EPA places DEI and Environmental Justice employees on administrative leave
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on February 11, 2025, that it has placed 171 employees in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) and Environmental Justice on administrative leave.
Breakdown of employees on administrative leave:
- 11 DEIA employees
- 160 Environmental Justice employees
The EPA stated that, over the last week, it began implementing President Trump’s Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing Executive Order.
The order aims at ending DEI within government organizations by rewarding “individual initiative, skills, performance and hard works and shall not under any circumstances consider DEI or DEIA factors, goals, policies, mandates or requirements.”
The order stated that the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) along with the Attorney General and director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and DEIA mandates, policies, programs, preferences and activities in the federal government.
“Under President Trump, the EPA will be focused on our core mission to protect human health and the environment, while Powering the Great American Comeback,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in a press release. “The previous Administration used DEI and Environmental Justice to advance ideological priorities, distributing billions of dollars to organizations in the name of climate equity. This ends now. We will be good stewards of tax dollars and do everything in our power to deliver clean air, land, and water to every American, regardless of race, religion, background, and creed.”
Zeldin stated on X that the EPA’s mission will be protecting human health and the environment.
Zeldin’s posts on X:
