The employees of the APA are still in the dark as the agency dismantles the scientific research office

Several APA scientists have underlined to cabular that the current order structure, which allows research regardless of the political process that occurs in other parts of the agency, is essential to produce quality works. One told Wired that he had worked in a scientific role in a political office of the APA under the first Trump administration. There, they felt that their task was “to try to extract science to support a political decision that had already been taken”. The structure of order, they said, provides a level of insulation between the decision makers and the scientific process.

Ord was strongly chosen in the 2025 project Mandate for the leadership documentThe political project that has long waited for the moves of the Trump administration in office. He described the branch as “precautionary, swollen, not responsible, closed, guided by the results, hostile to the public and legislative contribution and inclined to pursue political objectives rather than purely scientific”. The plan, however, did not propose to eliminate the organization. But in March, documents presented At the White House by the Agency’s leadership, he proposed to dissolve Ord, resulting in a repercussions by the Democrats at the congress.

At the beginning of May, the EPA announced that he would reorganize his structure, which the administrator Lee Zeldin he wrote In a newsweek editorial “it would improve” the agency “by integrating scientific staff directly into our program offices”. The Agency said that he would create a new office of scientific and environmental solutions (Oase), which would be under the administrator’s office.

By putting a large part of the scientific work of order in the political offices, the scientist who previously worked in a political office said to Wired means that “we will end up seeing science that has been unduly influenced by political interests. I don’t think this will involve political decisions that are empirically sustainable”.

Following the announcement of May reorganization, the Employees of order were encouraged to request jobs within other parts of the agency. More workers who spoke with Wired say that the job offers for these new positions were naked bones, with little description of what the job would actually involve. A publication of work seen by Wired labels the role simply as “scientific and engineering interdisciplinary positions”, without information on the thematic area, the team or scientific skills required.

The EPA reorganization efforts have been temporarily blocked by legal causes. At the beginning of this month, the Supreme Court on pause A preliminary injunction that blocks further mass reductions in force in 17 federal agencies, including the EPA.

There was a luminous point on Monday’s call: Ord Leadership told employees that all the workshops affiliated to the Ords would be open, a news that recited in contrast with some Previous reports. However, workers say that it is becoming increasingly difficult to do science at the APA. More than 325 Ord workers – a fifth of the orders of order – have taken voluntary pensions since the beginning of the year, according to the spokesman for the APA. A scientist told Wired that while they would usually have a small team that helped with their field work, they were left to manage everything themselves, including “washing the dishes and labeling of the bottles”. The new bulky financial approval processes said, they also led to chemicals that ordered to be delayed for months and expensive equipment sitting without any repair.

Since it came into office, Zeldin has clarified that he intends to relax the environmental regulations, in particular those concerning the activities. Last week, he author of an editorial In Fox News by advertising how the agency would have substantially canceled the cleaning of cleaning the clean air for electrical power plants and data centers in order to “make America the capital of artificial intelligence”. The scientists of order fear that the dissolution of their office simplifies only this mission in favor of the business.

“If you intend to finish the regulations on air quality – and we know, in a final way at this point, that ozone pollution is causing premature mortality and chronic effects – if you regret the rules, you will see excess cases of death and illness,” says a scientist to Wired. “My hypothesis is that [EPA leadership] I don’t want to know the answer to the question about how serious it will be. “