Lee Zeldin, President Donald Trump’s nominee for EPA administrator, cleared a hurdle Thursday on his way toward Senate confirmation.
The Environment and Public Works Committee voted 11-8 to advance Zeldin’s nomination to lead the agency. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a moderate, was the lone Democrat on the panel to support the former New York Republican congressman. He did not explain why.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the committee’s ranking member, had urged his colleagues to vote against Zeldin. He noted the raft of Trump executive orders attacking environmental rules and questioned whether the EPA nominee could stand up to the oil and gas industry.
“There was a time when Republican presidents picked serious, independent people to run the EPA. George W. Bush chose Christie Whitman. Ronald Reagan chose Bill Ruckelshaus,” Whitehouse said.
