A mix of veterans from the first Trump administration and longtime career officials will decide who will get hired next at EPA.
President Donald Trump has made culling the federal workforce a top priority, resulting in an exodus of federal employees, including at EPA. Now, the agency has stood up a panel to approve new hires as the administration tightens its grip on who serves — and who doesn’t — in the government.
EPA’s Strategic Hiring Committee is made up of nine members, according to a list of names obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News under the Freedom of Information Act. The panel is tasked with filing “each vacancy” at EPA, ensuring its hiring is consistent with “the national interest, agency needs, and the priorities of my Administration,” Trump said in an executive order this October.
Five committee members are Trump political appointees, giving them majority power over the panel’s decision-making. Those are David Fotouhi, deputy administrator; Eric Amidon, chief of staff; Travis Voyles, associate deputy administrator; Paige Hanson, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer; and Michael Molina, principal deputy chief administrative officer.
