EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin spent the week in the hot seat on Capitol Hill, defending the White House plan to cut the agency roughly in half while trading barbs with lawmakers. Across a series of hearings, he argued the EPA can still do its job on a stripped-down budget, even as members zeroed in on what would be deep cuts to enforcement, water programs, and climate work, along with a broader internal overhaul. Zeldin’s combative style highlighted how the push to roll back regulations and claw back grant dollars has turned the EPA into ground zero for the next appropriations fight.
Zeldin’s pitch to lawmakers
At a House hearing Monday, Zeldin defended the administration’s fiscal 2027 request of $4.2 billion for the EPA, a drop of about 52 percent from last year’s enacted funding. He insisted the agency could still meet its statutory duties while “doing more with less.” As reported by E&E News, lawmakers from both parties pressed him on how the agency would keep core work going, including drinking-water loans and enforcement, with cuts that steep. The hearing also produced some viral moments, with The Associated Press noting a fiery exchange in which Zeldin told Rep. Rosa DeLauro she was “just somebody who likes to have the microphone on.”
Deregulatory moves and cancelled grants
The budget push is landing alongside a wave of deregulatory moves from Zeldin’s EPA, including a formal proposal to rescind the 2009 greenhouse-gas “endangerment finding” and unwind motor-vehicle emissions standards, steps the agency says will ease regulatory burdens. EPA laid out that rationale in its own announcements this year, according to EPA. Staffing has also thinned under the new administration, with federal head counts dropping to levels not seen in decades, according to InsideEPA. News reports show the agency has terminated and frozen billions of dollars in Biden-era grants, including major awards in Alaska and other states, a shift local recipients say has put projects at risk, as reported by the Anchorage Daily News.
What towns and utilities could lose
Advocates warn the White House request would wipe out most of the federal seed money that feeds state-run drinking-water and wastewater loan programs, leaving states and ratepayers to pick up far more of the tab. An analysis of the budget documents points to proposed cuts to State Revolving Funds and categorical grants that would shrink federal SRF support by billions and limit access to affordable financing for needed upgrades, according to Bergeson & Campbell. City officials and water-system operators say that without that federal backing, many small or rural projects could be stuck on the drawing board for years.
Congress holds the final cards
Only Congress controls the purse strings, and last year lawmakers brushed aside most of the administration’s requested cuts, trimming EPA spending by about 3.5 percent instead of the far deeper rollback the White House wanted, according to The Associated Press. That history signals serious resistance on Capitol Hill, even as many Republicans at this week’s hearings voiced support for the idea of the agency doing more with less.
Legal fallout
Environmental and public-health groups have already gone to court over both the endangerment rollback and the wave of cancelled grants, arguing that the moves ignore statutory and scientific requirements and put communities’ health in harm’s way. Lawsuits and appeals could slow or block key pieces of the agenda even if the rules are finalized, extending uncertainty for utilities, businesses, and regulators, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
What’s next
Zeldin is slated to appear before a Senate appropriations panel later this week, as Capitol Hill starts the formal slog of writing spending bills. That schedule was outlined in coverage by E&E News. In the months ahead, appropriators will hammer out and vote on funding levels, and the final deal will decide whether the White House’s dramatic cuts stick or get scaled back.
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