Staff laid off and map tools shut down amidst a tumultuous week at EPA

Lee Zeldin led the Environmental Protection Agency in a short and a half weeks. HR movements shaking wildly, rattling some staff, like many others.

On the day of Zeldin's confirmation last week, the EPA notified about 1,100 “probation” employees that they could close at any time for less than one year.

Then on Thursday, the agency placed 168 staff members on administrative leave. The affected people were working on environmental justice issues across the EPA's 10 regional offices and headquarters.

This week, the agency removed an online mapping tool called EJScreen. It was being used by federal, state and local governments to make decisions that support environmental justice. The term explains the idea that people should have equitable access to a clean, healthy environment, and that some underserved communities face historically unbalanced environmental harms. It refers to. For example, state highway agencies You can use EJScreen Check demographic information for which the road construction project was planned.

Zeldin took on his post a day after a federal worker received a “road fork” email offering resignation shopping. Their deadline to accept the offer was Thursday night, but a federal judge put the initiative on hold that day, following legal challenges from the union. The program will be blocked until at least Monday.

in Addresses to staff viewed by over 10,000 people On Tuesday, Zeldin said he has the authority to streamline the EPA and reduce the waste in it.

“We accused Congress of being as efficient as possible with the taxes sent to us,” Zeldin said, adding that Americans “are feeling a lot of financial pain.” Ta.

His initial actions and the shock they inflict on staff suggest that Zeldin and the Trump administration are not wasting time dramatically reworking the EPA and redefine its purpose. .

Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Molly Vaserio said the EPA is focused on adhering to President Donald Trump's executive orders, including an order entitled “Extreme and Waste Government DEI Program.” Ta.

“The EPA is enthusiastically implementing President Trump's executive order and subsequent related implementation memos. President Trump has been elected to delegate from the Americans to do this,” Vaselio said. .

Several EPA staff members said fear and hype quickly permeated the agency.

“The past two weeks have been pretty scary,” said Marie Owens Powell, chairman of the U.S. Government Employees Federation Council 238, the union representing around 8,500 EPA staff. “Every day, it was something. It was exhausting.”

Powell worked As an EPA Storage Tank InspectorAdded that there were other recent surprises, such as when the pronouns of staff preference were removed from email signatures without notice.

Another EPA worker asked that his name not be made public due to fear of retaliation, but explained that the feeling was “limbo” or “purgatory.”

“We are afraid of doing work that can be seen as completely opposed to the executive order or against Trump's agenda. We want to speak up and push back. But the fear is obvious,” the staff said. “We're all waiting to see who's next.”

Vaseliou met with staff at the Career EPA to visit several disaster sites, including East Palestine, Ohio, and visited several disaster sites, including trains carrying chemicals in February 2023, and to visit several disaster sites, and toxins. He said he had spent his first few weeks of emitting smoke. He also went to Los Angeles. There, a wildfire that broke out last month raided thousands of homes and headed to West North Carolina where Hurricane Helene killed dozens of people.

In Zeldin's news release on Tuesday We laid out five priorities For the EPA under his leadership, including an effort to “pursuing energy independence,” we will develop “the cleanest energy on the planet” to ensure clean air and water. However, some of his agenda diverges from the core mission of the EPA, at least as it operates under past administrations. These include advances in artificial intelligence, reforming and reviving permits for auto work.

Jeremy Simmons, senior adviser to the Environmental Protection Network, a former EPA staff group, said he is worried about the direction the agency is on the lead, based on Zeldin's statement.

“If you're worried about toxic contamination in your community, it's difficult to see yourself on that agenda,” said Symons, who worked at the EPA from 1994 to 2001, in the service of the political agenda. ”

Congressional Democrats appear to be preparing for the fight for the future of the EPA. D-Mass. Sen. Ed Markey of the group attempted to enter agency headquarters on Thursday, calling for a meeting with representatives from Elon Musk's Government Efficiency Bureau.

“We just went in and asked for a meeting with a representative from Doge. We were denied and we were turned away,” Markey said at a press conference outside the building.

Vaseliou said he had not taken the appropriate steps necessary to allow Markey to enter headquarters and described the event as a “promotion stunt.”

A Markey spokesperson said Thursday that the senator has not received confirmation as to whether Doge's representatives are at the EPA. However, multiple sources say the names of workers that NBC News identified as members of Doge member Cole Killian were listed in the EPA directory.

Emails to Killian's EPA email requesting an interview were not immediately returned. Vaseliou did not answer questions about Killian or whether he was connected to Doge.

When asked about Marquee's concerns on Thursday, White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said Democrats were “gaslighting” about Doge's mission.

“To reduce waste, fraud, abuse and become a better steward of the hard-earned dollars for American taxpayers may be a crime for Democrats, but it's not a crime in court,” Fields said. I said that.