The Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is facing a massive overhaul to cut staffing to levels that were at Reagan era and save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, agency Chiefley Zeldin announced Friday.
“This reorganization will provide much needed efficiency to incorporate science into rulemaking and will sharply focus our work on providing the cleanest air, land and water to our community,” Zeldin said in a press release Friday.
Zeldin has announced that he is on a mission to save an estimated $300 million a year by next year. He said the agency will be “recommendation” for “common sense policies” while focusing on human health and the protection of the environment, and through overhauls through office overhauls.
The EPA employs approximately 15,000 full-time workers. Zeldin said he is working to defeat the level “in the vicinity of the people President Ronald Reagan saw when he occupied the White House,” according to a video release of an office overhaul. In 1984 there were 11,400 EPA staff members under the Reagan administration, Reuters reported.
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Capitol Hill's Lee Zeldin is seeking confirmation from the Senate, who will serve as EPA administrator. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
The EPA said the administrator's office, the Aviation and Radiation Department, the Department of Chemical Safety and Pollution Control (OCSPP), and the Water Department are all facing restructuring.
Zeldin said it would reorganize the agency's research bureau to change its focus, including creating a new office called the Office of Applied Science Environmental Solutions, with a focus on “legal duties and mission essential functions.”
The new office “prioritizes research and places states at the forefront of institutional rulemaking and technical assistance. At the program level, the Department of Chemical Safety and Pollution Control will work directly with over 504 new chemical backlogs, adding more than 130 scientific, bioinformatic and information technology experts. Timeline of expected reviews in the pesticide program,” Zeldin said.
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President Ronald Reagan at the 1982 Republican Congress rally (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
The EPA also streamlines the resolution to resolve concerns across the state, local and tribal levels, and Zeldin will establish a department of state aviation partnerships within the Department of Aviation and Radiation.
“The EPA is also creating an office for the Clean Air Programme that coordinates the essential functions of statutory duties and missions based on the centre of expertise to ensure more transparency and harmony in regulatory development. Similarly, changes to the Water Office will better coordinate regulatory, guidance and policy development.
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When Zeldin snatched the agency's reins earlier this year, he emphasized that he “has inherited the workforce that didn't come to the office.”
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin will be attending a meeting with President Donald Trump and NATO executive director Marc Latte at the White House Oval Office on March 13, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“It was a high school attended the EPA headquarters in DC in 2024, and was recorded at about 37%. When President Trump took the swearing, we quickly finished our Covid-era remote work,” Zeldin said.
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A former New York lawmaker added that last year's solely approved EPA budget and awards sit at $63 billion, but previously funded adjustments of between $6 billion and $8 billion a year.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Headquarters, Washington, DC (Getty Images)
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“We're going to cut this overexpense dramatically. We're mandating US taxpayers to be as efficient as possible. We've already begun to make great strides by rethinking grants and contracts, real estate footprint, travel expenses, staff and more.
