When in doubt, call up your city's code enforcement office. They love showing up to work sites and catching contractors violating code. And the contractors will listen, too.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_policy_of_the_Do...
This is key. The states in the US hold a huge amount of the actual power. As a practical matter the EPA will never be involved with something like this. It will be the state DEQ (or equivalent agency) that really has the teeth.
That all changed with the civil war and the 14th amendment. After that, the federal government gained a LOT of power that it didn't previously have.
However, it's not something that was universal. In the US, federal still, for the most part, only deals with things that can be conceived to effect more than one state at the same time. There is, for example, no federal murder law.
With that in mind, you have 50 states and for the most part, how the little things are handled are entirely up to each state. What a state will do in regards to regulations and safety nets is simply all over the board.
These are city-level regulations, and they're almost completely isolated from politicking.
Generally speaking: Most (but not all) news stories about US politics are greatly exaggerated. News media here competes for clicks, and the easiest way to get clicks is to transform every possible story into the biggest catastrophe possible.
In reality, while parts of our regulatory structure need some attention and improvement, the United States isn't really an unregulated wasteland. Just try building anything that doesn't meet code and you'll be in hot water very quickly, regardless of where you live here.
States (and cities, counties, etc) generally have their own building codes and enforcement agencies. But, the states still have to follow federal rules where they exist.
So, in this case, there are EPA rules about lead paint handling. Very likely three are also OSHA rules dealing with worker safety when dealing with lead (wearing a respirator). And while the EPA might have some enforcement officers, they won't be interested in a single house renovation (more likely interested in factories, sky-scrapers, etc). OSHA also has enforcement, but a lot of that ends up being after-the-fact (ie somebody loses a limb, OSHA gets called, and shuts down a factory until remedial action taken).
But, the local building inspectors office is able to enforce the EPA rules as well as local building codes. And there's probably a local work-place safety office as well. But, in the case of small construction jobs, local code enforcement is the easiest/fastest way to get something on-site changed.
With respect to the Trump administration, you are correct - he went out of his way to install department heads who were either incompetent or had business goals opposed to the agency they were tasked with leading.
[] - The 14th Amendment gives the federal government the power to ensure all people are protected equally under the law. Pretty darn broad power there. Similarly, the Commerce Clause in the Constitution grants the federal government the power to regulate trade between the states and other countries. Again, you can read that very widely - pretty much any serious level of commerce impacts more than one state.