Trump Selects New York’s Lee Zeldin to Lead EPA
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday selected former Rep. Lee Zeldin to be the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency, making him the second New Yorker slated to join the Trump cabinet.
Earlier on Monday, the Trump transition team confirmed that the president-elect had picked another New Yorker, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations.
“I am pleased to announce that the highly respected former congressman from New York, Lee Zeldin, will be appointed to serve as the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” Trump said in a statement posted to his social media platform Truth Social Monday afternoon.
“Lee, with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for America First policies,” Trump added.
The president-elect went on to say that Zeldin, who left Congress in 2022 to challenge New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul for her seat, would ensure “fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.”
Despite what promises to be a dramatic retooling of U.S. environmental and climate policy, Trump said Zeldin would carry it out while “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,” Trump said.
In something of a personal aside, the president-elect added: “I have known Lee Zeldin for a long time, and have watched him handle, brilliantly, some extremely difficult and complex situations.
“I am very proud to have him in the Trump administration, where he will quickly prove to be a great contributor,” he said.
In a post on X, Zeldin responded by saying he is honored to join the president’s cabinet as EPA administrator.
“We will restore U.S. energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the U.S. the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he said.
Zeldin served in Congress between 2015 and 2023. During that time he represented New York’s 1st Congressional District, which included about two-thirds of Suffolk County, including most of Smithtown, all of Brookhaven, Riverhead, Southold, Southampton, East Hampton, Shelter Island, and a small part of Islip.
While in the House, Zeldin served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance.
He was also a member of the Bipartisan Heroin and Opioids Task Force, Congressional Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus, Congressional Estuary Caucus, Conservative Climate Caucus, Climate Solutions Caucus, House Republican Israel Caucus, Long Island Sound Caucus, and the Republican Main Street Partnership.
During Trump’s first term, Zeldin was a staunch ally to the future president, aggressively defending him during the president’s first impeachment hearing over Ukraine.
Zeldin was also among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.
From 2011 to 2014, Zeldin served as a member of the New York state Senate from the 3rd Senate district.
The announcement came just hours after Trump selected longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration.
In a post on X, Vice President-elect JD Vance celebrated Miller’s selection, by calling it another “fantastic pick by the president.”
Miller has ties that go all the way back to Trump’s first run for the White House. He later served as a senior advisor to the president and played a central role shaping Trump’s policies on immigration.
Miller has also been a prolific writer for the president, authoring some of Trump’s most hard-line speeches.
More recently, Miller has been serving as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisors that has filed several conservatively based legal challenges to Biden administration actions and the media.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
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