Congress

Senate confirms Zeldin to head EPA

Published

1 year ago

January 29, 2025

Lee Zeldin, the former Republican congressmember who leveraged his full-throated defense of President Donald Trump into a position in his inner circle and ultimately his Cabinet, was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday to be the 17th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency by a 56-42 vote.

Zeldin has a mandate from Trump to carry out an aggressive deregulatory agenda aimed at boosting domestic energy production and bolstering the increasingly power-hungry data center and artificial intelligence sectors.

“We must ensure we are protecting the environment while also protecting our economy,” Zeldin said at his Jan. 16 confirmation hearing.

But he arrives at a moment when lawmakers and state officials on both sides of the aisle are panicked over potential cuts to popular EPA funding programs following the Trump administration’s Monday night memo to freeze federal grant and loan spending. Among the programs the Office of Management and Budget wants reviewed are EPA’s water infrastructure revolving funds, watershed cleanup programs that Zeldin strongly supported while in Congress, and Superfund and brownfields programs.

The Trump administration rescinded the freeze memo on Wednesday afternoon, though uncertainty about federal spending still swirls around Washington.

Republicans said Zeldin will pull back Biden-era policies they opposed and refocus the agency.

“As head of the EPA, Lee will return the agency to its original mission of protecting America’s air, water, and land — without, as he puts it, ‘suffocating the economy,’” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on the floor.

Pro-biofuels Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), specifically praised Zeldin’s commitments to issue biofuels blending rules on time and expand sales of the E15 blend of ethanol year round.

Three Democrats joined all Republicans in supporting Zeldin: Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego of Arizona and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

Kelly, who previously supported Zeldin in committee, said in a brief interview on Wednesday that he was persuaded by Zeldin’s vows to uphold the law and spend appropriated money.

But most Democrats ultimately opposed Zeldin.

“I think, clearly, everybody likes clean air and clean water. My opposition to Lee Zeldin is founded on where he’s likely to be on a different issue: climate change,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top EPW Democrat, said on the floor on Wednesday.

He pointed to harm occurring now from disasters like the California wildfires and “the home insurance meltdown” in coastal areas, phenomena many scientists say have broadly been exacerbated by climate change. Whitehouse also cited Zeldin’s connections to fossil fuel interests.

“In that context, I have nothing against Lee Zeldin personally, but the likelihood of him standing against that fossil fuel bulldozer that is coming at him is essentially zero,” Whitehouse said.

Appearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this month, Zeldin positioned himself as a moderate, acknowledging the science underlying climate change and agreeing to provide aid and support to wildfire-ravaged California, a top target of Trump’s.

But he arrives at the agency with an ambitious to-do list ranging from deregulation and clawing back spending opposed by Republicans to broader administration goals such as ferreting out gender- and equity-oriented programs and workers.

“I commit to fully following the law,” Zeldin said in response to questions about spending appropriated funds and regulating pollutants, including greenhouse gases.

Zeldin also has some presidentially assigned tasks with looming deadlines.

An order signed on Trump’s first day in office directs EPA to report by Feb. 19 “on the legality and continuing applicability” of the 2009 endangerment finding for greenhouse gases. Undoing that finding would undermine the legal footing of many key EPA climate regulations. But the strong scientific case for how greenhouse gases cause climate change and the increasing certainty about its future effects could make defending such a decision in court extremely difficult.

Zeldin also has until March 21 to issue guidance pulling back on the social cost of carbon, the metric used to estimate the future benefits of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Trump’s order directed EPA to consider eliminating the social cost altogether, a step beyond Trump’s first term when his administration greatly reduced its value but still used it to study rulemakings.

Several of Zeldin’s longtime aides have already landed at the agency.

Eric Amidon, Zeldin’s chief of staff on Blue Light News and later his gubernatorial campaign manager, is serving as his chief of staff once again. His spokesperson Daniel Gall has landed in the public affairs office, while his former legislative assistant Jaide Barja works on congressional relations.

Trump has already announced plans to nominate David Fotouhi to be Zeldin’s deputy administrator. Currently a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Fotouhi served in the Office of General Counsel during Trump’s first term, eventually rising to be EPA’s acting general counsel.

Trump is also expected to nominate Aaron Szabo, another attorney and veteran of the first Trump administration, to run EPA’s air office. That nomination has not yet been announced.

Zeldin is the seventh member of Trump’s Cabinet to be confirmed this term, with Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary nominee Chris Wright lined up for votes in the coming days.

Annie Snider and Josh Siegel contributed to this report.

Congress

Todd Blanche is trying to charm his way to confirmation

Published

4 minutes ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Todd Blanche is mounting a charm offensive with Republican senators as his nomination as attorney general inches forward. So far, he seems to be saying the right things.

The scheduling of a confirmation hearing next month and positive early reviews from GOP swing votes are raising expectations that the acting Justice Department head and former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump could be permanently installed later this year.

