Team Trump’s swift removal of potentially toxic bureaucrats is certainly the right move to make.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
As I have previously reported, President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been busy reversing all the climate cultist policies that harm this nation’s ability to serve and support its citizens.
- Trump’s EPA Ending Obama-Biden War on the American Energy Industry
- Trump Administration Expedites Approval for New Uranium Mine in Utah
- EPA Cancels All Environmental Justice Grants
After six months of watching Trump and various members of his team suspend and terminate federal employees, end the progressive pork distribution agency formerly known as USAID, and otherwise upend the Deep State approach to ruling over American citizens, one might think that federal employees who valued regular paychecks and good benefits would realize “Resistance 2.0” would be a failure.
However, a group of EPA employees clearly weren’t paying attention. The agency has placed 144 staffers on paid leave and launched an inquiry into their participation in signing a letter that accused the Trump administration of politicizing the agency.
The agency said its actions were warranted because the employees had signed the letter using their official titles and because the letter had denigrated the agency’s leadership.
“The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” the E.P.A. press secretary, Brigit Hirsch, wrote in an email.
The 144 employees received emails on Thursday saying they had been placed on leave for the next two weeks “pending an administrative investigation,” according to a copy of the email reviewed by The New York Times.
“You are required to provide a current email address and phone number so that we can contact you as part of our investigation,” the email said, adding that the staff members would continue to collect paychecks while on leave.
Trump campaigned on refocusing the EPA on its original mission and putting an end to the climate-driven excesses the agency had embraced, (especially during the Biden administration). And he won the election. If these individual were truly “brave,” they should have quit (and perhaps taken Trump up on his offer to accept a payout for early retirement) during the administration’s first phase of reducing the size of government.
However, this is how those eco-activists entrenched at the EPA decided to respond.
The letter outlined five key concerns, including that the Trump administration was dismantling the EPA office of research and development, canceling environmental justice programs and grants, making employees fearful, undermining the trust of the public, and “ignoring scientific consensus to protect polluters.”
“These actions directly undermine EPA’s capacity to fulfill its mission,” the letter said.
The employees placed on administrative leave are planning to sue.
More than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation, according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA scientists or academics to also sign.
At least 31 workers were escorted out of the Chicago office. A union leader told ABC7 Chicago they will sue the administration for violating their right to freedom of speech.
As Behind the Black‘s Robert Zimmerman notes, Team Trump’s swift removal of potentially toxic bureaucrats is certainly the right move to make.
The best part of this story is two fold. First, these individuals have done a good job of self-identif[ying] themselves as fifth columnists inside the Trump administration, making it easier to get rid of them. Second, the swift response by the Trump administration to remove them illustrates the difference between Trump 45 and Trump 47. In his first term Trump was more willing to tolerate this foolish and undemocratic behavior, and thus that first term was largely ineffective. In his second term Trump ain’t fooling around. From day one he has moved hard to clean house, and this story illustrates this difference most starkly.
And to this I heartily say, thank [G]od!
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I voted for this!!!!!!
Hope the firings stick. People must realize when they work for the government it’s just like any other job. If you don’t support the mission you are a problem, not an asset.
I’ll give it two weeks before a judge steps in and demands the government hire them back immediately.
PAID leave ain’t firing- it’s extra vacation time.
I would say it couldn’t happen to a better group of people but yes, you are right–they are still getting paid, unfortunately.
2 weeks? No a lot sooner than that.
Reversed by the Supreme Court at a later time.
I’ve always felt that judges should have a life-time cap on reversals. Exceed the limit, and you are automatically fired.
Are they Civil Servants (I.e. GS-11s or other grades) or Senior Executive Staff? The employment rules are different and under the rule of law, we the people must act in accordance with those rules.
Well, probably they are both. A fair fraction of SES are GS with provisional SES status. Which rules apply? I’ve no idea.
pretty sure the EPA has some assignments that are stomach turning jobs … some sort of inspecting of sewage plants … assign them all to those jobs for now …
Hopefully delisting CO2 as a dangerous pollutant will be on the agenda soon.
I have had my fingers crossed since Jan 20. When this happens, what ever will Gov. Gavin N. of CA and Gov. Kathy H. of NY do? They would have to abandon their crazy climate plans. The people will rejoice and there will be dancing in the streets.
And Gov. Healey of Wokeachusetts. et. al.
Governor Newsom has shown that he will just biblically criticize any such Federal action and issue an EO directing the State Government to continue on spending taxpayer money on ill-advised policies and programs. The Coastal Commision and Air Resources Board will remain in charge.
Sorry, that should be publically, not biblically.
Thanks for the correction, but I wasn’t sure it wasn’t true! He does think very weirdly and uses any rationale for his strange actions.
