Energy & Environment

Energy & Environment

The Big Story

EPA workforce down more than 700 people under Trump

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is down at least 733 staffers so far this year, the agency told The Hill.

© Greg Nash

An EPA spokesperson said the agency had 16,347 staffers as of May 30, down from 17,080 staffers on Jan. 1, a few weeks before President Trump entered office.

Some of these departures were already publicly known — for example, the agency announced in April it was firing 280 staffers who worked on “environmental justice,” which focuses on pollution in overburdened and underserved communities, including communities of color.

But, that means an additional 450 people have left the agency since the start of the year. An EPA spokesperson said the figure may not include the most recent applications for early retirement, since those are still being processed.

Staffers who are still on the agency’s payroll but are on leave — either because they opted to take the “fork in the road” buyout or because they are a probationary worker whose fate is pending in court — are counted as still being on staff in the figure provided by the agency.

Further cuts likely loom at the agency as the Trump administration more broadly seeks to shrink the size of the government through reductions in force.

The administration’s proposed budget for the EPA suggests payroll cuts of 35 percent for staff working on both science and other environmental programs.

And the agency is in the process of an

© The Hill