Zeldin’s complete Environmental Record

Latest update of Zeldin’s environmental voting record below. 
The spreadsheet itself (all 193 bills since Zeldin was first elected) is linked in Excel format: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19e5j3Z3xupufWNReLsO-P69eL316sJDLBbf8EZDFklg/edit?usp=sharing

This is our last update before the November 3rd election. It covers the 21 bills tracked by the League of Conservation Scorecard so far in 2020.So far in 2020, Lee Zeldin has voted against the environment in 14 of these bills and for the environment in 7, for a year-to-date score of 33%. Zeldin’s lifetime score (to date) is 15%. Although Zeldin’s lifetime score has crept up by a few percentage points over the last 2 years, it remains embarrassingly low when viewed in context: the average LCV score of a Member of Congress last year was 59%. Some highlights of Zeldin’s environmental voting record so far in 2020: He voted to permit Trump’s EPA to issue weak standards on soot pollution. He voted against more federal infrastructure funding for clean energy, clean water and mass transportation. He voted not to restrict funding for resumption of nuclear testing. He voted against increases in funding for climate, oceans, coastal science, energy efficiency and renewable energy. He voted against increases in federal funding for the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds. And he voted against funding for replacing lead service lines providing drinking water to predominately minority and low income neighborhoods. On the plus side, Zeldin voted for full and permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program he has long supported. LWCF funds are used to protect and enhance public lands and to provide community recreational facilities. This bill passed the Senate and was signed into law. Finally, and in seemingly contradictory fashion, on the same day Zeldin voted for greater regulation of PFAS chemicals, which are suspected carcinogens, but against a bill to close a loophole in the Clean Water Act that permits PFAS to be discharged into waterways. Details can be found in the linked spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19e5j3Z3xupufWNReLsO-P69eL316sJDLBbf8EZDFklg/edit?usp=sharing

To sum it up, he has voted the wrong way on bills to mitigate climate change 92% of the time, to be exact, despite the double talk, evasions & obfuscation he dished out in his video presentation at the NYLCV climate change forum a few days ago.

Best, Marc Rauch and Suzi Kondic

About D. Posnett MD

Emeritus Prof. of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
This entry was posted in 2020 elections, Environment, EPA, Trump, Zeldin and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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