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A few days after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term, the Environmental Protection Agency representative sent an email throughout the workforce detailing the agency’s plans to shut down diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including a plea for help.
“Employees are required to notify,” the Office of Personnel Management, an EPA or federal government personnel agency, received an email from then-admin James Payne on “a program focusing solely on other agency offices, subunits, HR position descriptions, contracts or DEIs.”
Agency employees responded to their pleas, over 15,000 people, over 15,000 people, Propublica learned through the request of public records.
Trump made the ending diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility program a distinctive effort in his second term. However, many federal employees have refused to support the administration with this goal. He signed an executive order on his first day in office, labelled the DEI initiative, and ordered it to be suspended, with the aim of significantly promoting greater diversity, largely within the workplace, as an “illegal and immoral discrimination program.” His pressure campaign to end DEI’s efforts has been expanded to non-government businesses and organizations, with billions of dollars in federal funding being frozen as part of the fight.
Corbin Darling has retired from the EPA at an agency for more than 30 years, including managing many Western states’ environmental justice programs.
“I’m not surprised that no one submitted a colleague or other program in response to that request,” he said, adding that his previous colleague understood that it was important for the agency’s work to tackle pollution that had disproportionately affected communities of color. “It’s part of the mission, it’s been decades,” Darling said.
Paine’s notes to agency employees listed two email addresses (one email address belonging to the EPA) where EPA employees can send details about their DEI efforts. Propublica has submitted public records requests to both agencies for content in their inboxes since the start of the administration until April 1st.
The Human Resources Administration did not respond to the request, but the Freedom of Information Act requires that it do so within 20 business days. The agency also did not answer any questions regarding whether they received reports in their anti-DEI inbox.
Meanwhile, the EPA checked its inbox and confirmed that Zero Employee had submitted a report. “Some emails I received in that inbox came from my EPA address, but no one called out to a colleague who was still working on the DEI issue,” an agency spokesman said in a statement in May.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
“My optimists would like to believe it’s probably because as agents, we generally focus on our mission and we understand that Deia is essential in that respect,” said the current EPA employee who requested anonymity. “On the contrary, they did such a good job of quickly dismantling the agency’s Deia, which people in their arms might have just been concerned about.”
While DEI programs are often internal to the workplace, the administration has also targeted environmental justice initiatives. This acknowledges the fact that public health and environmental harms fall out disproportionately in poor areas and communities of color. Environmental justice has been part of the EPA’s order for many years, but has expanded significantly under the Biden administration.
For example, studies have shown that municipalities plant trees, maintain green spaces in areas with a higher proportion of people of color, leading to more intense heat. And heavy industry is often zoned or installed near Latinx, black and Native American communities.
Confirmed in late January, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin boasts cutting environmental justice and DEI grants and contracts of over $22 billion. “Many American communities suffer from serious, unresolved environmental issues, but under the banner of ‘environmental justice’, the previous administration’s EPA has showered billions of dollars on ideological allies rather than leading those resources to resolve environmental issues and meaningful change.”
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An EPA spokesperson said employees with more than 50% of jobs dedicated to either environmental justice work or DEI were eligible for the layoffs. The agency is “taking the next step towards ending the arms of diversity, equity, inclusion and environmental justice in the Biden-Harris administration,” the spokesman said.
The EPA Office of Environmental Justice is working on a variety of initiatives, including participating in agency decision-making, funding the mitigation of carcinogenic gas radon, and funding the removal of lead pipes.
“The ocean changes are not the right words because they are like ocean drainage,” Darling said. “I destroyed the program.”
