The News & Observer by Brian Gordon

The Environmental Protection Agency intends to dissolve its scientific research division, called the Office of Research and Development, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Under the plans, which Democratic staff on the science committee shared with The News & Observer, 50% to 75% of the office’s 1,540 positions would be eliminated, with remaining staff reassigned to other divisions.

The Office of Research and Development, or ORD, lists 11 locations across the country, including a significant presence at the EPA campus in Research Triangle Park. “A lot of people are panicked,” said Holly Wilson, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3347, which represents about 1,000 EPA employees in the Triangle. “Disappointed, frustrated, scared.”

According to the plan, the EPA will ask the Office of Personnel Management to reduce the notice period afforded to laid-off employees from the standard 60 days to 30 days.

ORD is the largest office on the EPA’s sprawling RTP campus. As of 2021, the science division provided 591 local jobs, accounting for close to half the campus’s total workforce. Overall, the EPA is the 19th biggest employer in Durham County, state data shows.

EPA staff in the Triangle attended a special “all-hands” meeting Tuesday to learn more about office’s future. Wilson said ORD leaders were empathetic while expressing that they themselves didn’t have clarity on what will happen next — or when layoffs might occur.

“We don’t feel like it’s done,” Wilson said. “We feel like we’ve got to do a better job of telling our story about the work that we do. We know what’s been floated, but nothing is final.”

The Office of Research and Development forms the basis for federal environmental regulations, like determining how much exposure to certain chemicals poses health risks to humans. The office has been targeted by the Trump administration, which aims to reduce the federal workforce and ease environmental rules. ORD was repeatedly maligned in Project 2025, a policy guideline from the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation that is viewed as informing certain Trump administration decisions.

“EPA is taking exciting steps as we enter the next phase of organizational improvements,” agency spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said in a statement Tuesday. “We are committed to enhancing our ability to deliver clean air, water, and land for all Americans.”

Vaseliou added that “no decisions have been made yet” about ORD’s future.

“We are actively listening to employees at all levels to gather ideas on how to better fulfill agency statutory obligations, increase efficiency, and ensure the EPA is as up-to-date and effective as ever,” she said.

The New York Times first reported that the Trump administration plans to eliminate the EPA office.

Four North Carolina representatives sit on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, including Deborah Ross, a Wake County Democrat.

“Scientific researchers at EPA have dedicated their careers to serving the American people and solving some of our most complex environmental problems,” Ross said in a statement to The N&O. “In North Carolina, these committed federal employees are helping us combat PFAS contamination, address air quality, and more.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and ranking member on the science committee, called eliminating ORD “illegal” in a statement Tuesday, arguing the EPA “cannot meet its legal obligation to use the best available science without ORD.”

But the authors of Project 2025, some of who now serve in the Trump administration, stated the environmental research office has overstepped. Written in 2023, the influential policy document posited ORD “often lacks authority” for its activities.

In February, a number of early-career EPA workers in the Research Triangle were fired as part of mass layoffs that affected probationary workers in multiple federal agencies. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has previously said the new administration would look to decrease the agency’s spending by at least 65%.

Link to full article: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article302279994.html