In his meetings Tuesday with Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, as well as key senators off the panel, Blanche sought to assuage lingering concerns about the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” the department recently proposed as it settled a Trump lawsuit against the IRS.

The fund, which could have funnelled up to $1.8 billion in payouts to Trump political allies, was withdrawn after a bipartisan outcry on Capitol Hill, and Blanche assured senators during the closed-door sitdowns that it’s gone for good.

“We had an extensive discussion on the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which he has assured me with no equivocation at all that he is not for it, will not pursue it, that it will not exist,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters, calling it a “very good meeting.”

Blanche’s private assurances come ahead of his scheduled July 15 appearance before the Judiciary Committee, where he is certain to be grilled on the fund and his handling of other matters involving Trump. With Democrats on the panel unlikely to support Blanche’s confirmation, he will need to win over all 12 panel Republicans in order to advance to a floor vote, which could take place as soon as the first week of August.

The payout fund is a major issue Blanche will have to address, but it will not be the only one. The IRS settlement also included a provision indemnifying the president and his family against future tax audits, which has raised hackles with at least one Senate Republican.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said Blanche had committed to giving him a “further briefing on the tax audit issue involving President Trump and his family.” He otherwise said the two had a “positive” meeting.

More generally, Blanche has faced criticism over his close personal ties to Trump, having represented the president in various criminal cases across the country. He was on Trump’s legal team for both federal prosecutions out of former special counsel Jack Smith’s office and for the Stormy Daniels hush money case brought by local prosecutors in Manhattan.

That background has fueled the perception that Blanche has been unduly loyal to Trump in his stewardship of the Justice Department, and some Senate Republicans have indicated that they want to push Blanche on whether he understands the difference between being attorney general and being Trump’s personal lawyer.

But the mere fact that Blanche once represented Trump in a personal capacity is unlikely to derail his chances for confirmation. Every Republican present confirmed Blanche to be deputy attorney general last year knowing that history.

His actions since joining the Justice Department have garnered more scrutiny, however — especially the IRS settlement. He publicly defended the $1.8 billion fund before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee last month in the face of deep skepticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, including Collins.

Two days later, Blanche faced a brutal reception during a closed-door lunch where dozens of Republican senators grilled him over the fund. The controversy threatened to derail a GOP immigration enforcement bill, and it ultimately delayed its passage for more than a week.

Blanche subsequently helped break the stalemate when he told House appropriators that the administration would not move forward with the fund. Those remarks helped publicly assure Senate Republicans, who had been underwhelmed by his appearance at the Senate GOP lunch.

Some senators indicated he still has more assuring to do.

“I like Todd … but I think he’s going to have a rigorous confirmation,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), another Judiciary member. “I think he’ll ultimately be confirmed, but I’ve got some hard questions for him.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been careful not to guarantee Blanche will be confirmed, noting he first has to get out of the Judiciary Committee where multiple GOP senators are keeping things close to the vest.

“If he can get a strong vote coming out of the Judiciary Committee, then my expectation is, we would be able to process him on the floor,” Thune told reporters this week. “You’ve got a couple people on that committee that he’ll have to convince, but I know that he’s prepared to do that.”

A critical Republican on the panel — retiring Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — will meet with Blanche next week.

Tillis has previously tanked Trump nominees over concerns relating to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including Ed Martin’s nomination to be U.S. attorney in D.C. But the senator gave no initial indications this week of disqualifying marks in Blanche’s background regarding the insurrection and its aftermath.

“I haven’t seen anything that, you know, from a Jan. 6 perspective would be a problem,” Tillis said Tuesday. “So now we’re just going through all the other vetting.”

Pressed on the payout fund, he added: “It will be an issue if the weaponization fund isn’t effectively dead by the confirmation hearing because I’ve got a real problem with it being out there.”

With a month to go until Blanche’s hearing and at least another week before he gets a committee vote, further Justice Department activity involving Trump adversaries could continue to weigh on his nomination. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s disclosure this week that he and his wife are under federal investigation have newly fanned concerns that Blanche is pursuing a retribution campaign at Trump’s behest.

Tillis said he expects to question Blanche at the hearing on the apparent targeting of Trump’s political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, who is under indictment in North Carolina for allegedly threatening Trump.

“I want to hear about what the details behind that Comey investigation are,” he said. “Because look, I know that the Biden administration was guilty of weaponization. I don’t believe the proper response is a mirror image.”

Blanche is also certain to face tough questioning next month on another matter: his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi told Congress last month that Blanche oversaw the process of releasing Justice Department files concerning Epstein, the late convicted sex offender. The botched redaction process, which in some cases led to release of private material related to Epstein’s victims or the withholding of information about people who were not victims, has been the subject of bipartisan scrutiny.

