A total of 139 employees at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been suspended after signing a “declaration of dissent” accusing Donald Trump’s administration of “undermining” the agency’s mission. The letter, dated 1 July, stated that the signatories “stand together against the current administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA activities, and disregard for scientific expertise”.
Addressed to EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, the letter was signed by a total of more than 400 EPA workers, of whom 170 put their names to the document, with the rest choosing to remain anonymous. Zeldin suspended the employees on 3 July, with EPA officials telling them to provide contact information so the agency could be in touch with them while they are on leave.
Copied to leaders of the US Senate and House of Representatives, the letter was organized by the Stand Up For Science pressure group. The letter states that “EPA employees join in solidarity with employees across the Federal government in opposing this administration’s policies, including those that undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
The document lists five “primary concerns”, including the scientific consensus being ignored to benefit polluters, and undermining public trust by EPA workers being distracted from protecting public health and the environment through objective science-based policy.
The letter adds that the EPA’s progress in the US’s most vulnerable communities is being reversed through the cancellation of environmental justice programmes, while budget cuts to the Office of Research and Development, which helps support the agency’s rules on environmental protection and human health, mean it cannot meet the EPA’s science needs. The letter also points to a culture of fear at the EPA, with staff being forced to choose between their livelihood and well-being.
In response to the letter, Zeldin said he had a “ZERO tolerance policy for agency bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the agenda of this administration”. An EPA statement, sent to Physics World, notes that the letter “contains information that misleads the public about agency business”, adding that the letter’s signatories “represent a small fraction of the thousands of [agency] employees”. On 18 July Zeldin then announced a plan to eliminate the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which could lead to more than 1000 agency scientists being sacked.
Climate concerns
In late July, more than 280 NASA employees signed a similar declaration of dissent protesting against staff cuts at the agency as well as calling on the acting head of NASA not to make the budget cuts Trump proposed. Another example of the tension in US science took place in May when hundreds of staff from the National Science Foundation (NSF) gathered in front of NSF headquarters for a photo marking the agency’s 75th birthday. NSF officials, who had been criticized for seeking to cut the agency’s budget and staff, and slash the proportion of scientific grants’ costs allowed for ancillary expenses, refused to support the event with an official photographer.
Staff then used their own photographer, but they could only take a shot from a public space at the side of the building. In late June, the administration announced that the NSF will have to quit the building, which it has occupied since 2017. No new location for the headquarters has been announced, with NSF spokesperson Michelle Negrón declining to comment on the issue. The new tenant will be the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Department of Energy, meanwhile, has announced that it will hire three scientists who have expressed doubts about the scientific consensus on climate change – although details of the trio’s job descriptions remain unknown. They are Steven Koonin, a physicist at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, along with atmospheric scientist John Christy, director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Alabama meteorologist Roy Spencer.
The appointments come as the administration is taking steps to de-emphasize government research on climate and weather science. The proposed budget for financial year 2026 would close 10 labs belonging to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA’s National Weather Service has already lost 600 of its 4200 employees this year, while NASA has announced that it will no longer host the National Climate Assessment website globalchange.gov.
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