At a Senate Environment Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sec. Lee Zeldin fired back at Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) during tense questioning.
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00:00The gentleman from California, Mr. Schiff, is recognized.
00:04Thank you, Madam Chair.
00:05Master Zeldin, you've only been at the EPA for a few months,
00:10but in that time, you've done more to dismantle this agency
00:13than probably all of your predecessors put together.
00:17That may be a source of pride for you, but it is not for the American people.
00:21You've unlawfully terminated grants without justification.
00:24You've fired and pushed out some of the best scientists who inform EPA's decision-making.
00:31You refuse to spend money that Congress has appropriated to the EPA by law.
00:36And you've launched a pro-polluter effort to delete dozens of environmental protections.
00:42On top of all this, you've launched an effort to overturn California's Clean Air Act waivers
00:49that improve the quality of air breathed by 40 million Californians
00:53and by millions more in other states who adopted California's high standards.
00:58That effort, for which my colleagues have decided to eliminate the filibuster to achieve,
01:04is not exactly what anyone would call cooperative federalism.
01:09But it's your budget that's the ultimate proof of your priorities.
01:13You propose cutting America's environmental agency by 55%.
01:19Meaning that, in your view, and that of President Trump,
01:26more than half of the environmental efforts of the EPA,
01:30more than half of the efforts to make sure Americans have clean air and clean water,
01:34are just a waste.
01:36They're just a waste.
01:37Meaning that Californians and people all over the country,
01:43when they breathe the air, thanks to your good work,
01:50it'll mean there's more diesel and more other particulate matter in the air.
01:53When they drink a glass of water, they may not be able to see it,
01:58but this water that Americans drink is going to have more chemicals like PFAS,
02:04forever chemicals in their water.
02:07This will be your good work.
02:11I want to be very specific about the legacy you're going to leave if you're successful
02:15in eliminating half of our efforts to clean our water and our air.
02:20Your legacy will be more lung cancer.
02:23It'll be more bladder cancer.
02:26It'll be more head and neck cancer.
02:28It'll be more breast cancer.
02:30It'll be more leukemia and pancreatic cancer,
02:33more liver cancer, more skin cancer,
02:36more kidney cancer, more testicular cancer,
02:39more colorectal cancer,
02:41more rare cancers of innumerable varieties.
02:46That will be your legacy.
02:53I don't know that that's a legacy that anyone should want to have.
02:57My kids are going to be breathing that air just like yours.
03:01My family's going to be drinking the water just like yours.
03:05We may not be able to pinpoint just who gets cancer
03:08because you've done away with half the budget of those looking out
03:12for our clean water and clean air.
03:15But it's going to be somebody's kids.
03:16It's going to be somebody's family.
03:17To put this in more specific terms,
03:22there are 22 grants frozen by the EPA
03:27focused on improving health and reducing pollution,
03:30many of which directly impact children.
03:33For example, one project in Santa Ana, California,
03:35provided funding to help detect and prevent lead poisoning in children.
03:40According to the census,
03:41about 10% of the population in Santa Ana are under the age of 9.
03:45For the population of about 310,000 people,
03:48that means that 31,000 children are at risk of lead poisoning
03:53in Santa Ana without this funding.
03:57What is it about this grant that you and EPA believe
04:01is problematic enough to freeze this funding
04:05and put potentially 31,000 children at risk?
04:10Senator, who is the grant applicant?
04:12This is to the city of Santa Ana.
04:18You have the biggest state,
04:20so I don't have to go through every single list of the grant.
04:23By the way, with that windup, by the way,
04:26I understand that you are an aspiring fiction writer.
04:28I see why.
04:29Oh, yeah.
04:30Well, I understand your view that you can cut half of the agency
04:35and it won't affect people's health or their water or their air.
04:39That, to me, is a big fiction, Mr. Zeldin.
04:43You've forgotten about the fact of cleaning up the LA wildfires.
04:46I have to think, Mr. Zeldin,
04:48I think, Mr. Zeldin,
04:50if your children were drinking water in Santa Ana,
04:57Mr. Zeldin,
04:58maybe you wouldn't be so cavalier
04:59about whether there was lead in their water.
05:02Maybe you would give a damn
05:03instead of coming in here
05:05and suggesting that any grant
05:07that takes lead out of the water
05:10must be waste, fraud, or abuse
05:12because you need the money for a tax cut for rich people
05:18because you're totally beholden to the oil industry.
05:21You could give a rat's ass
05:25about how much cancer your agency causes.
05:29The gentleman's time has expired.