The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Thursday that it has placed 139 employees on administrative leave. These individuals signed a “declaration of dissent,” criticizing the agency’s policies and accusing them of unlawfully disrupting the Trump administration’s plans.
In a publicly released letter on Monday, the employees expressed that the agency is straying from its fundamental mission of safeguarding human health and the environment. They voiced rare public dissent, acknowledging the potential repercussions for opposing reductions in funding and federal support for climate, environmental, and health sciences.
According to a statement from the EPA on Thursday, the agency maintains a “zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting” the Trump administration’s objectives.
Employees were notified that they had been placed in a “temporary, non-duty, paid status” for the next two weeks, pending an “administrative investigation,” according to a copy of the email obtained by The Associated Press. “It is important that you understand that this is not a disciplinary action,” the email read.
More than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation, according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA scientists or academics to also sign.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health made a similar move earlier in June, but Berg said he was unaware of any at NIH who have been placed on similar administrative leave.
Under Administrator Lee Zeldin, EPA has cut funding for environmental improvements in minority communities, vowed to roll back federal regulations that lower air pollution in national parks and tribal reservations, wants to undo a ban on a type of asbestos and proposed repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.
Zeldin began reorganizing the EPA’s research and development office as part of his push to slash its budget and gut its study of climate change and environmental justice. And he’s seeking to roll back pollution rules that an AP examination found were estimated to save 30,000 lives and $275 billion every year.
The EPA responded to the employees’ letter earlier this week by saying policy decisions “are a result of a process where Administrator Zeldin is briefed on the latest research and science by EPA’s career professionals, and the vast majority who are consummate professionals who take pride in the work this agency does day in and day out.”
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