The Trump administration has fired at least seven Environmental Protection Agency employees for signing a letter nearly two months ago criticizing the agency’s leadership, according to union officials.
The agency confirmed the firings Friday but did not specify how many people were terminated.
EPA leaders had placed 144 employees on leave for endorsing a public missive that said the changes President Donald Trump and his appointees had made at the agency “undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.” More than 270 employees initially signed the letter, with over 170 choosing to be named.
The move to terminate several staffers marks an escalation in the administration’s effort to clamp down on dissent within the federal bureaucracy. Earlier this week, officials suspended more than three dozen employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who signed a letter to Congress arguing that changes at the agency were jeopardizing its ability to perform its mission, risking a disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member