| 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. Read the latest | 
