Lee Zeldin
Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency
Lee Michael Zeldin was born in January 1980 in East Meadow, New York. He earned an undergraduate degree in political science from the University at Albany, and later received a Juris Doctor from Albany Law School.
He received an Army ROTC commission as a second lieutenant and served four years in the United States Army, first in the Military Intelligence Corps. He was deployed to Tikrit, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He went on to serve as a prosecutor in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps and as a military magistrate. He transitioned from active duty to the Army Reserve, where he still serves with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
He began the practice of law as an attorney for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, then began a private law practice. Zeldin served four years as a member of the New York Senate. He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 and retained the seat by winning reelection. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York.
Zeldin was nominated by President Donald Trump in November 2024 to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The Senate confirmed him and he was sworn into office in January 2025.
Zeldin is married to Diana and they have identical twin daughters. He is Jewish; his wife is Mormon.
In the News…
Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last month that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would attempt to recover $20 billion in funding that was authorized in the final months of President Biden’s administration. An official in December referenced “throwing gold bars off the back of the Titanic” as the grants were allocated to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund,
Citibank froze the funding that had not yet been distributed to nonprofits and other organizations during the Department of Justice’s investigation into financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and oversight failures. A federal judge has now issued a temporary order to stop the EPA from canceling the climate funding, which was granted under the Inflation Reduction Act.
After the judge’s order, Administrator Zeldin stated, “These terminated grants, riddled with self-dealing and wasteful spending, are now frozen by court order. The Biden EPA handed politically connected and inexperienced nongovernmental organizations tens of billions in taxpayer funding in a manner that deliberately reduced the ability of EPA to conduct proper oversight.“
He continued, “I will not rest until these hard-earned taxpayer dollars are returned to the U.S. Treasury. Every penny EPA spends will go towards our core mission of protecting human health and the environment,
and Powering the Great American Comeback.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Administrator Zeldin today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Lee Zeldin, Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20460