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has requested Blanche speak with his committee next month about the files’ release, which could put him in lawmakers’ crosshairs just weeks or days before a potential confirmation vote.

Congress

Senate, House reach deal on housing bill, Senate to start votes Tuesday

Published

2 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday the chamber will move forward with its first procedural vote on updated bipartisan housing affordability legislation. The movement comes after the leaders of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees announced bicameral agreement on the long-awaited bill.

The text of the revised 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was released Tuesday and contains most of the House-passed housing language, including the House’s version of a provision to restrict large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. Six Senate bills stripped from the House-passed package were also added back onto the bill with “meaningful changes” to address House concerns, according to a note the Senate Banking Committee circulated with the bill text that was obtained by Blue Light News.

“This bill is the result of years of work to lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership,” Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott said in a statement.

Scott negotiated the revised language with ranking member Elizabeth Warren and worked with House Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters “to get her to good on the package,” according to the note.

House Financial Services Chair French Hill was able to support the revised bill after an additional change to the bill was made, which would authorize a controversial disaster relief program for only three years instead of the Senate-proposed seven-year sunset, according to two people familiar with the legislative negotiations.

“I appreciate the Senate including a three-year sunset on the CDBG-DR program and adopting key House priorities including nine community banking bills and the House’s language limiting institutional investors from outcompeting American families in the housing market,” Hill said in a statement.

Lawmakers from both parties view the legislation, which aims to increase homeownership and boost housing supply, as an answer to cost-of-living concerns that have dominated the midterm elections season. Despite bipartisan agreement on respective sides of the Capitol, the two chambers have gone back and forth for months, with the House voting on two different versions of the housing affordability legislation, and the Senate now preparing for a second round of votes on the bill.

Thune said Monday he was hopeful the bill could be passed this week.

Both chambers overwhelmingly passed their own versions of housing legislation — the Senate 89-10 in March, and the House 396-13 in May. The White House supported the Senate-passed bill and then backed the House-passed bill after it retained most of the Senate’s language on reining in private equity and other large Wall Street investors in the housing market — a top priority for President Donald Trump.

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate thwarts move to limit Iran war as Trump pushes peace deal

Published

2 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans on Tuesday knocked down another Democratic-led attempt to force an end to the Iran war despite the defection of four GOP members.

The 47-48 vote on the war powers resolution came as President Donald Trump has insisted a peace agreement with Tehran is all but signed.

Ahead of the vote, Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch (R-Idaho) slammed Democrats for forcing the vote as Trump attempted to clinch a peace plan. The unlikely passage of the war powers limits, he argued, would upend those efforts.

“If that miracle happened, do you think Iran would sign the deal that has been negotiated? Of course not,” Risch said.

Tuesday’s action came nearly a month after the chamber advanced a similar war powers measure which called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Middle East, and two weeks after the House voted to limitTrump’s military authorities in Iran.

But absences in the Senate doomed hopes of a third rebuke for the president. Five senators — two Republicans and three Democrats — missed the vote.

GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky broke ranks to support the legislation. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat opposed.

The political fault lines in the Senate remained largely unchanged from May. The White House’s announcement of a long-term deal on Sunday failed to sway lawmakers’ opinions on the matter.

Still, many GOP lawmakers have signaled they still have plenty of questions about the “memorandum of understanding” between the two countries, and whether it ultimately could end up with an agreement similar to the nuclear pact the Obama administration struck with Iran. Trump withdrew from that agreement in his first term.

As with the Obama-era plan, many GOP lawmakers are adamant that any deal touching on Iran’s nuclear program be subject to a vote by Congress. A chief concern for many defense hawks is whether Iran would be permitted to enrich uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.

GOP leaders have dismissed the war power votes as performative and aimed at embarrassing Trump. They also said the move is unnecessary given the impending peace plan, set to be signed Friday.

The White House condemned the resolution ahead of Tuesday’s vote and threatened to veto the measure.

“The joint resolution attempts to legislate away essential Article II authority and could create immediate, material risks to U.S. forces, allies and missions,” administration officials said in a statement obtained by Blue Light News.

“In addition, the broad scope of the resolution risks creating uncertainty and operational paralysis in a crisis, while emboldening the Iranian regime and undermining the United States’ ability to speak with one voice in the midst of sensitive international negotiations,” the White House argued.

But Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who has been a leader on the resolutions, said Tuesday that news of a ceasefire extension or more permanent deal highlight the importance of Congress reasserting its role in war declarations.

“The way to get us in the mix on both continuing the war and considering if a [peace] deal is sufficient enough is to vote for a war powers resolution,” he said.

About 50,000 U.S. military personnel engaged in Middle East operations related to the war, which has been in a ceasefire since April 8. Trump over the weekend announced that U.S. and Iranian negotiators had reached a new peace deal, but details of that plan have yet to be released to Congress or the public.

Felicia Schwartz contributed to this report.