Today we bring you the next in our series on current and former members of Congress nominated to a cabinet post by President-elect Trump. This story was original ly published by Govtrack.us
The Senate will vote on Trump’s nominees once they are formally nominated after he takes office, but senators have already begun meeting with the expected nominees. They may also hold hearings ahead of Trump’s inauguration, to expedite the confirmation process.
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY1) is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to replace Michael Regan as EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) administrator. The position requires confirmation by the Senate.
Zeldin served in the House from 2015 to 2023, when he declined to run for reelection to focus on his Republican nomination for New York governor, which he lost in an election that was much closer than expected.
Both Republicans and Democrats alike describe Zeldin’s expected nomination as about rolling back environmental protections to support big business.
Bills introduced
During his eight years in Congress, he was lead sponsor of 84 bills. By GovTrack’s count, by far his most common primary issue area was “Armed Forces and National Security” at 24%. Zero were primarily related to the category “environmental protection.”
That’s because Zeldin is generally opposed to environmental protection. Indeed, he introduced at least two bills that would kill more fish.
2017’s Local Fishing Access Act would have allowed striped bass fishing in an area called the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) by his New York district. 2015’s Fluke Fairness Act would have allowed fishers in his district to catch more fluke fish, also known as summer flounders, as New York state’s commercial sector only reeled in less than 10% of its estimated potential fluke haul. Neither bill passed.
The League of Conservation Voters gave him a lifetime 14% score. Of the 235 votes the organization marked as important environmental votes during his tenure, he cast what they deemed a “pro-environment” vote in 32.
However, those 32 votes included several where Zeldin was one of the only House Republicans doing so. Here are three examples.
Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act
Zeldin’s 2019 vote would have banned offshore drilling off both the Atlantic and Pacific U.S. coasts.
House Democrats almost unanimously supported it by 226-5, while House Republicans almost entirely opposed it by 12-183, making Zeldin one of only a dozen members of his party to vote in favor.
The Senate never voted on the measure.
EPA funding on carbon pollution
In 2019, Zeldin voted against blocking the EPA’s implementation of new tougher standards on carbon pollution.
House Democrats voted almost unanimously in opposition by 1-233, with only Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN7) in favor. House Republicans almost entirely supported it by 177-21, making Zeldin one of less than two dozen members of his party to vote against. Due largely to Democrats, the measure failed, meaning the EPA’s rule stood.
(Interestingly, one of the few other Republican dissenters was former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s original nominee for Attorney General before dropping out, and hardly known as an environmentalist.)
Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act
Zeldin’s 2019 vote would have banned the shark fin animal parts used as a delicacy in some food items such as soups.
House Democrats almost unanimously supported it by 221-2, while House Republicans opposed it by 89-104 – pitting Zeldin against most members of his party. Though the House passed the measure, it never received a Senate vote in that Congress.
Congress ultimately enacted it three years later as a provision in the 1,772-page annual National Defense Authorization Act for 2022. Though that package passed the House overwhelmingly by both parties, Zeldin didn’t cast a vote.
What Congress is saying
“President Trump has made a strong choice in selecting [Zeldin] to lead the [EPA],” Senate Environment and Public Works Committee top Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said in a statement. “I look forward to promptly considering Rep. Zeldin’s nomination in the [committee] and to working with him to roll back regulatory overreach and unleash American energy production.”
Democrats strongly oppose the selection
“Donald Trump has chosen to reward a 2020 election denier, whose only job will be to reward corporate polluters by gutting the EPA and making our air and water dirtier,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) posted on X, formerly Twitter. “In Congress and the courts, we’ve got a fight ahead.”
In 2019, no Senate Democrats voted for Trump’s last EPA Administrator nominee Andrew Wheeler, though he was confirmed in the Republican-led chamber anyway. A similar outcome seems likely here.Jess Rifkin's writings about politics and Congress have been published in the Washington Post, Politico, Roll Call, Los Angeles Times, CNN Opinion, GovTrack, and USA Today.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.