EPA plans to lay off employees and eliminate its stand-alone science branch, confirming the office’s demise that employees have anticipated for months.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Friday afternoon the agency is conducting a reduction in force, or RIF, affecting those in the Office of Research and Development.
“This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,” Zeldin said in a statement.
The agency did not provide figures for how many employees will receive a RIF notice in its announcement but did say that with “organizational improvements,” EPA will save $748.8 million.
Combined with other “early out” options for employees, EPA’s workforce will total 12,448 employees. That is down from 16,155 personnel in January. The research office housed roughly 1,500 employees toward the end of the Biden administration.
Hundreds of employees are leaving the agency already. EPA has received 3,201 applications for the “deferred resignation” program and early retirement. EPA earlier this year sent RIF notices to 280 environmental justice employees as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on “woke” diversity initiatives.
Contacted for this story, EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said, “The agency announced today its decision to restructure and eliminate” the research office to improve efficiency of operations and align statutory requirements.
“The next step in this process is to issue intent-to-RIF notices to individual employees,” Vaseliou said.
Key ORD functions will be absorbed into EPA’s existing air, water and chemicals programs or new science office directly underneath the administrator, according to Friday’s announcement.
ORD staffers have been bracing for layoffs since March, after draft reorganization plans indicating a majority of staffers would be fired or reassigned were leaked to the press.
After EPA unveiled its first phase of reorganization, ORD employees were encouraged to apply for lateral reassignment positions available under other program offices. Senior-level officials earlier this week urged managers to make decisions, according to an internal email reviewed by POLITICO’s E&E News. It’s not clear how many employees will be reassigned to these positions.
EPA earlier this week opened another period offering employees to take offers through the deferred resignation program — marking the third round since President Donald Trump took office in January.
The research office “is the heart and brain of the EPA, without it we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,” said Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, EPA’s largest union.
Chen added, “Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.”
Contact reporters Ellie Borst on Signal at eborst.64 and Kevin Bogardus on Signal at KevinBogardus.89.
