A union representing EPA staff has filed a Hatch Act complaint alleging a weekly newsletter from Administrator Lee Zeldin’s office may be unlawful partisan activity.
The charges are likely to escalate tension between EPA’s political leadership and its workforce, which the Trump administration has shrunk through layoffs and buyouts as it moves to reorganize the agency’s operations. But even if the union wins support from the Office of Special Counsel — the independent agency charged with investigating allegations of political activity by government employees — President Donald Trump previously declined to discipline high-level officials who were found to have violated the Hatch Act in his first term.
“We’re just bringing attention to it, trying to get some relief. That’s all we can do,” said Nicole Cantello, an EPA attorney and president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents about a thousand workers in EPA’s Chicago-based office.
EPA defended the newsletter and said that the agency’s internal ethics expert already concluded that its language, which includes attacks on Democrats and the Biden administration, does not amount to prohibited partisan activity.
