Trump Administration announces the reorganization and employee of employees at the EPA: NPR

The Trump administration Plans announced For a significant restructuring of the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday and signaled important cuts in the upcoming staff – especially for the agency's scientific research arm.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the EPA Expected that the staff will be reduced to similar levels of the 1980s when President Ronald Reagan occupied the White House in order to “work as efficiently and effectively as possible”.

That could possibly mean thousands of fewer employees. The agency currently has a workforce of About 15,000 people. The occupation during the Reagan administration fluctuated between around 11,000 and 14,000 employees.

The agency plans significant changes in the office for research and development, the wing of the EPA, which offers scientific analyzes on the risks of air pollution, chemicals and other environmental hazards. It is planned to move some research assistants from Ord to existing insurance offices that write provisions and send others to newly created offices.

In a meeting on Friday, the EPA leadership informed the employees of Ord to expect cuts in the coming weeks.

The former EPA official Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta says that the reorganization could undermine research at the EPA and its ability to protect human health.

“By dividing things or eliminating this know-how, we humans expose a higher risk and set a higher risk of this country,” says Orme-Zavaleta.

In the past, the Ord has carried out independent scientific reviews on the risk of pollution, from lead in drinking water to air pollution. His scientists have provided fundamental research on some of the most demanding environmental problems in the country.

Ord researchers were some of the first to identify sources of Pfas as health risks over a decade ago. Before you research from A North Carolina Laboratory established direct connections between breathing in various quantities of ozone – the main component of the smog – and the health problems such as asthma. The political decision -makers within the agency rely on the ordinary science to design rules to protect the Americans from pollution.

The EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced a reorganization to “operate the EPA as efficiently and effectively as possible”. The redesign would create several new offices, but the employees of the agency asked the employees to expect significant employment cuts in the coming weeks.

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Experts are concerned that employees and budget changes can lead to large cuts in research. Zeldin has previously announced His intention to lower the overall budget of the EPA around 65% in the coming years. In his budget, which was submitted to the congress this week, the Trump government called for a reduction in Ords Budget of around 45%.

“The extent of this type of cuts would really affect the entire research company of the EPA,” says Chris Frey, a research dean of North Carolina State University, who led ARM during the Biden administration.

In an operating ED Friday in NewsweekAccording to the Zeldin, the reorganization efforts should “transform the EPA into a more efficient and more effective agency”.

He says that the proposed changes will be estimated by 2026 9 billion dollars.

Research assistants are concerned about “music chairs”

In a meeting on Friday, the EPA executives encouraged the 1,500 employees to apply for the approximately 500 new positions created in the restructuring.

“I have the feeling that they play music chairs but take half of the chairs out, and everyone else is cut,” says an EPA personnel scholar who took part in the meeting. NPR does not use its name because they fear for the retribution to speak publicly.

The restructuring is only the latest change in the EPA. In March, Zeldin terminated ambitious plans for checking and potentially back More than two dozen environmental rules and guidelines.

The agency at the beginning of this year announced It would conclude offices that concentrate on environmental justice and variety, equity and inclusion and finance millions of dollars of scholarships. In his explanation Friday, The agency said These cuts led to a reduction in around 280 people, while 175 people were transferred to other offices.

In the first 100 days, the Trump government has cut cuts in scientific programs throughout the federal government. It has Hundreds of scientists fired at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and lowered financing for research research National health institutes and the National Science Foundation. It has too Dismissed scientists who work on national climate evaluationThe government's flagship about how global warming affects the USA