EPA backtracks on comments about cutting staff by 65% but says major cuts in spending are coming

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite a comment by President Donald Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency does not plan to reduce its staff by 65%, the White House and the agency said Thursday, though major budget cuts are likely.

A White House spokeswoman said the 65% figure referred to expected spending cuts at the agency, rather than staffing levels, a comment that was amplified by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

"We don’t need to be spending all that money that went through the EPA" last year, Zeldin told Fox News on Thursday. "We don’t want to spend it. We don’t need it. The American public needs it and we need to balance the budget.”

President Joe Biden requested about $10.9 billion for the EPA in the current budget year, an increase of 8.5% over the previous one, but Zeldin said the agency needs far less money to do its work. He also criticized EPA grants authorized under the 2022 climate law, including $20 billion for a so-called green bank to pay for climate and clean-energy programs.

Zeldin has vowed to revoke contracts for the still-emerging bank program that is set to fund tens of thousands of projects to fight climate change and promote environmental justice.

"We’re saying to Congress and the American people, please don’t send us tens of billions of dollars to spend this year," Zeldin said in the Fox interview.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Thursday that "President Trump, DOGE, and Administrator Zeldin are committed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. … Administrator Zeldin is committed to eliminating 65% of the EPA's wasteful spending."

The head of the EPA’s largest union called the comments by Trump and Zeldin "disheartening” and said there is "a lack of leadership within the EPA.”

Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, said she was saddened by the "carelessness" of Trump’s remarks Wednesday at a White House Cabinet meeting. A 65% reduction in staffing would be devastating to the agency and its mission, Powell said, adding that Trump’s widely publicized comments put EPA employees "in a tailspin."

The EPA had 15,123 full-time employees as of last December, according to the latest budget. A reduction of 65% would mean the loss of nearly 10,000 jobs.

Efforts by Zeldin and the White House to clarify that Trump was referring to budget cuts - rather than staffing cuts - offer little comfort, Powell said. Such a large spending cut would require major staffing reductions for jobs such as monitoring air and water quality, responding to natural disaster and lead abatement, among many other agency functions, she said.

“Frankly I don’t know if we believe it,” she said of administration efforts to explain away Trump’s comments. Powell cited a White House memo circulated this week that directs federal agencies to develop plans for eliminating thousands of employee positions and consolidating programs. Such an effort would be devastating to the EPA and other federal agencies,. Powell said.

Democrats and environmental groups rushed to defend the EPA’s mission, saying huge budget cuts would be disastrous.

"Gutting the agency by 65% will leave polluters unchecked, contaminating clean air, water and public health, and all but guaranteeing greater risk for vulnerable populations like children and the elderly,” said Lauren Pagel, policy director of the environmental group Earthworks.

She called on Congress and the courts to "stop this reckless, ideological sabotage of the EPA."

Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said recent layoffs at EPA, coupled with Zeldin’s comments about sharp spending cuts, show he had no intent to follow through on a pledge during his confirmation hearing to work collaboratively with EPA’s staff.

"It is now clear that the fix was in from the very beginning, to help the looters and polluters who bankrolled President Trump's campaign," Whitehouse said.