Legal docs show DOGE at work inside EPA

By Robin Bravender, Niina H. Farah | 04/24/2025 01:30 PM EDT

Internal agency records submitted to a federal court offer a behind-the-scenes look at how the Trump administration moved swiftly to halt grant funding. 

A person walks past the headquarters building of the Environmental Protection Agency

A person walks past the EPA headquarters building on March 12 in Washington. Mark Schiefelbein/AP

A newly appointed DOGE official at EPA sent colleagues a spreadsheet in mid-February containing a wishlist of programs to cut.

“[H]ere’s a list of contracts and grants that we want to push forward to cancellation, and keep the momentum going!” Kathryn Loving, a Department of Government Efficiency staffer working at EPA, said in a Feb. 11 email to her DOGE colleague and senior staffers to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

The list of proposed cuts went to EPA’s Assistant Deputy Administrator Travis Voyles; EPA senior advisers Paige Hanson and Thomas Corlett; and Cole Killian, another DOGE official at EPA.

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The following day, Loving shared an update with the same group.

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