EPA ordered to halt new grants, contracts
Administration also bars contact with media
Washington — The Trump administration has barred staff from awarding any new contracts or grants and instituted what it described as a temporary media blackout at the Environmental Protection Agency.
States, including Wisconsin, receive extensive funding from the EPA for an array of purposes.
Emails sent to EPA staff since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday and reviewed by The Associated Press detailed specific prohibitions banning news releases, blog updates or posts to the agency’s social media accounts.
The Trump administration also has ordered what it called a temporary suspension of all new business activities at the department, including issuing task orders or work assignments to EPA contractors. The orders were expected to have a significant and immediate effect on EPA activities nationwide.
In Wisconsin, the funding largess of the EPA casts a wide net — at least seven state agencies receive money from the EPA.
The Department of the Natural Resources is the largest recipient of grants. According to an EPA database, the DNR has received slightly more than $1 billion over at least the past 10 years.
The funding ranges from money for wetlands protection and grants to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species to the cleanup of industrial sites and toxic pollutants that have fouled the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers.
The EPA also has been a significant source of funding to state universities.
A team of 25 researchers from seven labs across the UW-Madison campus is two years into a fouryear, $6 million EPA grant — the largest EPA grant currently on campus. The grant helps fund development of models of adult human tissue that are then exposed to environmental toxins. The National Institutes for Health and National Science Foundation also are funding sources for this research.
The research is modeling all four stages of breast cancer in human tissue in a petri dish to understand how environmental toxins affect cancer development and progression, according to UW.
At UW-Milwaukee, the university says it received $422,034 in 2015 and 2016, including funding to see how pollutants affect fish larvae in different ecosystems.
In addition to EPA communications, similar orders barring external communications have been issued by the Trump administration at other federal agencies in recent days, including the Agriculture and Interior departments.
Staffers in the EPA’s public affairs office are instructed to forward all inquiries from reporters to the Office of Administration and Resources Management.
“Incoming media requests will be carefully screened,” one directive said. “Only send out critical messages, as messages can be shared broadly and end up in the press.”
A review of EPA websites and social media accounts, which typically include numerous new posts each day, showed no new activity since Friday.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Tuesday he had no information on the blackout. He said aides were looking into the circumstances.
Doug Ericksen, the communications director for Trump’s transition team at the EPA, said he expects the communications ban to be lifted by the end of this week.
Beyond what was stated in the internal email, Ericksen clarified that the freeze on EPA contracts and grants won’t apply to pollution cleanup efforts or infrastructure construction activities.
The executive director for the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Jeff Ruch, said the orders go beyond what has occurred in prior presidential transitions.
“We’re watching the dark cloud of Mordor extend over federal service,” Ruch said Tuesday, referring to the evil kingdom in the epic fantasy “The Lord of the Rings.”
Ruch noted that key posts at the EPA have not yet been filled with Republican appointees, including Trump’s nominee for EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt. That means there are not yet the new senior personnel in place to make key decisions.
Environmentalists said the orders were having a chilling effect on EPA staff, many of whom were suffering from low morale. Trump and Pruitt have both been frequent critics of the agency and have questioned the validity of climate science showing that the earth is warming and man-made carbon emissions are to blame.
Liz Perera, climate policy director for the Sierra Club, said Trump’s move to freeze all EPA communications and contracts should be “a major red flag for all Americans.”
“EPA was created to ensure that all Americans can enjoy clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and have their health protected from environmental and climate threats,” Perera said.