In a press release issued Friday, the EPA said it would be "shifting its scientific expertise and research efforts," including by transferring 130 experts to the agency's chemicals office.
It said that these employees would work on approving new chemicals and pesticides — noting there's currently a backlog of 504 chemicals and 12,000 pesticides.
More broadly, agency science will be transferred to its program offices, and scientists will be put to work on what the agency described as "statutory obligations and mission essential functions."
Chitra Kumar, a former official in the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, said the agency's Office of Research Development is "intentionally separate from EPA's policy offices, ensuring it produces unbiased studies."
"Its research is transparent and always subjected to rigorous, independent external peer review... Moving ORD scientists into policy offices could subject those experts to political influence, particularly in this administration," said Kumar, who is now managing director of the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a written statement.
In a video accompanying the press release, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the changes were part of a broader reshaping of the agency and, in the future, the agency's staffing levels could be reduced.
"This is all part of a larger, comprehensive effort to restructure the agency, and when finalized, EPA expects to have staffing levels near those seen when President Ronald Reagan occupied the White House," Zeldin said.
As of January, the EPA had more than 15,000 employees. During the Reagan era, EPA staffing ranged from nearly 11,000 to about 14,000 workers.
An EPA spokesperson clarified that the changes announced Friday do not themselves include layoffs.
Read more at TheHill.com.
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