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August 30, 2025<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
EPA Fires \u2018Dissent\u2019 Statement Signers<\/p>\n
The EPA fired five agency employees who signed a June declaration decrying moves that contradict science and undermine public health, alongside four more served removal notices<\/p>\n
By Dan Vergano edited by Jeanna Bryner<\/span><\/p>\n EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin<\/p>\n Kayla Bartkowski\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The Environmental Protection Agency fired five agency employees who had openly signed a June declaration critical of the Trump administration\u2019s weakening of pollution, climate and health safety rules. Four more were served removal notices by the agency.<\/p>\n “EPA supervisors made decisions on an individualized basis,” following investigations, according to an agency statement released on Friday, first reported by the Washington Post.<\/p>\n In the June \u201cDeclaration of Dissent,\u201d hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency employees had decried the administration\u2019s moves to \u201cundermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.\u201d Their complaints ranged from EPA ignoring science to \u201cbenefit polluters\u201d to the agency dismantling initiatives aimed at protecting disadvantaged communities. Most EPA employees signed anonymously for fear of the type of retribution now seen in the Friday firings, which were widely anticipated after the agency moved to cancel employee bargaining and grievance rights agreements earlier in August. The employees had previously been placed on paid leave after the letter\u2019s release by the agency. This employment limbo was extended three times while they were under investigation for preparing the declaration during work hours, since extended into September for many of the remaining signatories.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Administration is blatantly lying about the sourced facts of our dissent letter, and are now blatantly retaliating and infringing on our constitutional rights.,\u201d says Michael Pasqua, an EPA employee who helps manage the safety of drinking water in Wisconsin and a signatory of the declaration.<\/p>\n During the first Trump administration\u2014noted for the scandal-ridden tenure of Scott Pruitt as the EPA\u2019s administrator between late February 2017 and early July 2018\u2014the agency rolled back more than 100 environmental rules. Now that Trump has returned to office, the administration has moved to cut back federal solar and wind power initiatives, as well as more environmental rules. Across science agencies, the administration has fired employees and advisory panel members, stopped grants and issued policies at odds with scientific findings. In July Zeldin moved to revoke the \u201cendangerment\u201d finding that serves as the linchpin for U.S. climate regulation under a 2007 Supreme Court decision.<\/p>\n In response to such moves across science agencies, hundreds of EPA, NASA, National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation staffers have signed on to public letters of dissent, rare rebukes from traditionally reticent federal employees. The letters follow the administration moving to remove tens of thousands of federal employees from agencies. In February Trump mistakenly said during a cabinet meeting that the EPA would likely cut 65 percent of its staff because \u201ca lot of people weren\u2019t doing their job.\u201d (White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers later corrected Trump to clarify that the agency was planning to cut 65 percent of its spending.)<\/p>\n More recently, in August, Federal Emergency Management Agency staffers released a \u201cKatrina Declaration,\u201d raising the alarm to Congress about spending restrictions, cuts to disaster prevention programs and \u201ccensorship\u201d of climate and environmental science at the agency. Those moves all raised the chances of a disaster like 2005\u2019s Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, which took an estimated 1,833 lives, they wrote. In response, FEMA placed 36 nonanonymous signatories on administrative leave, similar to what the EPA has done, raising concerns of firings similar to those now hitting environmental agency signatories.<\/p>\n “This is a betrayal of our nation’s most dedicated members of society\u2014we all want clear air and water for ourselves and our families,\u201d said Colette Delawalla of the advocacy group, Stand Up for Science, in a statement. \u201cWhistleblowing is protected by law and these individuals have done nothing wrong.”<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" August 30, 2025 3 min read EPA Fires \u2018Dissent\u2019 Statement Signers The EPA fired five agency employees who signed a June declaration decrying moves that contradict science and undermine public health, alongside four more served removal notices By Dan Vergano edited by Jeanna Bryner EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Kayla Bartkowski\/Getty Images The Environmental Protection Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[5007,3332,2699,5412,4543,3383],"class_list":{"0":"post-18471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-dissent","9":"tag-employees","10":"tag-epa","11":"tag-fires","12":"tag-letter","13":"tag-signed"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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