Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.
The Trump administration plans to fire more than 1,000 scientists in the EPA’s research arm. The layoffs are part of a “reduction in force” that comes after the agency already fired hundreds of probationary workers. (A federal judge has since ordered that these employees be reinstated, and though the administration has complied, most of the workers have been placed on administrative leave.)
According to documents reviewed by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and reported by the New York Times, the Trump administration plans to dissolve the EPA’s entire Office of Research and Development (ORD) and cut up to 75% of its workers, placing the rest elsewhere in the agency.
The move could improve the agency’s ability to create policies with influence from corporate entities rather than scientists’ input. Chris Frey, who led the Office of Research and Development under the Biden administration, told the New York Times that shuttering the office would grant the EPA more freedom to impose its policies. “It’s certainly convenient for certain stakeholders to have O.R.D. silenced,” Frey said.
Chemists, biologists, toxicologists, atmospheric scientists, and other experts at the Office of Research and Development are responsible for ensuring that EPA rules that support public health—from PFAS limits in drinking water to air quality standards—are guided by independent research and backed by data. The office runs multiple research programs studying air and water pollution, public health, homeland security, climate change, and chemical safety.
Firing scientists involved in this research runs counter to the EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment by ensuring that Americans have clean air, land, and water, Environmental Health News reported.
The planned firings are part of efforts by President Trump and the new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, to slash the EPA budget by 65%, which have so far included actions to close environmental justice offices, halt diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and terminate billions of dollars in grants for environmental projects.
“The notion of gutting the EPA budget — or staffing — by 65 percent is as implausible as it is unconscionable, but we must take Trump’s assertion seriously,” said Mary Grant, water program director at the environmental nonprofit Food & Water Watch, said in a statement. “Even a cut half the size of Trump’s shocking assertion would have immediate and stark repercussions on the health and welfare of people from coast to coast.”
—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer
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