You're listening to Civics 101. I'm Hannah McCarthy. I'm Nick Epidich. And this listener is part two of who's running the government. I'm going to be talking about nine of the so far 18 confirmed presidential appointee leaders in our nation's executive branch.

But if you want to know who the other night are and a little bit more about what this process

is all about, I recommend you go back and listen to Part 1, because we are just going to hit the

ground running on this one.

If nothing else, listen to Part 1 to hear Hand Reveal, reveal not one but two significant pieces of personal

history trivia about me to which I did not give my approval vote Hannah it was worth it

though the people need to know Nick and now they do all right so in addition to those little gems, Hannah, in part number one, you told me that the vote margins, as in the number of yays and nays, a nominee got when the Senate confirmed them, those margins were going to get a little slimmer.

That's right. We are going through the list from most yays to the fewest.

The second batch of President Donald Trump's appointees got more pushback, more questions about

their experience, their politics, their personal conduct. And we are kicking it off with our

new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, the head of that independent executive

agency, not department, Lee Zeldon. He got 56 EA's and 42 Nays.

Our mission is simple but essential to protect human health and the environment.

We must do everything in our power to harness the greatness of American innovation

with the greatness of American conservation and environmental stewardship. We must ensure we are

protecting the environment while also protecting our economy. Lee Zeldon, Hannah, I do not know

that name at all. All right, so Zeldin was in the New York State Senate and then in the U.S. House of Reps, and he served there until 2023.

He was also a major Trump defender when it came to the impeachments.

Zeldon is also an officer of the U.S. Army Reserve.

And one big thing with Zeldin when it came to his confirmation

hearing was experience or lack thereof. So the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency,

it is supposed to make sure that we have clean air and water, that we protect the environment,

...