EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights likely to close

More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump’s executive order, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” which was responsible for the closure of the agency’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.

Employees of the EPA’s DEI office were placed on administrative leave on Jan. 22, once the executive order went into effect. Staffers with the Office of Environmental Justice were informed their department is expecting a similar written notice as early as Thursday, but it was unclear if all employees will also go on administrative leave or be immediately terminated.

CBS News has reached out to the EPA for comment.

The Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights supports the EPA’s efforts to address vulnerable communities that the agency has determined have been disproportionately affected by environmental pollution and ensure they have equitable access to a healthy environment, as well as enforce federal civil rights laws. 

“There were a lot of rumors all day,” said Matthew Tejada, who was the deputy assistant administrator at the Office of Environmental Justice for over a decade before departing the EPA in Dec. 2023. “The staff is freaked out and anxious.”

A current EPA staff member in the environmental justice office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said senior leadership held a two-and-a-half hour call on Wednesday to discuss the logistics of the order, but said managers would not have many details to share until the official notice is issued.

Many on the call were confused and concerned. EPA staffers already received the Office of Personnel Management’s “Fork in the Road” email, which offered deferred resignations to anyone who agreed to leave their position by Feb. 6. But this individual received an email warning that they could be immediately terminated because of their probationary status as an employee with less than a year in their current role — which was created under an Inflation Reduction Act temporary program with a two-year probationary period. It’s unclear if they will be eligible for administrative leave, or be immediately dismissed.

Roughly 250 people work for the Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights Office at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and 10 regional offices across the country. The news was especially distressing for Tejada, who worked with many of the staff during his time leading the office, “I hired all of them,” he said.

Tejada, now the senior vice president of environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “Shuttering the environmental justice office will mean more toxic contaminants, dangerous air and unsafe water in communities across the nation that have been most harmed by pollution in the past.”