Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin told CNN host Phil Mattingly Tuesday that according to a brief he received, as few as 5% of EPA employees showed up to the office on Mondays and Fridays.
President Donald Trump ordered federal employees to return to the office in an executive order signed Jan. 20. Zeldin said that “showing up” was important during the interview on “CNN Newsroom.”
“I think it’s important for our team to be showing up. I was just briefed yesterday that on Mondays and Fridays, the EPA headquarters was averaging about 5 to 8% capacity. I mean, think about how low that number is,” Zeldin told Mattingly. “We need people in the office collaborating, working together. We need to be productive and efficient. As far as ramping up efforts on the ground, right now in Los Angeles, EPA has just launched what is the largest wildfire cleanup in the history of the EPA.”
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“As of today, the last number that I got, we have over 1,100 people in the field cleaning up hazardous materials,” Zeldin continued. “We’re still finishing up in western North Carolina, but I think it’s very important, Phil, that we have our team here in headquarters and in the regions showing up, working hard and making the American public proud.”
The EPA sent the Daily Caller News Foundation datasheets showing occupancy at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. dating from April 2024 to the present when asked for comment.
“I went through an entire wing where no door was open and no one was inside,” Zeldin said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “I went to other offices where there were lots of people there, working hard. We’re occupying a beautiful, historic, massive building. And we shouldn’t have hallways that are this quiet. The American people pay us to work for them.”
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa issued a 60-page report Dec. 5 that covered findings from her investigation into federal employee telework after sending letters to 24 government agencies in August of 2023 seeking answers on the several issues that have arisen due to remote work.
Ernst’s report also detailed the impact vacant office buildings have on the workforce.
The Trump administration has also eyed ways to reduce the federal office space in Washington, D.C. that costs millions of taxpayer dollars to keep open and operational, despite the scarce number of in-person federal workers occupying the buildings on a daily basis.
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