(DCNF)—Former Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York said Thursday he believed the Environmental Protection Agency should not be an “armed bureaucracy.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) carried out a raid with dozens of armed agents on a mine near Chicken, Alaska, in August 2013, according to Fox News. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska asked Zeldin, who President-elect Donald Trump nominated to serve as EPA administrator, about the use of armed agents to conduct raids during a Thursday hearing, saying that the Biden administration was conducting armed raids similar to the 2013 raid on “small mechanic shops” in his state.
“The Biden administration has done these raids on small mechanic shops in Alaska. They bring up EPA agents from all over the country, 30 armed agents kicking in doors in mechanic shops in Alaska,” Sullivan said. “By the way, my state believes in the Second Amendment, most of my state is armed, this is very dangerous because some of these ages could get shot when they’re coming in.”
Sullivan did not immediately respond to a request from the Daily Caller News Foundation for more information on the raids.
Sullivan has clashed with the Biden administration over its environmental policies, including restrictions on a type of aviation fuel used by many Alaskans.
“Can I get your commitment to focus on compliance rather than jumping to armed enforcement? And, secondly, look, I believe that an armed citizenry, I believe in the second Amendment, I don’t believe in an armed bureaucracy,” Sullivan continued. “The EPA has a SWAT team. Do you believe the EPA should even have armed agents? When they go into places, they can just have the local police are local state troopers. You got these guys out of control in Alaska and it is dangerous and the current EPA administrator, I sent them letters on this, he didn’t answer me. Can I get your commitment to focus on compliance, civil compliance as opposed to kicking in doors with body armor, assault, rifles, helicopters, it’s crazy and it’s really outrageous and it happens under Democrats, not President Trump. Democrats.”
A task force descended on Chicken, Alaska, which has a population of 17, in August 2013 to investigate allegations that the Clean Water Act was being violated, according to Fox News. Only one possible violation was uncovered by the task force, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Over 90 agencies employ federal law enforcement agents, according to a September 2022 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
“Senator, it is outrageous that story that you told, and Senator Murkowski shared with me as well, with regards to Chicken, Alaska,” Zeldin said. “It led me, as somebody who is going through this transition, to be asking questions as to how did that even get authorized, who signs off on it, what is the standards that need to be met in order to even say yes to an operation like that.”
“With 30 agents from all over, EPA agents from all over America, who came up to rate a mechanic shop, a small business that I think there’s eight guys who owned it,” Sullivan said. “They were national guard guys, great Alaskans. Can I get your commitment on that and to work with me on? Do you think the EPA should be armed? I don’t.”
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