On Thursday, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (APE) put 139 employees who had signed a “declaration of disagreement” with its policies on administrative leave. The APE accuses dissident employees of “illegally undermining” the Trump administration program.
In a letter made public on Monday, employees wrote that the agency no longer fulfilled its mission to protect human health and the environment. This letter constituted a rare public criticism on the part of employees of the agency, aware that they were likely to undergo reprisals if they were expressed against the weakening of funding and federal support for climate, environment and health sciences.
In a statement published on Thursday, the APE said it applied a “zero tolerance to career civil servants who undermine, sabotage and compromise illegally” the Trump administration program.
The employees were informed that they would be placed in “temporary status, without function and remunerated” for the next two weeks, pending an “administrative inquiry”, according to a copy of the email obtained by the Associated Press (AP).
“It is important that you understand that it is not a disciplinary measure,” it is able to read in the email.
More than 170 employees of the APE have signed the declaration of disagreement, and a hundred others have signed it anonymously out of fear of reprisals, according to Jeremy Berg, former editor -in -chief of the magazine “Science”. This is not an employee of the APE, but is among scientists and academics not affiliated with the APE to also have signed.
Scientists from National Health Institutes (NIH) took a similar measure earlier in June, but Mr. Berg said he did not know a single case in NIH having been placed on similar administrative leave.
Under the direction of the LEE Zeldin administrator, the APE has reduced the financing of environmental improvements in minority communities, is committed to repealing federal regulations aimed at reducing air pollution in national parks and tribal reserves, wishes to cancel the prohibition of a type of asbest and natural gas.
Mr. Zeldin began the reorganization of the agency’s research and development office as part of its efforts to reduce its budget and empty its substance its study on climate change and environmental justice. He also seeks to repeal the antipollution rules which, according to an AP survey, would save 30,000 lives and 275 billion US each year.
The APE responded to the letter of employees at the start of the week by declaring that political decisions “result from a process during which the administrator Zeldin is informed of the latest research and the latest scientific advances by APE professionals, the vast majority of which are professionals accomplished and proud of the work accomplished by this agency on a daily basis. »»
