TL/DR –
Nearly 170 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights were recently placed on administrative leave. The move, initiated by the Trump administration, affects individuals working on environmental justice efforts, which focus on reducing environmental harms to disadvantaged communities. The future of these programs and their associated projects is currently uncertain.
Environmental Justice Workforce Decimated at EPA
Almost 170 workers from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) were given paid administrative leave recently, as confirmed by anonymous agency officials. This impacts a significant portion of the office’s team, primarily those engaged in environmental justice initiatives.
These initiatives are aimed at mitigating environmental harm to socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority communities, which disproportionately suffer from environmental and climate pollution. President Trump, however, has shown interest in eliminating this office, and others focused on environmental justice, signing executive orders on his first day in office to initiate this process.
Staff received notice about the decision during a meeting, following which they were emailed about the administrative leave’s immediate effect. This impacts dozens of staff at EPA headquarters and employees at EPA’s 10 regional offices across the country. The decision effectively puts the EPA’s environmental justice program “on life support”, according to Matthew Tejada, former deputy assistant administrator for OEJECR.
History of Environmental Justice Work at EPA
The environmental justice work at EPA has been progressing for years, originally housed in a petite Office of Environmental Justice with a small workforce. It gained momentum and federal support over the years, receiving a significant boost during the Biden administration which launched the Justice40 initiative to direct 40% of federal climate and environmental benefits to the most polluted communities.
Recognizing its importance, EPA merged the Office of Environmental Justice with two other offices to create OEJECR in 2022. By 2024, the staff had increased to over 200 across the headquarters and 10 regional offices.
The office now manages and allocates over $3 billion in grants and loans for climate and environmental justice, financed predominantly through the first significant climate policy, the Inflation Reduction Act. The funds have been used for a variety of projects addressing climate and environmental risks. However, the future of these projects is in doubt after President Trump froze federal grant funding and other programs recently.
EPA and the Trump administration have not provided any comments on this issue when approached by the NPR.
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