experts have criticized.
“I know that members of Congress are going to raid it, and they have
been doing it for a long time,” Zeldin said.
Auchincloss replied that Zeldin was not in charge of earmarks and
that “hope is not a strategy.”
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 Trump's health
secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, asked Zeldin whether he understood
concerns from those advocates about industry influence at the EPA
and the administration's support of more pesticides.
Zeldin 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.
“I get it, you have an agenda," Zeldin said. “I mean, I understand
you’d like to have a gavel in your hand.”
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
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