Former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) will join the second administration of President-elect Donald Trump as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Trump announced on Nov. 11.
“Lee, with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for America First policies,” Trump told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. “He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet. He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”
“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”
The EPA administrator with the longest tenure during Trump’s first term was Andrew Wheeler. He served until President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. The current administrator is Michael Regan, who was appointed by Biden and has been in office since March 2021.
Zeldin’s appointment will need to be approved by the U.S. Senate, which will be controlled by Republicans starting in January 2025, before he becomes administrator.
Zeldin, 44, represented New York’s 1st Congressional District, which includes most of Long Island, in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023. Zeldin opted against running for another term and instead ran for governor of New York in 2022. He won the GOP primary but lost to Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, by about 378,000 votes out of 5.9 million cast, including a majority of the vote outside New York City.
More recently, Zeldin has chaired the China Policy Initiative and Pathway to 2025 at the America First Policy Institute.
Prior to his time in Congress, Zeldin was in the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq. He then served in the state Senate before becoming a congressman.
Zeldin’s votes on climate proposals include, in addition to all other House Republicans, voting against the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included funding for improving the supply of water in western states.
