Lee Zeldin: "$4 million for one room, we’re shutting it down"

Lee Zeldin: "We are in a room of less than 1,600 square feet. You’ll see all kinds of omissions in the timeline. You might remember that during this period, between 2014 and 2021, there was a Trump presidency. Yes, they conveniently leave it out of the timeline.

Come here. There’s a lot of talk about climate change and environmental justice. And the only emissions they’re going to talk about here are carbon dioxide. No mention of anything good or necessary about carbon dioxide.

Here’s a view of the entire museum. This is it—$4 million to build. I don’t even understand how they needed to spend $4 million on this single room.

Come here, another tribute to environmental justice. The incredible thing is that during the last administration, all this talk about environmental justice and climate change was really just to justify handing out tens of billions of dollars to their friends through self-dealing, conflicts of interest, and unqualified beneficiaries.

We’re going to shut this museum down. The taxpayer wins. Enough of this biased history of the EPA."

The Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lee Zeldin, announced the closure of a one-room museum located at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. This museum, inaugurated during the administration of former President Joe Biden, cost approximately $4 million to build and had annual operating expenses of around $600,000. Despite this investment, it attracted fewer than 2,000 visitors since its opening the previous year, amounting to a cost of approximately $315 per visitor.

Zeldin criticized the museum as an example of unnecessary spending by the previous administration, pointing out that its focus was overly centered on environmental justice and climate change. He also highlighted the omission of references to Donald Trump's presidency in the timeline presented in the exhibits.

The decision to close the museum aligns with the cost-cutting measures implemented by the current administration, which has sought to eliminate expenditures deemed superfluous in various federal agencies.