Zeldin Clashes With DeLauro Over EPA
A House hearing on the EPA budget turned into a loud, ugly exchange on Monday when Administrator Lee Zeldin pushed back against Rep. Rosa DeLauro over climate policy and the agency’s legal authority. The fight came down to one basic question: how far can the EPA go when Congress has not clearly given it that power?
Zeldin was on Capitol Hill to testify about President Trump’s 2027 budget request, which would cut the EPA’s budget sharply if Congress approves it. DeLauro came out swinging, accusing him of ignoring Americans and making excuses for polluters. Zeldin answered with a simple point: he said he was following the law, not freelancing from the agency chair.
He pointed to Section 202 of the Clean Air Act and argued that it does not give the EPA a blank check to run the country’s climate agenda. That quickly turned the exchange from a budget hearing into a full-blown showdown.
🚨 LMFAO! Purple haired psycho Rep. Rosa DeLauro goes BERSERK on EPA Admin Lee Zeldin because he’s not a climate change cultist
She starts becoming VISIBLY DISTURBED and says:
“You do NOT have the right to say climate change is a hoax!” 😭
She’s batsht. pic.twitter.com/zty9gOWpIv
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 27, 2026
Zeldin then asked DeLauro if she was familiar with the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. That decision ended the old Chevron doctrine, which had given federal agencies broad leeway when laws were vague. The Court made clear that agencies do not get to invent authority just because they want a different result.
He also brought up West Virginia v. EPA, the 2022 case that limited the agency’s ability to force major changes on existing power plants under the Clean Air Act. That ruling mattered because it drew a hard line: if Congress did not authorize the EPA to do something major, the agency cannot just decide to do it anyway.
DeLauro did not handle the pushback well. “You do not, excuse, you don’t have the right to say climate change does not exist, that it’s a hoax!” she yelled at Zeldin. Later, after the shouting kept going, she snapped, “I don’t have to listen to this BS!”
Zeldin fired back that he had done his homework and that DeLauro was upset because she did not know the cases or the law he was citing. That was the real fight under all the noise. Not slogans. Not theater. Authority.
If Congress wants the EPA to do more, it has to write the law clearly. If it does not, the agency does not get to make up the rules on the fly. That is the bigger issue here, and it is exactly why these Supreme Court rulings matter. Agencies are supposed to enforce the law, not rewrite it from a hearing room while members scream over each other.