President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fired hundreds of federal workers who had been tasked with advancing radical ideology by the previous administration.
Trump’s EPA announced this week that 455 employees have now been removed from the agency.
The workers have either been reassigned to other departments or fired from the government altogether.
The cull is an effort to eliminate the woke programs established by former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Axios reported that the EPA notified 280 employees that they would be terminated in a “reduction in force.”
Another 175 staffers responsible for “statutory functions” will be reassigned.
Those impacted held “environmental justice” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) roles in the agency.
Most of the employees worked in the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, Office of Inclusive Excellence, and its regional offices.
An EPA spokesperson told Axios:
“EPA is taking the next step to terminate the Biden-Harris Administration’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Environmental Justice arms of the agency.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has accused Biden of wasting $20 billion in taxpayer funds on environmental justice initiatives.
In a Monday post on X, Zeldin wrote:
“No matter how hard some try to circle the wagons to defend lighting billions of YOUR tax dollars on fire to be misspent in a $20 BILLION Green Slush Fund, I will not compromise on my ZERO tolerance policy against ANY waste and abuse!”
No matter how hard some try to circle the wagons to defend lighting billions of YOUR tax dollars on fire to be misspent in a $20 BILLION Green Slush Fund, I will not compromise on my ZERO tolerance policy against ANY waste and abuse! pic.twitter.com/aqG6aaqTAn
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) April 21, 2025
During a Monday press conference, Zeldin addressed efforts to streamline the agency and save taxpayer funds.
“When we came in, we inherited an operation that, for the most part, people weren’t even here in the office,” he stated.
“Covid-era remote work is over.
“When I came in, I had asked the team, ‘How much have employees been coming in since January of 2024?’
“And the answer is that on Mondays and Fridays, it averaged five to eight percent.
“The record high attendance was 37%.”
“Getting people back in the office is a priority now,” Zeldin declared.
He added that returning workers to the office would allow the agency to make informed decisions about its real estate footprint.
Zeldin’s EPA has already saved American taxpayers roughly $18 million.
The savings have been made by removing employees from the Ronald Reagan Building and consolidating its office space in Washington, D.C.
The EPA administrator has focused much of his attention this week on addressing the sewage flowing over the border from Mexico into California.
On Tuesday, Zeldin toured a San Diego County plant that treats the sewage from the polluted Tijuana River.
Zeldin stated that the EPA plans to present Mexico with a list of actions to resolve the issue.
“This is not a U.S.-side answer,” Zeldin told KXTV.
“I wish that we could resolve this all on our own.
“There’s a lot of needs on the Mexican side.”
He said that he spoke with Mexican officials about “chemical treatment” and “diverting 10 million gallons per day from the Tijuana River to the dam.”
“We want both sides to sit down and go project by project to talk about the timeline of everything and make sure that every single project is operating on the tightest timeline possible,” he added.
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