EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Announces Closure of $4M Biden-EPA Museum, Saving Over $600,000 Taxpayer Funds Annually
Contact: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, announced today that the agency is closing the one-room, 1,595 square foot EPA museum built by the Biden Administration using $4 million in taxpayer dollars. The museum, located within office space at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., saw less than 2,000 external visitors between May 2024 – February 2025 and costs $600,000 per year to operate.
“Our commitment to responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars remains unwavering as I continue to oversee a line-by-line review of agency spending. The $4 million cost to build this one-room, little-trafficked museum inside of EPA with $600,000 in operational costs annually is yet another example of waste by the Biden administration that could have instead been spent on remediating environmental issues in forgotten communities,” said Administrator Zeldin.
“Not to mention, the previous administration curated the contents of the museum with a large focus on ‘environmental justice’ instead of EPA’s core mission. While Americans were left to contend with sky high prices and inflation, the Biden administration spent millions on this ‘museum’ to proliferate a political agenda. Gone are the days of funding partisan pet projects at the detriment of the American taxpayers and the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment,” continued Administrator Zeldin.
EPA staff amount to more than 40% of visitors and while the museum is free, the cost to taxpayers per external visitor amounts nearly $315 per person. Other annual costs at the expense of the American taxpayer include more than $123,000 on cleaning and landscaping, more than $207,000 for security guards, $54,000 on magnetometer and X-ray maintenance, more than $54,000 on artifact storage, and nearly $40,000 for maintenance of AV equipment.
The museum conveniently omits any environmental progress between 2014 and January 20, 2021, despite significant accomplishments during the first Trump administration, including a reduction in emissions. The American people saw significant improvement in air quality and the first ever comprehensive nationwide action plan to address PFAS.
Administrator Zeldin has been working expeditiously to rein in wasteful spending, and his actions have resulted in more than $22 billion in wasteful grants and contracts cancelled.
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