By Stephen Lee, Bloomberg Law
- 168 EPA employees placed on administrative leave
- Justice Department directed to roll back Biden-era memo
The EPA on Thursday put 168 employees within its environmental justice office on administrative leave as the Trump administration executes presidential actions to roll back diversity initiatives.
The affected staffers’ functions “did not relate to the agency’s statutory duties or grant work,” an Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman said.
The agency “is in the process of evaluating new structure and organization to ensure we are meeting our mission of protecting human health and the environment for all Americans,” the spokeswoman said.
The move to dismantle the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights is consistent with an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day, directing the government to terminate diversity and environmental justice offices and positions.
Under former President Joe Biden, the OEJECR was a bustling department that housed a conflict prevention and resolution center, an office of resource management, a community support branch, an office of policy and program development, and a section dedicated to external civil rights compliance.
Biden’s environmental justice effort sought to prioritize considerations of disadvantaged communities that long suffered from pollution.
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