During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin if Trump's executive order targeting DEI has resulted in the cancellations of grants or programs that feature the word 'biodiversity.'
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Senator Baldwin.
00:02Thank you, Madam Chair.
00:04Mr. Zeldin, Wisconsin's coastal communities and tribal nations depend on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
00:12to protect water quality of both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.
00:17The initiative has been essential for cleaning up pollution,
00:24managing invasive species, and safeguarding access to clean water for over 40 million people.
00:30For every dollar spent on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative,
00:34nearly $4 in additional economic activity is produced.
00:39These outcomes have only been possible because of strong collaboration between EPA and its regional partners.
00:46So your fiscal year 2026 skinny budget makes no mention of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
00:54or the staffing necessary to carry it out.
00:58So I'd like you to tell us today what the administration's budget will include for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
01:06Senator, while we're here and we're only able to speak about the skinny budget because the full budget has not been released,
01:12because you're asking about the Great Lakes Restoration Program.
01:16And I've heard from the vice president who has fought for this program as well, a former senator from Ohio.
01:25This is something that there is great pride inside of the agency for the Great Lakes Restoration Program.
01:32There's a lot of support inside of the administration to make sure that this program is funded and it continues very strong.
01:41Okay, so it will continue and it will be fully funded?
01:47It will absolutely continue and while I can't speak to a full budget that hasn't been released yet,
01:56I'm confident that you'll have a smile on your face as it relates to the Great Lakes Restoration Program when you see it.
02:02Wisconsin communities also face several challenges that make it more difficult to meet the demand
02:08and the expectation of access to clean drinking water.
02:12And we have increasing threats from PFAS contamination, an overabundance of lead service lines still,
02:20and inadequate and aging wastewater infrastructure.
02:24Our public water systems have relied on the EPA's state revolving funds to upgrade their water systems,
02:31to fix things that are broken so that they can protect families and workers.
02:35This budget decimates the state revolving funds and our nation's primary federal program for funding water infrastructure projects.
02:45So how do you justify this funding cut, this decimation to a family in Milwaukee seeking to protect their children from lead in their drinking water due to lead service lines?
02:57Or a farmer relying on a rural public water system that hopes to provide PFAS-free water to their workers and their livestock?
03:06As I mentioned, Senator, to Chairwoman Murkowski's question on this topic earlier,
03:13this is a good time for a conversation as it relates to the bleeding out of funding for SRF?
03:21Well, we're having this conversation right now, and you're hearing, I hope, strongly from this committee that we are committed to restoration of those funds
03:29because they serve such a vital function in our communities.
03:34I wanted to add a couple of words to Senator Fisher's question about biofuels.
03:41I just want you to know that the biofuels industry is incredibly important in Wisconsin.
03:46We have several ethanol and biodiesel producers, certainly we have corn and soybean farmers,
03:52and rural manufacturing jobs that depend on a predictable and forward-looking renewable fuel standard.
03:59A strong standard would not only provide domestic market certainty to farmers during a time of volatile international market access, as you know,
04:09but also invest in our nation's energy independence while lowering fuel costs for consumers and creating domestic manufacturers' jobs.
04:18So I urge you to release a proposed renewable volume obligation rulemaking soon,
04:30and hope that the proposal will reflect market growth and demand in this sector.
04:36I agree.
04:37All right.
04:40Lastly, Wisconsin is home to an array of diverse landscapes, from the coasts of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes
04:50to the wetlands and grasslands across the driftless area of our state, to the Chequamegon and Nicolet National Forest.
04:58Many of our state's most effective environmental conservation and restoration projects across these regions promote biodiversity to protect their ecosystems.
05:11Can you confirm for me right now that the Trump administration's executive order to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion at the federal level has not led to projects being deprioritized, delayed, or defunded by EPA,
05:27if they mention such terms as biodiversity?
05:32Offhand? I can't think of a particular example. I would have to go back and talk to the team to see if there's anything at the point.
05:40Can you assure me that the executive order on diversity, equity, and inclusion has not led to random word searches for words like diversity that lead to cutoffs in funding?
05:55Do you guarantee me that that has not happened at the EPA?
05:58I wouldn't guarantee that. I would imagine that when we received an executive order as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion that the team was probably searching...
06:07Does that include biodiversity in your opinion?
06:10What I'm saying is I would have to... As it relates to that term, biodiversity, I would have to check with the team. I'm not aware of that, but I would have to ask.
06:19Do you think supporting and promoting biodiversity somehow violates the president's executive order relating to bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion funding?
06:31I would have to see examples of how that term was applied to a particular program or grant in order to be able to answer that.
06:40Thank you, Senator Baldwin. On behalf of the chairman, I think she went to vote. Now that we're actually trying to get our 15-minute votes in again, I think we're all trying to honor that.
06:50Okay.
06:51Okay.