Administrator Lee Zeldin appeared before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to defend the EPA’s decisions to review and cancel hundreds of grants, including actions tied to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) and other Inflation Reduction Act programs.

The committee’s ranking member, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, pressed Zeldin on inconsistent statements from EPA officials and Justice Department filings, saying the agency had “frozen and attempted to terminate the greenhouse gas reduction fund.” Whitehouse added that the freeze was defended in court using what he called a “sham investigation.”

Why it matters: Senators said the freeze and cancellations put billions of dollars in federal funding at risk and have immediate effects on grantees delivering services for public health and environmental projects. The dispute has also moved into federal court, where agency lawyers and career officials have filed conflicting statements about the scope and basis for the reviews.

During questioning, Whitehouse read from sworn declarations filed in litigation and said at least 781 grantees had been identified as recipients of cancellation notices in sworn testimony. He contrasted declarations that described an “individualized review” performed on a single day with EPA assertions that multiple agency officials had reviewed grants over time. “You have the EPA administrator right here offering to go through a list of evidence,” he said, arguing the different accounts could not all be true.

Zeldin responded that multiple EPA employees worked on the reviews and that he personally participated in reviewing grants: “I was the one who made the decision, and I made the decision after doing individual review. I personally reviewed every single grant that I canceled.” He also said staff worked on the reviews on multiple days, not in a single ten-hour session, and that he would provide additional details outside the hearing.

Other senators pressed on whether the Justice Department and federal prosecutors were involved in the freeze of GGRF funds and whether the agency had evidence of criminal conduct. Senator Edward Markey and others noted that when a federal judge asked EPA to provide evidence of fraud, the agency’s lawyers indicated they could not do so. Zeldin offered to provide the committee a list of the agency’s concerns and evidence for the record.

Committee members also cited specific examples referenced in public filings and media reporting: a February cancellation of a $50 million grant to the Climate Justice Alliance and statements that roughly $3 billion of the GGRF disbursements had been distributed while the remainder remained frozen. Senator Whitehouse and others asked Zeldin to reconcile sworn declarations from career staff with his oral testimony to the committee.

The exchange ended with several senators asking for documents and a timeline of what EPA leadership knew and when. The committee requested written follow-up and materials for the record.

Next steps: Senators on both sides signaled they will pursue documents and additional testimony to resolve the differing accounts in court filings and sworn declarations.