President Trump said Wednesday that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin has floated cutting the agency’s workforce by up to 65 percent.
Speaking at the inaugural Cabinet meeting of his second term, Trump said Zeldin “thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental. And we’re going to speed up the process, too, at the same time.”
Zeldin, a former New York congressman, was not present at the meeting Wednesday.
The EPA has a permanent staff of 17,202 as well as 1,540 temporary workers, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Trump’s comments come amid wide-reaching job cuts across federal agencies, with more reportedly coming including at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The cuts have largely targeted probationary employees, which applies to both recent hires and those who have recently received promotions, and many agencies have scrambled to rehire some personnel.
On Feb. 11, the president signed an executive order directing widespread federal layoffs, prompting a lawsuit by six unions representing government workers. On Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management issued more specific guidance directing federal agencies to turn over layoff plans by March 13.
The job cuts would be the latest of several sweeping changes the EPA chief has made at the agency since assuming leadership, many of them aimed at reversing Biden-era efforts to mitigate climate change and promote renewable energy.
Earlier this week, the EPA froze the bank accounts of nonprofits tasked with disbursing the $20 billion “green bank” program allocated by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Zeldin said earlier in February that the agency, under his leadership, planned to claw back the entirety of the funds despite court rulings ordering the end of freezes on already-allocated federal funds.
He has also reportedly recommended that the White House end its 2009 “endangerment finding” that climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions is a danger to human health.
