EPA plans to let go another batch of employees who helped disadvantaged communities long burdened with pollution.
On Wednesday, the agency sent reduction-in-force, or RIF, notices to 22 employees who work in environmental justice, according to American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, EPA’s largest union. Those staffers, based in the agency’s regional offices across the country, will leave government service next month.
The move to cut more workers will further cement the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda for a smaller EPA.
“This memorandum is to inform you that because your position is being abolished, you will be separated from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” said a RIF notice viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News.
The agency is conducting the RIF to comply with a pair of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump last year, according to the notice. One was designed to eliminate diversity programs, while the other was meant to downsize the federal workforce.
The notice said the EPA employee was already on administrative leave and will stay on leave until they exit the agency.
“Consequently, you will be separated from the EPA effective 03/27/26,” the RIF notice said.
AFGE Council 238 President Justin Chen said in a statement that his union, which represents more than 8,000 EPA employees, was “outraged” by the agency’s move to lay off more staff.
“There is no justification for further cuts,” Chen said. “Funding levels have remained steady, and these are needed, well qualified workers, and the agency should be strengthening our workforce, not shrinking it.”
He added, “We call on the EPA to immediately withdraw these notices and commit to using agency funding to rebuild our workforce, so we can fully carry out our mission to protect human health and the environment for all Americans.”
EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch said in a statement that the agency issued RIF notices to employees in EPA’s regional environmental justice divisions.
“These notices are consistent with our notice to Congress and staff in spring 2025,” Hirsch said. “This is an important step in the agency’s broader effort to ensure that the agency’s workforce is best positioned to meet its core mission.”
As part of a sweeping reorganization, the Trump administration axed environmental justice offices in its headquarters and regional branches. In August last year, about 50 environmental justice employees located in Washington were subject to a RIF, an EPA spokesperson said at the time.
Other staffers who worked in that field left the agency by choice. EPA data shows 37 employees from the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights opted into the “deferred resignation” program last year.
Still, some environmental justice staff might remain on the payroll at EPA.
The agency forecast in its staffing plan that 25 diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility employees will be on leave in September later this year. Those staffers’ termination date is “unknown,” according to the plan.
Contact this reporter on Signal at KevinBogardus.89.
