The Environmental Protection Agency placed 139 employees on administrative leave pending an investigation into what they called an attempt to illegally sabotage Donald Trump's agenda. The employees singed a 'declaration of dissent' published Monday that claimed the agency is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment.
The letter, written by an organization called 'Stand Up 4 Science,' represented rare public criticism from employees who knew they could face blowback for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal support for climate, environmental and health science. In a statement to DailyMail.com the agency declared that the rebel employees were attempting to undermine Trump's mandate. 'The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration's agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,' a spokesperson said.
EPA head Lee Zeldin (pictured right) also spoke out, telling The Daily Caller: 'Unfortunately, a small number of employees signed onto a public letter, written as agency employees, using their official work title, that was riddled with misinformation regarding agency business.' Employees were notified that they had been placed in a 'temporary, non-duty, paid status' for the next two weeks, pending an 'administrative investigation,' according to a copy of an email sent out. 'It is important that you understand that this is not a disciplinary action,' the email read.
In a statement released Thursday night, Stand Up 4 Science said the employees were unclear about where they stood, as Zeldin never directly responded to their letter. 'Though we are still gathering information on this situation, we condemn these actions. These are dedicated civil servants whose career goal is to keep Americans safe,' Colette Delawalla, the head of the activist organization said.
More than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation, according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA scientists or academics to also sign. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health made a similar move in June when nearly 100 employees signed a declaration that assailed Trump administration 'policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.' An additional 250 of their colleagues endorsed the declaration without using their names.
But no one at NIH has been placed on administrative leave for signing the declaration and there has been no known retribution against them, Jenna Norton, a lead organizer of the statement, told AP on Thursday. Norton oversees health disparity research at the agency´s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, in his confirmation hearings, had pledged openness to views that might conflict with his own, saying dissent is the 'essence of science.' A former Congressman, Zeldin has attempted to serve the efforts of both the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency to cut waste, fraud and abuse at the EPA . In February, Zeldin identified where $20 billion of climate-related funds purposefully wasted by the Biden administration landed.
He says Biden cronies dumped millions into a secretive unnamed 'outside financial institution.' It all came to light in a recent 'disturbing' video showing a Biden EPA political appointee. The employee bragged abut how the administration was 'tossing gold bars off the Titanic' and rushing to get 'billions of your tax dollars out the door before Inauguration Day,' Zeldin said in a video. 'The gold bars were tax dollars, and tossing them off the Titanic meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it.' Zeldin said his team discovered where exactly the billions were intentionally placed by the outgoing Biden officials after they bragged about handing the money over to nonprofits to make it harder for Republicans to recover the funds.
Critics of Zeldin say he has cut funding for environmental improvements in minority communities, vowed to roll back federal regulations that lower air pollution in national parks and tribal reservations, wants to undo a ban on a type of asbestos and proposed repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. Zeldin began reorganizing the EPA´s research and development office as part of his push to slash its budget and gut its study of climate change and environmental justice.
And he´s seeking to roll back pollution rules that an AP examination found were estimated to save 30,000 lives and $275 billion every year. The EPA responded to the employees' letter earlier this week by saying policy decisions 'are a result of a process where Administrator Zeldin is briefed on the latest research and science by EPA´s career professionals, and the vast majority who are consummate professionals who take pride in the work this agency does day in and day out.'