A string of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump has thrown the Environmental Protection Agency into chaos, disrupting operations with quick policy flip-flops and stoking a tense mood among its staff outside the federal agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“A lot of people are upset and confused,” said one employee of the Office of Air and Radiation with decades of experience working at the EPA.
(Editor’s note: EPA staff have been instructed to speak to the media only through approved channels. On Wednesday, HCN approached dozens of federal workers outside the agency’s main office. A handful agreed to share their experiences from the past week under the condition of anonymity.)
The staffer said that he has worked under several presidential administration transitions during his career. He called the first days of the Trump administration’s second term “unprecedented,” due to the speed with which the president has penned new executive orders seemingly without internal scrutiny. Several of the orders have been criticized as unconstitutional or illegal.
“A lot of people are upset and confused.”
Among the latest decrees was a broad, temporary order to halt federal grant and loans — paused by a federal judge the following day — that many governmental agencies, including the EPA, disburse to enact their missions. In a memo released on Monday evening, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which reports directly to the president, ordered the freeze on over $3 trillion in federal spending that Congress had already allocated. On the EPA’s side, that meant a pause in roughly $37 billion in grants and other program funding. (In an email response to a request for comment on the funding freeze, the EPA wrote that it is “deferring to the Department of Justice.”)
The federal judge stopped the spending pause just before it was set to take effect. Less than 24 hours later — in a curt two-sentence-long statement — the White House rescinded the memo. But the administration vowed to continue with its spending review to determine whether each funding program is in line with Trump’s agenda, according to a statement by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. “The President’s (executive orders) on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented,” she posted on the social media platform X.
The day after the OMB directive, the EPA complied, cutting off the disbursement of federal funds for all of its programs. Despite the federal judge’s ruling, several EPA grant recipients told E&E News that they were locked out of the agency’s funding portal, which is used to distribute federal funds, as of Wednesday.
The long-term consequences to the EPA’s programming would be more costly than the short-term savings the administration would gain, said Jeremy Symons, a senior advisor at the Environmental Protection Network, an environmental policy nonprofit staffed by hundreds of former employees of the EPA.
At the end of the day, the public’s well-being and ability to live in a healthy environment are at stake, Symons said.
The EPA awards grants to states, tribes and local governments for projects that promote safe drinking water, restore Superfund sites, support wildfire health protections and enable tribal-led environmental initiatives, among other programs. All of which could potentially dry up without the funding Congress has already approved. The administration’s move all but declares an “open season on public health,” Symons said. “The only people who win when EPA money is shut off are corporate polluters and lobbyists who want the EPA cut down to size.”
The OMB memo on the funding pause arrived on the heels of other similarly drastic decrees. On his first day in office, President Trump signed a hiring freeze on all federal civil servant positions and a removal of protections against employees’ being fired for perceived disloyalty. Last Friday, the White House fired as many as 17 inspectors general covering 18 agencies, including internal watchdogs at the EPA. Then, on Tuesday, to further cull the federal workforce, the Trump administration dangled a buyout offer to its two million federal employees: Those who resign by February 6 will continue receiving wages until September.
“The only people who win when EPA money is shut off are corporate polluters and lobbyists who want the EPA cut down to size.”
The EPA has an aging workforce — about 30% of the agency’s employees are retirement eligible, according to one EPA scientist who works in human health and product analysis. Trump’s decision to pause hiring and encourage resignations will cost the EPA institutional knowledge and hamper its ability to protect the environment as many senior officials leave, the worker said.
Some EPA staffers are hopeful that the barrage of hostile executive orders won’t make a huge dent in day-to-day operations. At the end of the day, said one staff member who has worked at the EPA for over 20 years, the EPA follows the laws passed by Congress and held up by the courts. Any change to the agency’s mission would necessitate a change to the law that must follow set steps. Tweaking the air quality standards in the Clean Air Act, for example, requires soliciting expert input and public comment, as well as a congressional review.
“The regulatory process is not fast,” the staff member said. “It’s too early to tell” what the impacts of the spate of executive orders will be, he went on.
For now, many EPA workers are resisting Trump’s attempt to dismantle environmental protections — by continuing to do their jobs in support of the agency’s goals.
New administration or no, “I’m in it for the long game,” said the scientist who works on human-product analysis.
Another staffer who works in pesticides regulations was asked whether he would accept the buyout. “They’ll have to drag me out before I go,” he responded.
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