I liked it better the first way.
The proposed regs have been drafted and gone to OMB for review as all regs must. Then the proposal will be published for public comment which should be fun. Then final rules will be published ending the endangerment finding and the lawsuits begun.
I presume that, during the Biden administration, you would have applauded the EPA firing people critical of Biden’s policies, right?
I wouldn’t have “applauded” the firing of the sane people, but Biden (or apparently his autopen controller) had that right.
He did fire a lot more than 144 people for not accepting a hypodermic full of a poorly-tested vaccine. Did you “applaud” that?
The left, and climate alarmists in particular, have hardly been backward in cancelling and firing those they don’t agree with, have they?
Plenty of people got fired and lost jobs because they wouldn’t bend to the far-left propaganda .
Criticism is one thing- publishing a letter severely critical is something else. It’s traitorous. They need to understand Trump is the boss.
It is not treason.
“It is not treason.” Correct. But it is grounds for dismissal. All that is required is verification that such an act occurred. Fortunately, the people in question mostly signed their names to a document that provides all the verification required.
It’s not treason against the country, but it is treason against your management.
Insubordination
If being severely critical of the president and their policies was treason then almost all the US citizens posting on this website last year would be traitors. Last time I checked having a different opinion to the president is not treason.
But having a different opinion to the Dictator is treason.
The USA is no longer a democracy.
It’s just an inefficient ape of China.
It was under Biden’s puppeteers. He was even funded by China.
It is not their opinions they are under scrutiny for, but their refusal to do their jobs as directed. They are employees, not private citizens in that capacity. They can get other jobs that conform to their religious views.
Further, the US was never a democracy. It is a representative republic, and Trump represents the goals of the majority.
the USA was NEVER a democracy … civics much …
There’s a big difference between average citizens and employees.
When you sign on as an employee, you accept an obligation towards supporting your company and it’s goals.
If you disagree with your employer, you have two options, suck it up, or quit.
Publicly complaining is grounds for firing in any company.
No reason to frame it as a hypothetical … the entirety of the Biden administration HAS ALREADY HAPPENED.
1.) Please list the examples of agency staff that openly published statements completely critical of their agency’s policy directives using their position as an attempt to add gravitas to the criticism.
2.) Please list the punishments they received.
3.) Please list anyone on this forum that denounced those firings as an unjustified abuse of power by their bosses.
If you can’t do all of those things, please go peddle your BS some place else.
It depends on the means employed.
Biden had no positions, and the rank and file totally agreed with the ideas presented as such.
they were already fired by Biden early on … and none of these people today have been fired … english as a second language is tough …
They are free to say anything they want, but the EPA director is also free to fire anyone who publicly states that he will NOT follow EPA policy.
Again, if they are not following the EPA director’s instructions, then they are harmful to the director’s vision and goals. Their ideas and goals were not confirmed by the Senate. They should not be part of the EPA if they are following the explicit concurrence of the Senate.
Something has to be done. This video is a complete and thorough review of the hockey stick sophistry. If people actually study this graph, the fraud is so blatant. If you have any contacts at the EPA or other, please forward this video on to them. This nonsense has to end.
https://app.screencast.com/nXfZcUyGR4QlR
The Deep State needs to be cleaned up.
Many them were hired for their politically correct views and others fired long before DEI reared it’s ugly head.
I worked for a local government is a large city for 32 years. I saw it happening.
I can’t imagine what was going on at the Federal level!
Yeah, if you’re not on board with the boss wants,
and you pipe up to say so, don’t be surprised to
find yourself on the outside looking in!
More likely, on the outside wondering when you are going to stop tumbling.
That does happen in business. It should happen in government. I lived in DC for 6 years as a consulting contractor to a government agency, made lots of friends in government management. They had an impossible time trying to fire people that weren’t interested in doing what management wanted – assuming they even showed up for work. They felt they had achieved some success when they were just able to unload them onto another department.
The fact that they refer to a scientific consensus is reason by itself to get rid of them.
Very true. It means they do not understand the scientific method. it means they are just unelected politicians.
“The agency has placed 144 staffers on paid leave and launched an inquiry into their participation in signing a letter that accused the Trump administration of politicizing the agency.”
Should be UNPAID leave! This just means they get extra vacation time. Actually, they should have been fired.
“Actually, they should have been fired.”
Fingers crosses. !
There is no room for rabid activists in Government linked departments.
How do you know they are rabid activists?
… they use terms like “climate justice” , which is totally meaningless ideologically based gibberish.
There is a reason why severance pay is an institution. These people aren’t criminals and allowing them time to find a new way of making their way in the world is the right thing to do.
