Some agencies told to be silent as administration moves in

Some employees say ‘gag order’ just standard practice.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ordered a freeze on federal grant spending at several government agencies, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Health and Human Services, followed by memos telling employees not to send out news releases or to create social media posts, blog entries or official website content, and to consult with senior officials before speaking to the news media.

Such memos landed this week at the EPA, Health and Human Services, Interior Department and Department of Agriculture in a broad halt to external communications while the Trump administration struggles to put political appointees into position. Small flare-ups of communications — apparently in dissent — appeared on Twitter, but they were quickly stopped.

The Twitter posts of the social media division of the Badlands National Park broadcasting the threat of climate change became something of a cause célèbre on the left before they disappeared from the platform on Tuesday.

Longtime employees at three of the agencies — including some career environmental regulators who conceded that they remained worried about what President Donald Trump might do on policy matters — said such orders were not much different from those delivered by the Obama administration as it shifted policies from the departing White House of George W. Bush. They called reactions to the agency memos overblown.

“I’ve lived through many transitions, and I don’t think this is a story,” said a senior EPA career official. “I don’t think it’s fair to call it a gag order. This is standard practice. And the move with regard to the grants, when a new administration comes in, you run things by them before you update the website.”

But environmental advocates and Democrats took advantage of the moves, noting that they appeared to target agencies that focus on environmental protection and scientific research, and calling them a chilling signal that the Trump administration intends to suppress communication about science and environmental policy.

Environmentalists also criticized what appeared to be a Twitter war between some Interior Department employees and their new bosses, as the agency appeared to delete Twitter posts by National Park Service employees that highlighted the smaller attendance at Trump’s inauguration than at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, as well as facts about climate change.

Rebellious posts on social media became so plentiful from so many obscure sites that the management of the Interior Department appeared powerless to find them all.

But it is far from clear how realistic the response has been. The agriculture department memo to employees came from Tom Vilsack, an Obama administration appointee and the outgoing agriculture secretary. Its “gag order” was measured in tone.

“In order for the department to deliver unified, consistent messages, it’s important for the office of the secretary to be consulted on media inquiries and proposed responses to questions related to legislation, budgets, hot-button policy issues and regulations,” Vilsack, a former Democratic governor of Iowa, wrote. “Policy-related statements should not be made to the press without notifying or consulting with the office of the secretary.”

A spokesman for the EPA described the freeze on grants as a short-term pause in order for the new administration to review them.

“They’re not being canceled; they’re delayed so we can review the contracts,” said Douglas Ericksen, the spokesman.

Michael Young, the acting deputy secretary of the Agriculture Department, who has worked as a career civil servant in the department for 33 years, wrote a memo to employees guiding them to consult the secretary’s office when responding to news media inquiries, and he said the memo was little different from the one issued during the transition to Obama’s administration.

“This memo is not some sort of creative writing exercise,” he said. “This is almost exactly what was issued eight years ago. I just updated it a bit.”

Young said that the rationale for the memo was that the more than 100,000 people working for the department had been working for eight years under a set of priorities and policies that would now change.