Top House Energy and Commerce Democrats say EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin misled lawmakers about the agency’s treatment of employees who openly criticized the Trump administration.
A letter Thursday demands Zeldin hand over internal communication and investigation documents to explain the legal rationale supporting EPA’s decision to place roughly 150 staffers on administrative leave last summer because they signed a “Declaration of Dissent.” Some were later fired.
“You and your closest advisors engaged in a coordinated campaign of mass retaliation against EPA employees after they signed a public letter calling attention to the harm that your leadership was causing to EPA and the nation,” wrote Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), Environment Subcommittee ranking member Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Oversight Subcommittee ranking member Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.).
Zeldin testified to the committee in April that he “acted on the advice of counsel” despite reporting from POLITICO’s E&E News that shows the agency’s own ethics officials did not believe the employees broke any rules by signing the dissent letter.
