EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin torched Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) over grant cancellations during a heated exchange in a Senate hearing.
The Environmental Protection Agency chief sparred with Democrats in testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday, defending the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the agency’s budget. The funding cuts and whether or not grants had been thoroughly reviewed became a point of contention as Whitehouse was schooled by the former Republican congressman.
Syndicated radio host Bo Snerdley gave Zeldin a “standing ovation” for calling out the senator’s “totally red herring arguments.”
Standing Ovation for Lee Zeldin – who calls out Senator Whitehouse (with his segregated private club track record) for his totally red herring arguments. https://t.co/gOhpaIuvgy
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) May 21, 2025
The two shouted over each other after the Democrat pointed to an EPA official’s statement in a lawsuit about reviewing grant programs, adding that “On May 16, DOJ [Justice Department] career lawyers … filed a pleading in federal court that conceded that you had not done individualized, grant-by-grant reviews.”
“The problem with your assertion here today is that it is belied by your own employees’ sworn statements in court and by the decision of the Department of Justice to admit that what you say isn’t true,” Whitehouse said.
“No, you’re not grasping the fact that we would have multiple employees looking at these grants. That concept just escapes you,” Zeldin responded.
“We’re not going to waste dollars just because you insist on EPA lighting taxpayer dollars on fire,” he continued. “The American taxpayers, they put President Trump in office because of people like you. They have Republicans in charge of the House and Senate because of people like you, because you don’t care about 99 percent of this story.”
Whitehouse tried demanding that Zeldin “explain why the Department of Justice lawyers representing EPA in court, under a duty of candor, have said that everything you’ve just said isn’t true.”
After the mawmaker’s time expired, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) commented, “All right, well, we seem to have a little bit of a disagreement,” adding that the two should “work on this in the future.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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