According to agency officials, 158 workers at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice were reportedly put on administrative leave on Thursday.
An important stage in President Trump’s widely anticipated plan to abolish the office was the email notice of leave that was delivered to staff members at approximately 5 p.m.
He signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House to end all government environmental justice initiatives that support underprivileged and minority communities that are disproportionately affected by pollution.
These settlements are frequently found close to extremely polluted locations or industrial zones.
According to two sources familiar with the agency’s intentions who spoke anonymously out of fear of reprisal, many of the agency’s roughly 100 more environmental justice staff members who work in its regional offices across the nation are anticipated to be the next in line to be placed on administrative leave.
According to the law, no worker may take more than ten days of administrative leave annually. The administrative leave notices, according to observers, are a prelude to the office’s eventual closure.
As of Wednesday evening, “EJScreen,” an online screening and mapping tool utilized by the environmental justice office, has been removed.
About 1,100 professional employees with probationary status who were hired within the last year were warned earlier this week by the E.P.A. that they might be “fired immediately.”
Many workers at the office of environmental justice, established in 2022 during the Biden administration, seemed likely to be included in that figure.
On January 23, staff members at the Energy Department’s office of energy equity—which aims to guarantee that underprivileged and minority populations have access to reasonably priced electricity—were put on administrative leave.
Administrative leave has also been imposed on staff members at the Justice Department’s tiny environmental justice unit.
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