EPA employees fired after publicly criticizing the Trump administration’s treatment of science and their colleagues are now pushing back.
Six former EPA staffers who signed an open dissent letter this summer and were later terminated are filing an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, part of the legal team representing the employees, announced their appeal Wednesday.
The ex-EPA employees claim the agency fired them illegally for using their right to free speech to alert the public about their concerns. Their appeal to the board, which guards the civil service, is yet another chapter in the dissent letter saga at EPA, which has faced turbulent times under the Trump administration.
In an interview with POLITICO’s E&E News, Joanna Citron Day, general counsel for PEER, said the firings were “totally and completely without merit” as the agency retaliated against public employees who were exercising their First Amendment rights.
