The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is on track to reduce its workforce by nearly 25% by the end of the calendar year, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
The agency plans to shrink its staff from about 16,400 to approximately 12,500 full-time employees by the end of 2025, an EPA spokesperson told the DCNF. Since returning to office, the Trump administration has sought to refocus the agency on its core mission of protecting human health and the environment, after its budget and workforce ballooned on former President Joe Biden’s watch.
The staff reductions are expected to deliver significant savings to taxpayers, on top of the more than $29 billion the agency says it has saved by canceling or scaling back grants and contracts that were awarded during the previous administration.
Since January, the Trump EPA has focused on improving efficiency and rolling back billions in “environmental justice” grants that were doled out during the Biden administration, while targeting offices performing functions not aligned with the administration’s priorities.
“The last administration had a huge boon in terms of funding. They hired more people. And yet, despite all of that, backlogs of permitting went up. Backlogs in reviewing state implementation plans went up, backlogs in reviewing new chemicals went up, backlogs in reviewing new pesticides went up,” EPA Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi told the DCNF in June.
“So, I don’t think it’s as much a matter of how many individuals are in the building or not. It’s more a matter of: do we have the type of leadership that we need to ensure that folks are in the right positions doing the work that they are skilled and able to do?”
Despite the ongoing government shutdown, the EPA continues to carry out essential functions such as the removal of hazardous waste and developing safety guidelines to protect communities from toxic materials. However, as Democrats block efforts to reopen the government, the agency warns that it will face increasing difficulty maintaining these operations.
“The Trump EPA is committed to protecting the environment and ensuring America has the cleanest air, land, and water in the world while growing our economy, but Democrats are content to allow our funding to run out,” an EPA spokesperson told the DCNF. “They are preventing us from securing funding needed to continue these important programs and impeding our ability to deliver clean air, land, and water for Americans.”
Government funding lapsed on Oct. 1 after most Senate Democrats rejected a bipartisan continuing resolution to avert a shutdown. Democrats have tied their support to $1.5 trillion in new spending for left-leaning priorities, including extending Obamacare subsidy expansions projected to cost hundreds of billions over the next decade.
“They are prioritizing their own radical policy agenda that could undermine both environmental progress and economic stability in pursuit of their $1.5 trillion poison-packed wish list at the expense of the American people. Congressional Democrats can end this shutdown right now by voting for our clean, bipartisan funding extension instead of playing political games,” the spokesperson said.
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