At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Trump casually said Environmental Protection Agency manager Lee Zeldin intended to fire 65% of his employees.
Trump said Zeldin “is thinking he's going to cut around 65% of people from the environment, and will also speed up the process at the same time.”
Within minutes, the agency manager said he had received a White House memo telling him to prepare for a massive layoff.
A memo sent to leaders from multiple agencies said the federal government is “expensive, inefficient and deep in debt.” Although they didn't mention the 65% target, it would cut down on the steps to prepare what the EPA calls force reduction and eliminate jobs.
The agency did not respond to requests to discuss Zeldin's job cut goals.
According to the latest budget, the EPA had 15,123 full-time employees at the end of December. A 65% cut would mean a loss of employment for nearly 10,000 people, which would destroy the agency responsible for the heads of clean air and clean water, said Marie Owens Powell, the agency's largest union president, is the American government's employee federation.
Owens Powell said the administration has not notified the union about its 65% target and he has first heard about it from Trump on television.
“This is much larger than just 65% of our employees,” she said. “What does that really mean? This means 65% less people are available to respond to natural disasters. That means 65% less people to respond to dangerous cleanups, perform air monitoring, and lead mitigation.”
Nicole Cantello, president of the Federation's local 704, representing Midwest employees, said that “polluters spend their holidays.”
Trump administration officials “have no idea what we are doing and don't want to see us as people who protect human health and the environment and do good,” she said. “They just want to attack us as faceless bureaucrats.”
Sen. Sheldon White House of Rhode Island, a leading Democrat on the committee overseeing the Environmental Protection Agency, said he was repeatedly asked to confirm whether Zeldin supported the massive layoffs.
“Each time he replied that he looked forward to working with the dedicated staff at the EPA,” White House said. “It's clear that the amendments were present from the start to help the looters and polluters who funded President Trump's campaign.”
The fossil fuel industry, including petrochemical manufacturers, has made large donations to Trump. He is with people who served as lawyers and lobbyists in the petroleum and chemical industry in the senior EPA.
Trump and Zeldin have repeatedly said that the country intends to ensure clean air and water. “If the EPA is disabled, we cannot hide the cruel reality that these goals will fail,” White House said.
In the past few weeks, the Trump administration has fired 388 probation employees at the agency and put 168 others on administrative leave.
During his first term, Trump promised to eliminate the EPA “in almost all forms,” leaving a “little bit” intact at the agency responsible for protecting the atmosphere and water from pollution, toxic chemicals and climate change.
The agency severely cut both budgets and staffing during that year, but began rebuilding during the Biden administration. This year, the budget was allocated to have around 17,000 full-time employees. This is roughly the last staffing level seen in the Obama administration.
Myron Ebel, a longtime EPA critic who led the agency's transition team during Trump's first term, said the 65% cuts were the start. He said the EPA is primarily on its mission and could be downgraded to an agency that monitors and supports state environmental agencies.
“It could be very small,” Ebel said. Ebel does not accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that the planet is warming due to human activity.
The White House memo was published by Russell T. Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and was published by Charles Ezell, acting director of the Human Resources Administration. In the November election, voters said they “registered their verdicts in bloated, corrupt federal bureaucracy.”
“Taxes are sucked up to fund counterproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens.” The memo directed agency managers to develop a “reorganization plan” by March 13, saying that these plans should require the achievement of “significant reductions” in the number of full-time employees and “reducing real estate footprint.”
The EPA was created in 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon. This is the year after Ohio's Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it was set on fire and shocked its people. The fire helped promote the national environmental movement, and Congress passed a series of major laws, including the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
Under the Biden administration, the EPA has become a focus of another environmental crisis: climate change. The agency has moved to limit greenhouse gases from cars and power plants that scientists say are dangerously heating the planet.
