On July 18, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the elimination of its Office of Research and Development (ORD) and the creation of a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions, part of a broader reorganization of the agency’s research efforts and expertise. The EPA also announced that it would begin the process of reducing the agency’s total workforce by 3,700 to 12,448, a nearly 23% reduction in staffing levels since January 2025.
ORD is the primary research arm of the agency and currently employs 1,540 staff members, according to a review of agency documents by Democrats on the House Science Committee. The documents also reveal that as many as 1,155 EPA chemists, biologists, toxicologists, and other scientists could be laid off.
Critics argue that the changes will significantly impact public health and undermine federal scientific research. Justin Chen, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees, called ORD “the heart and brain of the EPA,” and said that “[w]ithout it, we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment. Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.” Representative Zoe Lofgren, ranking member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said that “the obliteration of ORD will have generational impacts on Americans’ health and safety.” The Trump administration cut funding to ORD earlier this year.
Updates:
Additional Anti-Science Action
Update 1: On September 22, 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin sent a memo to staff announcing a major reorganization of the agency, including the formation of the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions (OASES) to replace ORD. According to the announcement, OASES will be housed within the Office of the Administrator, which critics argue is intended to intimidate researchers and will lead to greater political interference in their work. “They are putting [OASES] directly under the administrator and subjecting it to political interference, subjecting research at the office to political interference,” said Nicole Cantello, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents EPA Region 5 employees.
Update 2: On February 13, 2026, EPA officially notified Congress of its intention to close the Office of Research and Development. Scientists who remained in the Office as of February 13 received letters stating that they would be reassigned elsewhere within EPA.
Update 3: In early April 2026, an email was sent to the remaining ORD employees notifying them of their reassignments and informing them that “the effective date of your reassignment will be communicated at a later date.” Staff who reached out to their immediate supervisors for clarity learned they were not involved in the decision-making process, resulting in some employees being demoted or relocated to positions where their skills were not relevant.
Employees already reassigned to OASES reported that there was confusion about mission priorities, with one employee stating “[n]o one knows what they’re supposed to be doing… The staff left in OASES don’t have the resources or support to actually carry out any meaningful research, which they have not decided if we are allowed to publish or not yet.”
On March 25, 2026, Maureen Gwinn, the acting associate administrator and science adviser leading OASES, informed staff in an internal memo that all work done by OASES must align with “Agency and administration priorities, as articulated through EPA and White House strategic plans, initiatives, and directives” and that work related to federal science “must be supported by appropriate political leadership” to ensure that there are “‘no surprises’ regarding OASES’ science and research activities.”