EPA Fires 5 Employees Who Signed ‘Dissent’ Letter
August 30, 2025
3 Min read
EPA draws the signatories of “dissent” declaration
The EPA dismissed five employees of the agency who signed a declaration of denunciation of June which contradicts science and undermines public health, alongside four other withdrawal notes served
The administrator of EPA Lee Zeldin
Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images
The environmental protection agency dismissed five employees of the agency who had openly signed a June declaration criticizing the weakening of pollution, climate and health security by the Trump administration. Four others were served by the agency by the agency.
“EPA supervisors have made decisions on an individualized basis”, following surveys, according to a statement published on Friday, reported for the first time by the Washington Post.
In June, “Declaration of dissent”, hundreds of employees of the Environmental Protection Agency had decried the measures of the administration to “undermine the Mission of the EPA to protect human health and the environment”. Their complaints went from EPA ignoring science to “polluters benefiting the agency’s dismantling initiatives aimed at protecting disadvantaged communities. Most EPA employees have signed anonymously for fear of the type of remuneration now observed in Friday layoffs, which were widely provided after the agency has moved to cancel the negotiation and grievance rights agreements earlier in August. Employees had already been put on paid leave after the release of the letter by the agency. These employment limbo have been extended three times when they were investigated for having prepared the declaration during working hours, which extended in September for many remaining signatories.
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“The administration is a blatant manner on the original facts of our letter of dissent and now retaliates in a blatant way and breaks our constitutional rights,” explains Michael Pasqua, an EPA employee who helps manage drinking water safety in Wisconsin and a signatory of the declaration.
During the first Trump administration – noted for the Scott Pruitt’s scandal mandate as an EPA administent between the end of February 2017 and early July 2018 – The agency resumed more than 100 environmental rules. Now that Trump is back in office, the administration has decided to reduce federal solar and wind energy initiatives, as well as environmental rules. In scientific agencies, the administration dismissed employees and members of the advisory committee, arrested subsidies and issued policies in contradiction with scientific results. In July, Zeldin moved to revoke the conclusion of “endangering” which serves as a rosary of American climate regulations under a 2007 Supreme Court decision.
In response to such measures through scientific agencies, hundreds of staff members of the National Institute of Health Foundation and the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation have signed dissent letters, rare reprimands of traditionally reluctant federal employees. The letters follow the administration that moves to remove tens of thousands of agency federal employees. In February, Trump wrongly declared at a meeting of the cabinet that the EPA would probably reduce 65% of its staff because “many people would not do their job”. (The White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers then corrected Trump to specify that the agency planned to reduce 65% of its expenses.)
More recently, in August, the employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency published a “Katrina declaration”, raising the alarm to the Congress on spending restrictions, reductions in disaster prevention programs and “censorship” of the climate and environmental sciences to the agency. These movements have all increased the chances of a disaster such as the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster, which took around 1,833 lives, they wrote. In response, FEMA has placed 36 non -anonymous signatories on administrative leave, similar to what EPA has done, which has made concerns of dismissals similar to those who now strike the signatories of the environmental agency.
“This is a betrayal of the most dedicated members of our country’s society – we all You want clear air and water for ourselves and our families, “said Colette Delawalla of the defenders’ defense group, defends science, in a statement.” The denunciation is protected by law and these individuals have done nothing wrong.
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