Things got absolutely hilarious in the House of Representatives on Monday, April 27, when Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin went nuclear on Democratic Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro after she tried to lecture him on climate change, with Zeldin utterly schooling her and sending her into a spiraling meltdown.
That came when, during a House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. DeLauro accused Zeldin’s EPA of “abandoning” its climate change duty, and went on to insist that the EPA’s insouciance is leading to “flooding our streets” and “poisoning our air”. Zeldin sounded off on the claim that the EPA is supposed to be fighting climate change, and brought the case law to back his point up, leading to her freakout.
The Rep. DeLauro meltdown began after Zeldin trotted out what federal law actually provides, and what he has been doing on that front to ensure the EPA abides by its duties. He said, pushing back on her claims, “Following the law, section 202 of the Clean Air Act, where does it say anything about fighting global climate change?”
Continuing, Zeldin trotted out Supreme Court case law to torch her claims yet further, saying, “Loper Bright [Enterprises v. Raimondo], Supreme Court case, you’re familiar with it? … But that’s really important. As a member of Congress, Loper Bright says that we as an agency don’t have the authority to get creative.”
That set off the purple-haired Democrat. She started rambling and insisted that he was in the legal wrong to push back on her climate claims, snapping, “No, but you don’t have, excuse me, you do not have the right to say climate change does not exist, that it’s a hoax, and that’s where this administration is coming from.”
As she kept trying to attack him, Zeldin fought back by hammering her with Supreme Court case law that’s on his side, saying, “Do you know what Loper Bright is? Do you know what the major policies doctrine is? You know what the major policies doctrine is? You’re a member of Congress, you should know,”
DeLauro got visibly angry as he brought the facts to shut down her claims, and she insisted, “You’re here because you need money from us, so halt for the second, and wait for the questions, and answer the questions.”
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Zeldin wasn’t done. He said, “Well, I answered your question, and you didn’t like my answer because you don’t know what Loper Bright is, because you don’t know what the major policies doctrine is. Because you’re asking me about section 202 of the Clean Air Act, and you don’t read it.”
Continuing, the EPA Administrator then said, “You don’t know what it says. No, I actually read the law. I do my homework. You’re just somebody who likes to have the microphone on. You know what I have to do? I read the law. I read the Supreme Court cases.”
At that point, a frustrated DeLauro snapped that Zeldin was making up “a whole lot of BS.” That, in turn, led to Zeldin asking whether she thought the case law was fake, asking her, “BS? You think I made up these cases?” “Yeah, I think you have made up a whole lot of BS,” DeLauro claimed. Zeldin sarcastically responded, “I made up Loper Bright. I made up West Virginia v. EPA. I made up Michigan v. EPA.”
Watch them here:
Zeldin later torched her on X, writing, “Nothing infuriates an uninformed Congressional Dem more than when they realize they voluntarily triggered a debate with someone who actually knows what they are talking about, reads federal statute and adheres to Supreme Court precedent. Today’s self-implosion by @rosadelauro was quite remarkable to witness. Without apology or regret, I will always adhere to the best available reading of federal statute pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video