The Trump administration announced a major shake-up Friday at EPA that includes axing the agency’s stand-alone research and science office, which could spur resignations and transform research priorities.
In place of EPA’s Office of Research and Development, a centralized arm for research and science that employs over 1,500 people, the agency said it will reassign staff “to tackle statutory obligations and mission essential functions.”
“Organizational improvements to the personnel structure” will affect four of EPA’s programs, under the administrator, air, chemicals and water offices, according to an agency news release.
EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said the announcement “is a reorganization, not a reduction in force. No staff are being let go with this announcement.”
Staffers were asked to attend program-specific town hall meetings late Friday afternoon, where more details would be revealed, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the meetings.
Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, who spent 40 years at EPA and previously was principal deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Research and Development, said getting rid of the office could create more redundancies at EPA and open up research and science to political influence.
It could also spur staffers to quit, she said.
“I think that’s the intent of all this,” Orme-Zavaleta said. “Between the second round of deferred resignations and the reorganization plan, that’s timed to drive as many people out of the agency as they can.”
The agency will create a new office called the “Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions,” focused on science for regulations and on technical assistance to states, Administrator Lee Zeldin said.
And roughly 130 staff in ORD will be moved to the chemicals program office to help clear a backlog of new chemicals awaiting review before entering the market.
EPA said those changes would help the agency create a “PFAS testing strategy,” referring to the toxic human-made chemicals, to further “our understanding of PFAS and its impacts on human health and the environment.”
EPA in the news release estimated the reorganization will lead to $300 million in savings over the next fiscal year, representing a fraction of the agency’s current $9 billion budget
The reorganization plan has spurred some concern from staffers who were granted anonymity to speak freely and to avoid retaliation.
“Many people have told me they would rather resign than go work in OCSPP’s new chemicals program,” said one employee in EPA’s research office.
“As an EPA employee hired at the end of the Reagan administration, I can attest to my experience having multiple programs desperately competing to staff up again,” they added. “I had just finished grad school in public health/environmental policy and had three competing job offers at EPA.”
While it’s unclear how many jobs will be eliminated under the reorganization, Zeldin said he wants staffing levels to ultimately resemble those seen under President Ronald Reagan. The lowest number recorded during the Reagan administration was in 1983, when the workforce was 10,832 though it as high as 14,443 employees in fiscal 1988.
EPA during the first fiscal quarter of 2025 had approximately 14,700 full-time equivalents, according to documents obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.
More are expected to leave soon, following EPA’s second offer to most staffers to take early retirement or “early-out” offers. Approximately 545 employees took the first offer that was sent to federal workers across the entire government, an agency spokesperson confirmed.
