White House Says EPA Will Cut 65 Percent of Spending, Not Staff

The Environmental Protection Agency has terminated 388 probationary employees and placed nearly 200 employees on leave.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin speaks at the East Palestine Fire Department in Ohio on Feb. 3, 2025. Rebecca Droke/AP

The White House has clarified remarks made by President Donald Trump during his first Cabinet meeting on Feb. 26, after he said Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin plans to initiate massive job cuts at the agency.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a Feb. 27 statement to the media that Trump was referring to agency spending and not staffing levels when he said that Zeldin informed him that the agency will be “cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental.”

“President Trump, DOGE, and Administrator Zeldin are committed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse across all agencies,” Rogers said, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, led by businessman Elon Musk.

“After recently identifying $20 billion in fraudulent spending, Administrator Zeldin is committed to eliminating 65% of the EPA’s wasteful spending,” Rogers added, referencing the funding awarded to various environmental groups under the previous administration through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Zeldin said earlier this month that the EPA would try to retrieve the funding amid concerns over a lack of oversight and transparency.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EPA employs more than 18,000 people, of which more than 17,000 are permanent workers.

The EPA has already terminated 388 probationary employees and placed on leave nearly 200 employees who worked on environmental justice, to align with Trump’s energy policy agenda.

At his Cabinet meeting, Trump said staff at the agency included “a lot of people that weren’t doing their job—they were just obstructionists.” He also alleged that many staff in the agency didn’t exist.

Trump’s remarks prompted criticism from the head of the EPA’s largest union. Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, said the comments put EPA employees “in a tailspin.”

She said that a 65 percent cut to the EPA’s spending would inevitably require major staffing reductions for jobs such as monitoring air and water quality, responding to natural disasters, and lead abatement.

Zeldin Wants ‘Tens of Billions’ in EPA Savings

Trump’s remarks had also caused concern from the Environmental Protection Network, an informal grouping of EPA directors and similar bodies across Europe.

In a Feb. 27 statement, Michelle Roos, the network’s executive director, said a 65 percent cut to jobs at the agency would be “dangerous” and could pave the way for “corporate polluters to freely dump toxic chemicals in the air we breathe and the water we all drink.”

Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, Zeldin said he wants to reduce spending at the EPA by “tens of billions of dollars” in 2025 and ensure the agency is “operating more efficiently.”

President Joe Biden requested about $10.9 billion for the EPA in the current budget year, marking an increase of 8.5 percent from the previous one, but Zeldin said that under his leadership, the agency needs less money to do its work.

“We don’t need to be spending all that money that went through the EPA last year,” Zeldin said. “We don’t want it. We don’t need it. The American public needs it and we need to balance the budget.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for further comment.

Nathan Worcester, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.