EPA’s first round of shutdown-tied layoffs could wipe out a small sustainability division heading the agency’s recycling programs.
On Friday, approximately two dozen EPA employees were alerted they may be impacted by a reduction in force, or RIF, otherwise known as layoffs. Those notices were focused on the Resource Conservation and Sustainability Division, a component within the agency’s much larger solid waste office, according to EPA staffers granted anonymity because they fear retaliation.
The plan to lay off those employees during the shutdown is part of a much larger pressure campaign by the Trump administration to inflict pain on the federal workforce until Democratic lawmakers relent on the funding lapse.
In turn, EPA could lose those at the head of the agency’s recycling initiatives, said Cliff Villa, once a senior adviser at the Office of Land and Emergency Management under the Biden administration.
