On the March 18 edition of Fox Business’ Varney & Co., Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin was asked about reporting from The New York Times that he planned to “fire more than 1,000 scientists in an effort to dismantle the Office of Research and Development.” Zeldin replied that “The New York Times is ahead of their skis doing a face plant on this one.”
Claiming that “President Trump has directed the executive branch, all departments and agencies, to look for ways within our department to best serve the American public,” Zeldin deflected that “at the end of the day, we are about powering the great American comeback, making sure that cleaner, safer, healthier land, air, water, for all Americans are achieved” — in part by “unleashing American energy dominance, making America the AI capital of the world,” and “pursuing permitting reform.”
Guest host Ashley Webster pressed Zeldin on his response: “So, you’re not confirming The New York Times report?”
Zeldin replied that while “a decision is something that we are working through … across all offices of EPA” to “always look for ways to operate better [and] more efficiently,” he repeated that “no, The New York Times is way ahead of their skis on this one.”
On July 18, The New York Times reported on the EPA’s decision to eliminate the Office of Research and Development and “begin firing hundreds of chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, after denying for months that it intended to do so.”
“The move underscores how the Trump administration is forging ahead with efforts to slash the federal work force and dismantle federal agencies after the Supreme Court allowed these plans to proceed while legal challenges unfold,” the Times reported, noting, “Government scientists have been particular targets of the administration’s large-scale layoffs.” The article also detailed the office’s important role in public health and safety:
The E.P.A.’s science office provides the independent research that underpins nearly all of the agency’s policies and regulations. It has analyzed the risks of hazardous chemicals, the impact of wildfire smoke on public health and the contamination of drinking water by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Its research has often justified stricter environmental rules, prompting pushback from chemical manufacturers and other industries.
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The science office “is the heart and brain of the E.P.A.,” said Justin Chen, president of A.F.G.E. Council 238. “Without it, we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment. Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.”
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“It is dismantling a world-class organization, and the American people are not going to be well served by this,” said Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, who worked at the E.P.A. for 40 years and led the research office under the first Trump administration. “These actions are very shortsighted, and the way they’re going about it is very callous and very cruel.”
Notably, Zeldin appeared again on Varney and Co. on the same day as the new Times report and again was asked about the EPA “buyouts,” and he responded with the same talking point suggesting that there is no conflict between the administration's policy goals of promoting a so-called energy dominance mandate — which includes reviving coal — and ensuring key environmental protections.
STUART VARNEY (HOST): You have a lot of buyouts at the EPA. I don't know how many thousand it is but it's quite a few thousand people are leaving. Can you do the job with fewer staffers?
LEE ZELDIN (EPA ADMINISTRATOR): Absolutely. We are going to fulfill all of our statutory obligations. If you ask me what is the right number for EPA — if I was asked this question years ago, you know, even before this job was even on the horizon — I would say it's important for us to have not one more or one less than we need to fulfill our statutory obligations and now with the Trump mandate to power the great American comeback. We can have clean air, land, and water, we can unleash energy dominance, pursue permitting reform and advance cooperative federalism, make America the AI capital of the world, protect American auto jobs. We can do it all not by just having the largest possible amount of employees but having the right number of employees, and the fact is we can get this done with thousands less than when we got here.
