E.P.A. Demotes Career Employees Overseeing Science, Enforcement and More

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to demote career employees who oversee scientific research, the enforcement of pollution laws, hazardous waste cleanup and the agency’s human resources department and replace them with political appointees, according to two people familiar with the approach.The move would give Trump administration loyalists more influence over aspects of the agency that were traditionally led by nonpartisan experts who have served across Republican and Democratic administrations.It would also make it easier for the Trump administration to bypass Congress. While those formally overseeing sections of the E.P.A. must be confirmed by the Senate, the new appointees would be able to assume the role of acting department heads, circumventing the need for congressional approval.“As is common practice and has become more prevalent across administrations, E.P.A. updated its organizational structure to match other federal agencies,” Molly Vaseliou, a spokeswoman for the E.P.A., said in a statement.The E.P.A. is emerging as a case study in the lessons that Mr. Trump has learned from his first term in office, when career staff members often thwarted his administration’s efforts to sideline scientists and repeal air and water protections. Mr. Trump’s allies promised that in a second term they would be more prepared to swiftly begin dismantling the E.P.A., the agency that played a central role in the Biden administration’s strategy to combat climate change.Mr. Trump has stocked the agency with political appointees who have worked as lawyers and lobbyists for the oil and chemical industries. They include David Fotouhi, the nominee for deputy administrator, a lawyer who recently challenged a ban on asbestos; Aaron Szabo, a lobbyist for both the oil and chemical industries who is expected to be the top air pollution regulator; and Nancy Beck, a longtime chemical industry lobbyist, who is serving as a senior E.P.A. adviser on chemical safety and pollution.At the same time, there have been aggressive moves to deplete the E.P.A. work force. In recent days, the Trump administration warned more than 1,100 agency employees who had been hired within the past year that they could be “immediately” terminated at any time.The change to the senior management ranks affects four key areas of the E.P.A. They are the Office of Research and Development, the agency’s scientific research arm; the Office of Enforcement and Compliance, which is responsible for enforcing the country’s environmental laws; the Office of Land and Emergency Management, which oversees cleanups at some of the nation’s most contaminated lands and responds to environmental emergencies; and the Office of Mission Support, which manages human resources but also grants and contracts.Until the Trump administration, career employees held the second-in-command positions of “principal deputy assistant administrator.” Those career staff members automatically became the acting heads of their divisions in the absence of a Senate-confirmed assistant administrator to lead it.Last week the people serving in those roles were informed by Trump officials that their job titles would be changed, according to the two people familiar with the decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about personnel matters.The employees were told that their salaries and benefits would not change but that they would be moved to the position of “deputy assistant administrator,” which is effectively a demotion, the people said.The change is expected to take effect this week. So far, no political appointees have been named as replacements.Many of the emerging changes at the E.P.A. were mapped out in Project 2025, a conservative policy playbook that Mr. Trump has said he had not read. It calls for putting in place “reform-minded” political appointees to lead virtually all parts of the agency, including the scientific and enforcement functions.It is not without precedent to install political appointees in roles where they can carry out the president’s agenda without Senate approval.During the Biden administration, Joseph Goffman served as the principal deputy assistant administrator of the E.P.A. office overseeing air pollution. He held that job for three years, helping to write strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and automobiles. He was finally confirmed by the Senate in January 2024.Critics said the difference was that while E.P.A.’s air and water offices manage the bulk of federal regulation and are likely to reflect the president’s priorities, the moves from the Trump administration inject partisanship in segments of the agency that had been neutral.David Uhlmann, who led E.P.A. enforcement under the Biden administration, said of the moves that “when viewed alongside everything else taking place, they are yet another unfortunate attack on public servants who have dedicated their careers to public health and environmental protection.”