I agree. Justice is not about vengeance. No criminal charges have been filed or are likely to be.
Severance pay is for individuals who’s jobs have been eliminated.
By signing that letter, these individuals voluntarily quit.
As an executive manager then a CEO/GM of an electric power company, the best thing to do with problem employees is to send them home. Continuing to pay them while you figure out what to do with them is well worth the money. As a manager the cheapest tool in your kit is money. I continuously hammered that truth to my subordinates.
Fanatics will out themselves.
This video shows just one of the things the EPA had been doing. https://www.facebook.com/PacificLegalFoundation/videos/410843291214177/ I don’t know if the Sacketts have finally been able to start building their house despite a 15+ year battle and two SCOTUS wins over the EPA.
Don’t suspend–transfer them to the new headquarters site on the north slope of Alaska.
Indeed. Construct the facility with all the renewable energy infrastructure they insist upon. No fossil fuels allowed.
What seems incredibly silly is the unions threat to sue…for what? They’re on paid leave, so what ‘harm’ has been performed that a court would even entertain a law suit?
Government unions are travesties and were opposed by none other than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Unions in the private sector are a self-correcting problem. If a particular union gets too unreasonable, it results in the employer going bankrupt.
Government on the other hand is a monopoly, no matter how unreasonable the union gets, politicians can just raise taxes to pay for it. Unions should never be allowed in any monopoly, that is especially true for a monopoly that is allowed to use deadly force.
Based on the comment made and “ignoring scientific consensus to protect polluters.” should be grounds for firing in itself! No respectable scientist would utter those words.
Good job by Lee Zeldin. He is keeping up a very impressive record of firm leadership.
This is how you expose an remove an entrenched bureaucracy. I really do not “like” Donald Trump, but he is having a desired effect on the federal government.
Why are government workers always placed on “paid” leave when they are being disciplined? Fire their butts and let them appeal. Then, if they win, pay them the back money.
“The employees placed on administrative leave are planning to sue.”
And they will win, obviously.
They are clearly justified in claiming that the leadership are making employees fearful – the suspension of whistle-blowers proves it.
A scared workforce is unable to fulfil its mission – it will be hard to prove otherwise.
This is what the US Founding Fathers warned against. It’s a clear example of Presidential Overreach.
We Brits put Charles I in his place; Donald I is walking into the same morass.
This guy really doesn’t have a clue about what the Founders warned against and what they fought against. No wonder Britain is in such a mess.
He’s a hard core socialist and unionist.
Who told you that employees shouldn’t be fearful of being fired if they disobey orders? Are you some sort of communist? (that’s a rhetorical question)
And no, they are not “blowing the whistle” on illegal behaviour of their superiors – they are using their government platform to promote their own anti-government policies. That’s not what they’re being paid to do, and their employer has every right to stop paying them.
We have opinions based on partial knowledge, filtered through the media.
Let’s wait for the informed decision of the courts to see who is correct.
I say, with quiet confidence.
English law and US law are not the same … you will soon find that out …
In the private sector any employees who published a letter openly criticising their employer would be terminated immediately.
You really do take in the socialist propaganda.
They are not whistleblowers they are noxious malcontents.
In any company in this world, take out an open letter complaining about your boss and the direction of the company, you will be fired, and rightly so.
Going on paid leave is better than these people deserve. They should have been shown the door the next morning.
everyone who works for a living is fearful of their boss firing them … this is nothing new, so no they won’t “win” anything … they are terrified that they have given their boss a prefectly LEGAL reason too fire them …
Ah, the Denier treatment. They don’t like it up em.
Lee Zeldin has, from day one, been outstanding. Unapologetically delivering on Trump’s promises. He is one of the top performers in the Cabinet.
Cleaning up an organization intentionally populated by zealots is going to result in a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Unfortunately, the EPA is inherently activist. Fortunately, tearing it apart is entertaining if you are not faint of heart.
“self-identif[ying] themselves”
Umm.
Freedom of speech does not grant the speaker full choice on when and where to say his bit.
Using an agency letterhead and publishing on a partisan website is a violation.
Had they restrained themselves and sent the letter through channels there would be a different story.
This is no more legitimate than a person, in a crowded theater, standing up and shouting, “FIRE!”
Freedom of speech does not prevent the consequences of said speech … and they are not being denied Freedom of Speech … obviously since they published the letter and they can go on publishing letters or giving interviews as much as they want … maybe just not as EPA employees …
Paid leave…..??
One career bureaucrat writing an opinion piece does not constitute a “scientific consensus” even if the phrase is repeated three times. This must (apparently) be learned the hard way.
bingo … “consensus” science if nothing more than an opinion poll … Opience … opinion dressed up as science …