New EPA documents reveal 25% of employees will be cut

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a new, more detailed plan for laying off 25 percent of its employees and scrapping more than 50 programs including pesticide safety, water runoff control, and environmental cooperation with Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

At a time when the agency is considering a controversial rollback in fuel efficiency standards adopted under President Barack Obama, the plan would cut by more than half the number of people in EPA’s division for testing the accuracy of fuel efficiency claims by automakers.

It would transfer funding for the program to fees paid by the automakers themselves.

The spending plan, obtained by The Washington Post, offers the most detailed vision to date of how the 31 percent budget cut to the EPA ordered up by President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget would diminish the agency.

The March 21 plan calls for even deeper reductions in staffing and in the EPA’s $5.7 billion budget than in earlier drafts. It maintains funding given to states to administer waste treatment and drinking water. But as a result, the budget for the rest of EPA is slashed 43 percent.

The Trump administration says the EPA cuts reflect a philosophy of limiting federal government and devolving authority to the states, localities and, in some cases, corporations.

But environmental groups say the Trump administration is answering the call of companies seeking lax regulation and endangering Americans’ air and water.

In a memorandum at the front of the March 21 document, the EPA’s acting chief financial officer, David A. Bloom, said the agency would now “center on our core legal requirements,” eliminating voluntary activities on scientific research, climate change and education, and leaving other activities to state and local governments.