Questions still linger over EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s plans to revamp the agency, with another round of organizational changes expected as soon as next week.
The plans laid out May 2 included new organizational charts that suggest the elimination of — or, at the very least, the relocation of — key programs tackling climate change, “forever chemicals” and pollution prevention.
Those plans affect four program offices — air, administrators, chemicals and water, which together represent roughly one-third of the agency’s workforce.
EPA has not acknowledged questions regarding restructuring for the agency’s other programs: land, enforcement, mission support, financial, general counsel, and intergovernmental and tribal affairs. But employees at the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance could learn the fate of their branch at a town hall meeting scheduled for next Tuesday.
Last Friday’s announcement was “part of a larger, comprehensive effort to restructure the entire agency,” an EPA spokesperson said in an email. “EPA is working expeditiously through the reorganization process and will provide additional information when it’s available.”
Here’s what EPA’s reorganization plan reveals:
1. Water Office: Scientists dispersed, cyber office created
EPA’s Office of Water will gain a new Chief of Staff division and an office focused on the growing cybersecurity threats facing the water sector.
It will lose its Office of Science and Technology, housing scientists and engineers, who will be dispersed among several other water programs. An EPA spokesperson said this would “better align the development of regulations, guidance, and policy with the science that underpins it.”
The elimination of the science-focused office has some former EPA officials concerned about the agency’s ability to set water quality standards, health advisories and other policies that fall under its purview.
But Mae Wu, the former deputy administrator for water under the Biden administration, said “the work can still get done” so long as jobs are not cut. The shift could also protect scientists “from the magnifying glass” as the Trump administration contemplates deeper cuts down the line, she said.
Cybersecurity has been a growing challenge for the water sector, with a slew of water utilities having been hit with ransomware attacks. In smaller communities, water departments are sometimes run on a shoestring budget and lack experts in cybersecurity to ensure treatment systems are protected. EPA’s new Office of Water Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Resiliency will help address those concerns, although no new policies have been announced.
The reorganization comes as the Trump administration has proposed massive cuts to the drinking water and clean water state revolving funds, major federal funding streams to improve and maintain the nation’s water infrastructure. But EPA’s organization chart shows it will leave intact the Clean Water State Revolving Fund division, as well as a Drinking Water Infrastructure division and a team focused on drinking water grants.
2. Chemicals office: New positions, dissolved right-to-know division
Pollution prevention and right-to-know functions have either been eliminated or relocated, according to the proposed organizational structure for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention shared with POLITICO’s E&E News.
OCSPP staffers were told during an all-hands meeting May 2 that the restructuring would not result in layoffs. Employees whose positions no longer exist would be reassigned elsewhere, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.
Under the Office Pollution Prevention and Toxics, three of its current divisions — Data Gathering, Management and Policy; Project Management and Operations; and Sustainability, Pollution Prevention and Right-to-Know — would no longer exist. A new Data, Grants, Standards and Prioritization division would replace all three.
One program in jeopardy, for example, is the industry-supported program Safer Choice, a voluntary program in which companies submit their products for review, and, if approved, are granted clearance to label their detergents, soaps, etc., with the Safer Choice logo.
The Office of Program Support has been rebranded to the Office of Mission Critical Operations, with each of its three divisions also getting new names.
No changes were made to the Office of Pesticide Programs’ structure.
“OCSPP will be growing by at least 130 people, and these [full-time equivalents] will be incorporated into the office’s existing structure,” EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said, adding that the office is seeking experts “in not just toxicology and exposure science but also fields including bioinformatics, computational toxicology, NAMs, ecotoxicology, PBPK modeling, chemoinformatics and other specialties.”
3. Air Office: New offices created, climate work quashed
At least on paper, the Office of Air and Radiation is set for its biggest overhaul since the 1970s. Of its four major divisions, two would disappear, with two new branches picking up at least some of their portfolio.
Gone will be both the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, which sets National Ambient Air Quality Standards and writes the emission rules covering a myriad of industrial sources, and the Office of Atmospheric Protection, which handles most of EPA’s climate work. Both are currently led by career employees.
In their stead, the restructuring will create the Office of Clean Air Programs and the Office of State Air Partnerships.
The first “will align statutory obligations and mission essential functions based on centers of expertise to ensure more transparency and harmony in regulatory development,” according to an EPA news release.
The second will focus on “working with, not against, state, local and tribal air permitting agencies to improve processing” of clean air compliance plans and also to resolve permitting concerns, the release said.
EPA press aides did not respond to questions about the specific duties that each of those two new offices will have.
As E&E News has previously reported, however, the Trump administration plans to scrap Energy Star, the appliance energy efficiency rating program housed in the Office of Atmospheric Protection. It also appears that the new structure will end the office’s work on climate.
Briefing slides viewed by E&E News suggest that the Office of Clean Air Programs would continue to set ambient air quality standards while also adding branches with names like the “Chemicals & Innovation” and “Fuels and Waste Management.” Exactly what those branches will do is not explained.
The Office of State Air Partnerships would pick up responsibilities for monitoring and other facets of air quality assessment, the slides indicate, and include divisions for “regulatory programs” and “air agency support.”
The two other currently existing OAR divisions — the Office of Transportation and Air Quality and the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air — would remain. But the slides indicate that the transportation office’s internal structure would change, in part through creation of a “legacy emissions” branch
4. Office of Children’s Health moved to science office
EPA is losing its standalone Office of Children’s Health Protection under the reorganization. The small team will now be part of the new Office of Applied Sciences and Environmental Solutions, along with what remains of the Office of Research and Development.
Created under the Clinton administration, the children’s health office helps ensure EPA regulations are sufficiently protective for children and babies, who are more vulnerable than adults to environmental health hazards. It also works on environmental outreach campaigns with parents, nonprofits and local officials in different regions of the U.S.
Project 2025, the conservative policy playbook from the Heritage Foundation and people in President Donald Trump’s orbit, called for eliminating the office.
Over the years, children’s health experts at EPA have successfully pushed the agency to enact more health-protective regulations on issues such as pesticides, said Jeanne Briskin, who directed the office during the Biden administration.
“The children’s health office is an underappreciated office,” Briskin said. “The [other] programs do their best to follow statute and science and human health. But we do a lot of education to explain that children are not little adults.”
Staff who currently work in the office are hoping their work will continue under the new structure, Briskin added.
5. Research office functions redistributed
Vaseliou said the ORD was not part of the plans announced Friday.
Employees were told during an ORD town hall May 2 that plans were still under construction and no decisions have been made. Political leaders reaffirmed that message again during a second ORD town hall held Wednesday, according to two employees who attended the meeting.
At least some of the office’s core activities would be transferred to the newly created Office of Applied Sciences and Environmental Solutions, which falls under the Office of the Administrator umbrella. Its mission is to develop solutions to “inform Agency risk assessments and risk management actions” — which heavily overlaps with the Integrated Risk Information System division’s current functions.
Senior-level ORD employees have told staff that EPA’s science functions are being absorbed by other programs, according to one source familiar with the plans.
Research office employees have been on guard for weeks, since draft restructuring plans to dissolve the ORD and fire or reassign staffers leaked to the press in March.
Reach reporters Ellie Borst, Sean Reilly and Miranda Willson on Signal at eborst.64, SeanReilly.70 and mirandawillson.99, respectively.
Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly listed the status of the Office of Children’s Health under the reorganization. It also incorrectly included the inspector general’s office in a list of EPA program offices. The Office of Inspector General is independent and is not an EPA program office.
