Lawmakers press EPA on canceled environmental justice grants and tribal impacts

Multiple appropriators told EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin they were alarmed by the agency’s cancellation of hundreds of environmental justice grants awarded under prior administrations, and they highlighted impacts on tribal nations and rural communities.

Why it matters: The grants funded community resilience centers, technical assistance hubs and capacity building that many small and tribal communities rely on to obtain federal funding and implement emergency response and environmental projects. Members said the cancellations disrupted signed contracts and left communities without expected support.

Representative (questioner) described a specific example: a grant awarded to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to rebuild a tribal resiliency hub on or near a Superfund site; the project would have supported emergency response coordination and temporary sheltering during extreme weather. Members said such tribal projects are often linked to trust responsibilities and should not be canceled lightly.

Administrator Zeldin said the agency had canceled certain grants — citing concerns that some awardees were using funds for activities the agency judged not to directly remediate environmental harms — and singled out a $50 million award to a group called Climate Justice Alliance as an example of a grant he had canceled. He said some grants contained Justice40 or environmental justice components tied to prior program structures that the agency is changing and that EPA wants to work with members to “get it built into the infrastructure of EPA.”

Zeldin told members he wanted EPA offices to work with congressional staff to review specific tribal grants and see whether they can be accommodated within new program structures. He reiterated that EPA will continue to spend congressional appropriations but that administration of the programs will change as a result of the reorganization.

Members asked for a timeline and an account of which grants were canceled and which might be restored; Zeldin agreed there was time in the fiscal year to work through individual grants and said EPA offices would coordinate with members’ staff to address tribal concerns.

The exchange highlights a point of bipartisan concern: tribal and rural recipients said cancellations have immediate operational effects in communities and prompted requests for direct follow‑up and documentation from EPA.