Washington
In a letter to regional administrators and other agency officials, EPA acting deputy administrator Mike Flynn said the White House had asked federal agencies to begin taking “immediate actions” aimed at reducing their workforce.
Flynn said the goal is to complete the program by year’s end.
He also noted that while a governmentwide hiring freeze had been lifted, hiring at EPA would remain at a standstill.
The memo, dated Tuesday, contains little additional detail about the EPA’s plans to shrink its number of employees, and it is probably the first of many similar plans that will be submitted by various agencies.
But the EPA, in particular, has been a central target of the Trump administration. The president has promised in the past to reduce the agency to “tidbits.” His proposed budget would slash the agency’s funding by 31 percent, cut about 3,200 workers, obliterate funding for climate change research and Superfund cleanups, and scrap more than 50 programs. Among them: efforts aimed at improving energy efficiency, funding infrastructure projects in Native American communities and cleaning up the Great Lakes.
Actually laying off federal workers, a process known as Reduction in Force, or RIF, requires a lengthy process that experts say can be disruptive, tedious and expensive. RIFs have not been widely used for decades, and agencies generally try to avoid them, opting first for other approaches, such as reducing travel and other expenses, as well as reducing the number of employees through attrition.