The Trump administration is eyeing budget cuts at EPA that could surpass 65 percent, the agency’s boss said Wednesday.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin elaborated on his plans for dramatic spending cuts at his agency during an interview Wednesday with Spectrum News.
Zeldin’s remarks came after President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Zeldin planned to cut EPA’s workforce by 65 percent. That announcement stunned EPA employees and the agency’s supporters, and the White House issued a statement later Wednesday to say that Trump was referring to a 65 percent overall cut in EPA spending.
Zeldin suggested that day that the cuts could go even further.
“What I shared with the president over the weekend — and I actually think it’s a low number — I think that the EPA can save even more than 65 percent of our budget year over year,” Zeldin told Spectrum News.
That would mean “a combination” of spending and workforce cuts, Zeldin said.
The distinction between budget cuts and workforce cuts did little to comfort EPA employees worried about their job security.
“People are furious,” said Nicole Cantello, president of a union local that represents EPA staff. That was like saying, “We were going to cut off both arms, but now you will only lose your hands,” she added.
Three former EPA administrators warned about the Trump administration’s planned cuts in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday.
“As former E.P.A. heads under both Republican and Democratic administrations, we fear that such cuts would render the agency incapable of protecting Americans from grave threats in our air, water and land,” they wrote. The op-ed was written by William Reilly, Christine Todd Whitman and Gina McCarthy, who served during the George H.W. Bush, the George W. Bush and the Obama administrations, respectively.
An organization of EPA alumni on Thursday announced a social media campaign titled #EPAFacts and a website designed to boost public awareness about EPA’s work.
“Trump wants to gut EPA, and his team has shut down EPA websites, ordered staff to stop communicating with the public, and repeatedly spread lies and misinformation,” said Michelle Roos, Environmental Protection Network’s executive director.
