The Environmental Protection Agency is eliminating its Office of Research and Development and cutting more than 3,700 jobs, a restructuring that will shrink the agency’s workforce by nearly 23% from January levels. EPA research office layoffs began Friday as Administrator Lee Zeldin framed the move as a cost-saving measure that would preserve the agency’s core mission.
The decision dismantles the EPA’s main science arm, an office with 1,540 positions and 10 laboratories from Florida to Oregon. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, and toxicologists could lose their jobs, according to agency documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House science panel. The EPA said it would create a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions to replace the research division.
Dismantling the Office of Research and Development
The Office of Research and Development has served as the scientific backbone of the EPA since the agency’s creation. It produced the peer-reviewed studies that underpin air quality standards, drinking water rules, and chemical safety assessments. Its elimination marks the most significant structural change to the agency in decades.
Zeldin said the changes would ensure the EPA “is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment.” Officials project savings of nearly $750 million once the restructuring is complete. The agency said all laboratory functions currently conducted by the research office will continue under the new structure.
Critics question whether moving scientists into program offices will preserve the independence that the research division provided. The Office of Research and Development operated as a separate unit, giving its scientists distance from regulatory decision-makers. Consolidating research into program offices could blur that line, former agency officials told AP News.
EPA research office layoffs follow Supreme Court ruling
The layoffs follow a Supreme Court ruling last week that cleared the way for the Trump administration to downsize the federal workforce. The decision removed legal barriers that had blocked mass firings across multiple agencies. The EPA moved quickly, becoming one of the first major departments to announce a reduction in force.
Total EPA staffing will drop to 12,448 employees, down from roughly 16,100 when President Donald Trump took office in January. The agency is also offering a third round of deferred resignations, with an application window open until July 25. Employees who accept receive pay and benefits through a set date without working.
“This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,” Zeldin said. The phrase “reduction in force” is the formal government term for mass layoffs of federal employees.
The EPA has also moved to reverse climate regulations. The agency sent a proposal to the White House to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding that classified greenhouse gas emissions as a danger to public health, Reuters reported. That finding underpins all major federal climate rules.
Scientists warn of generational health impacts
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House Science Committee, called the elimination of the research office “a travesty.” She said the Trump administration is “firing hardworking scientists while employing political appointees whose job it is to lie incessantly to Congress and to the American people.”
Justin Chen, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees, offered a blunter assessment. The Office of Research and Development “is the heart and brain of the EPA,” Chen said. “Without 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.”
The announcement comes two weeks after the EPA placed 139 employees on administrative leave for signing a “declaration of dissent” with agency policies. The employees wrote in a June 30 letter that the EPA is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. The agency accused them of “unlawfully undermining” Trump’s agenda.
The convergence of layoffs, scientific office elimination, and disciplinary action against dissenting employees signals a broader shift in how the EPA operates. The agency that once billed itself as a science-driven regulator is now reorganizing around a model that prioritizes cost reduction and political alignment over independent research.
For Americans who rely on EPA science for clean air standards, safe drinking water, and chemical safety assessments, the changes raise practical questions. Without a dedicated research arm, the agency will depend on program offices to generate the data behind regulatory decisions. Whether that structure can produce the same quality of science remains an open question, one that public health experts and environmental groups are already preparing to litigate.
The EPA’s restructuring is part of a wider pattern of federal agency overhauls tracked in Government coverage. Agency reorganizations, workforce reductions, and regulatory rollbacks are reshaping how the federal government operates, with consequences that extend far beyond Washington.