Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is working to transform the Agency in a dramatic way by proposing massive staffing reductions and a reorganization of the regional offices. Here are some of the steps Pruitt has taken on the personnel front:
In March, the Trump budget proposal for FY 2018 included a 31 percent cut in EPA’s budget and a 25 percent reduction in workforce.
- In April, reports circulated about an EPA plan to close the Region 5 office based in Chicago. The responsibilities of the office would shift to a regional office in Missouri.
- Although the administration has lifted its hiring freeze for federal agencies, the EPA has kept its moratorium in place and will offer early buyouts for employees who leave the Agency.
- Pruitt started to explore ways to hire private lawyers to rewrite the Waters of the U.S. regulation, a controversial rule that the Trump administration has vowed to rework. While it’s not clear that the administration will ultimately use this tool, it does signal a major shift in the way that EPA will operate, relying less on the experts inside the Agency and more on private sector attorneys.
Large budget cuts and personnel reductions will require signoff from Congress and it’s unlikely that Capitol Hill will agree to the scale of the Trump proposal. For example, in the latest FY 2017 funding package, the EPA saw only a 1 percent reduction in its budget.
Nevertheless, some cuts are certain to materialize and the uncertainty of the outlook has had a real effect on the employees of the Agency. Many workers are understandably concerned that their jobs will be eliminated – or that their workload will increase dramatically if their position survives. Career EPA workers are looking for new opportunities and pursuing new options, which will hollow out the expertise within the EPA reflecting another possible goal of the administration – greatly limiting the Agency’s power.