EPA Fires Some Staffers Who Signed Letter Critical of Leadership

The EPA on Friday terminated at least five of the roughly 140 employees who signed a public letter in June critical of the agency’s political leadership, according to the staffers’ union.

At least 10 other tenured employees have gotten a notice of proposed removal, said Nicole Cantello, an EPA lawyer and president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704. The remaining staffers’ administrative leave has been extended.

An EPA spokeswoman confirmed that agency supervisors “made decisions on an individualized basis” after a thorough internal investigation, but didn’t answer questions about how many staffers were affected, saying the agency doesn’t comment on individual personnel matters.

The letter, addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, claimed the agency has ignored scientific consensus to benefit polluters, turned its back on environmental justice communities, and promoted “a culture of fear, forcing staff to choose between their livelihood and well-being.”

One example the signatories cited was a March statement describing the EPA’s deregulatory agenda, in which Zeldin referred to “the climate change religion.”

The spokeswoman on Friday repeated the EPA’s position that the petition “contains inaccurate information designed to mislead the public about agency business.”

However, the staffers’ action “represents a small fraction of the thousands of hard-working, dedicated EPA employees who are not trying to mislead and scare the American public,” the spokeswoman said.

“The agency’s blatant retaliation against the brave employees who signed the letter flies in the face of everything we know in this country about free speech and the protection of whistleblowers,” Cantello told Bloomberg Law.

The firings are the latest example of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overhaul the federal workforce. Trump on Thursday nullified a handful of government unions, expanding a March executive order that has sharply limited federal-sector collective bargaining.