EPA shifts scientists toward approving new chemicals — and hints at future staff cuts

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will shift the focus of its science researchers toward approving new chemicals — and indicated it may be preparing to cut hundreds or thousands of jobs.

In a press release issued Friday, the EPA said it would be “shifting its scientific expertise and research efforts,” including by transferring 130 experts to the agency’s chemicals office. 

It said that these employees would work on approving new chemicals and pesticides — noting that there’s currently a backlog of 504 chemicals and 12,000 pesticides. 

More broadly, agency science will be transferred to its program offices and scientists will be put to work on what the agency described as “statutory obligations and mission essential functions.”

Critics of the decision expressed concerns that transferring scientists to other offices could lead to political interference in their findings. 

Chitra Kumar, a former official in the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, said the agency’s Office of Research Development is “intentionally separate from EPA’s policy offices, ensuring it produces unbiased studies.”

“Its research is transparent and always subjected to rigorous, independent external peer review. As a result, the science it produces is world class. Moving ORD scientists into policy offices could subject those experts to political influence, particularly in this administration,” said Kumar, who is now managing director of the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a written statement.

In a video accompanying the press release, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the changes were part of a broader reshaping of the agency and said that in the future, the agency’s staffing levels could be reduced.

“This is all part of a larger, comprehensive effort to restructure the agency, and when finalized, EPA expects to have staffing levels near those seen when President Ronald Reagan occupied the White House,” Zeldin said. 

As of January, the EPA had more than 15,000 employees. During the Reagan era, EPA staffing ranged from nearly 11,000 to about 14,000 workers. 

An EPA spokesperson clarified that the changes announced Friday do not themselves include layoffs.

“This is a reorganization, not a reduction in force. No staff are being let go with this announcement,” the spokesperson said via email.

The announcements come as the EPA has considered eliminating the Office of Research and Development and firing as many as 1,100 of its employees, according to documents reviewed by the Democratic staff of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

The EPA also announced other organizational changes on Friday. They include unspecified “changes” to the Office of Water to “better align the development of regulations, guidance, and policy with the science that underpins it.”

The agency is also creating an Office of State Air Partnerships to work with states to process their air pollution plans and address “concerns” related to pollution permits. And its creating a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions that it said will “align research and put science at the forefront of the agency’s rulemakings and technical assistance to states.”

The agency said that this phase of the broader reorganization will save taxpayers more than  $300 million annually.