By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is planning to cut 65% of his agency’s workforce, a move that came as a surprise to agency staff.
Trump revealed the potential EPA staff reduction at the first meeting of his cabinet, where his downsizing czar Elon Musk pledged that he would move quickly to slash federal spending.
“I spoke with Lee Zeldin, and he thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental [sic],” Trump said. “And we’re going to speed up the process too at the same time.”
The EPA did not specify the details of the potential workforce reduction figure that Trump mentioned, but said the agency is focused on cutting federal grants, “reassessing” its real estate footprint and “delivering organizational improvements to the personnel structure.”
“President Trump and EPA Administrator Zeldin are in lock step in creating a more efficient and effective federal government,” an EPA spokesperson said.
News of the 65% target that Trump cited caught agency staff off guard, with its union leadership saying it had not been given advance notice or any detail of the desired cuts.
“Mr. Zeldin stated during his confirmation testimony that he pledged ‘to enthusiastically uphold the EPA’s mission…foster a collaborative culture within the agency, supporting career staff who have dedicated themselves to this mission,” Joyce Howell, executive vice president of AFGE Council 238 representing EPA employees, told Reuters.
“So which is it? Upholding the EPA mission or imposing a reduction in force that makes upholding the EPA mission an impossibility?”
So far, the EPA terminated nearly 400 probationary employees and placed nearly 200 employees on leave who worked on environmental justice issues at the agency.
A memo released ahead of the cabinet meeting called for a “significant reduction” but did not specify how many workers should be laid off, beyond the 100,000 of the nation’s 2.3 million civilian federal workers who have already taken a buyout or been fired.
The unprecedented government overhaul has so far fired more than 20,000 workers, frozen foreign aid, and disrupted construction projects and scientific research, though it has not slowed spending so far.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
