EPA is shedding office space and reorganizing staff in at least two key offices — one on the West Coast and another in the Midwest — in a move the agency says will save money and reduce the agency’s footprint, according to a union representative and an internal memo obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.
EPA is “rightsizing and restacking” staffers at the agency’s Region 9 Office in San Francisco, Kerry Drake, director of EPA’s Mission Support Division, told staffers in an email Tuesday.
Similar efforts are underway at EPA’s Region 5 Office in Chicago, where the agency is relinquishing office space on the 9th and 10th floor of the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building, said Nicole Cantello, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 704.
“They are cramming unrelated offices and divisions together,” Cantello said. “Management has not been forthcoming with information.”
The changes arrive on the heels of an exodus of hundreds of employees at the agency through early retirements and layoffs.
EPA is maintaining office spaces in both regional offices.
The Region 9 office implements and enforces environmental laws in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands and 148 tribal nations, while EPA’s Region 5 office oversees six states — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin — and 35 tribal nations.
Carolyn Holran, a spokesperson for EPA, said the agency is “constantly exploring smarter ways to deliver for the American people including through rightsizing our physical footprint in facilities.”
Changes at EPA Region 9 are a “culmination of a years-long effort and is part of a routine space management within the Region 9’s California offices, with the goal of being exceptional stewards of taxpayer dollars,” said Holran. The agency, she added, is “following its statutory obligations for office space utilization mandates.”
Asked later about changes in Chicago, Holran reiterated her statement about “rightsizing,” and said, “This applies to all regional offices.”
EPA’s moves align with past efforts by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting DOGE operation to shrink the government’s footprint by canceling leases, including those used for environment and energy agencies.
In April, the Trump administration announced it was moving personnel out of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington.
EPA’s regional branch based in California has been a target for Republicans and reorganizations in the past, including an effort during Trump’s first stint in the White House to move its main office from San Francisco to Phoenix as a cost-cutting measure.
In California, staffers will see the biggest changes in the New Year.
According to documents attached to Drake’s email, consolidation of workspace will take place in January 2026, and all space must be ready to be “relinquished back to the General Services Administration by Aug. 5, 2026.”
The effort, the memo states, will “help Region 9 to meet our space utilization goals,” help the region expand into “an appropriate space” for the Southern California Field Office and “save EPA significantly on lease costs.”
Reporter Kevin Bogardus contributed.
