Environment

EPA Chief Defends 52% Budget Cut Before Congress

Is this a long-overdue correction or a dangerous handoff to polluters?

Published 2 hours ago

EPA Chief Defends 52% Budget Cut Before Congress

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Above: U.S. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin on April 28, 2026. Image credit: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Spin

Republican narrative

Climate alarmists have been making doomsday predictions for decades that never pan out, and defunding bloated green programs is long overdue. Zeldin defended the budget cuts well and exposed just how unprepared lawmakers like DeLauro are when it comes to understanding the agency's actual legal authority.

Boston Herald

Lee Zeldin on X

Democratic narrative

Zeldin has turned the EPA into a tool for polluters, packing it with former industry lobbyists and gutting rules that protect Americans from arsenic, mercury and toxic soot. Slashing the EPA budget by 52% isn't fiscal responsibility — it's a handoff of public health to fossil fuel interests. Congress will do what it can to stop him.

The New Yorker

Sheldon Whitehouse on X