This piece has been updated from its original email version. Last update: 7/9/25.
On Monday, hundreds of workers from the Environmental Protection Agency have issued a Declaration of Dissent to Administrator Lee Zeldin and members of Congress, criticizing his stewardship of the agency and calling on him to defend science. Now, the EPA is placing them on administrative leave.
"I guess in Trump's America federal employees cannot stand up for science,” said Colette Delawalla, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Stand Up for Science, which helped organize the declaration.
On Thursday, notices went out to 139 declaration signers informing them that they had been placed on paid leave through July 17 pending an administrative investigation. “It is important that you understand that this is not a disciplinary action,” the emails read, according to several screenshots obtained by Important Context.
(A copy of email that went out the declaration signers.)
However, speaking to the right-wing Daily Caller, for an article headlined “‘Zero Tolerance’: EPA Brings Hammer Down on Bureaucrats Publicly ‘Sabotaging’ Trump Agenda,” Zeldin made clear what was happening.
“We have a ZERO tolerance policy for agency bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the agenda of this administration as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” he said. “The will of the American public will not be ignored at our agency. Unfortunately, a small number of employees signed onto a public letter, written as agency employees, using their official work title, that was riddled with misinformation regarding agency business.”
Sent Monday morning, the Declaration of Dissent accused the Trump administration of implementing policies that “undermine EPA's mission and threaten the health of people and the planet.” The document was signed by 278 EPA workers—though the number has since ballooned to 620 with 233 named signers. The document accused Zeldin of politicizing the agency, using its imprimatur to spread misinformation, and of ignoring scientific consensus to benefit polluting companies.
As Important Context noted in our coverage of the declaration on Monday, Zeldin, a longtime fossil fuel ally, had spent his time as EPA administrator rolling back environmental protections.
In mid-March, for example, he announced the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” axing 31 climate and environment rules implemented under the Biden administration. We also noted that he expressed his support for reconsidering the 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions drive climate change.
Zeldin's EPA has also been friendly to chemical companies, working to deregulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, in line with a recommendation in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 roadmap for the Trump administration. Recently, he announced plans to reconsider the Biden administration’s ban on the carcinogen asbestos.
The declaration also blasted Zeldin for dismantling the agency’s environmental justice program as well as its independent Office of Research and Development. It noted that “The gutting of staff and science and your proposed budget cuts for the coming year will leave ORD unable to meet its statutory requirements and will threaten the health of all Americans.”
It also claimed the EPA administrator was facilitating a “culture of fear” inside the agency—an allegation Thursday’s apparent retaliation against the declaration signers appears to vindicate.
"Our letter to the administration clearly outlined concerns of a culture of fear, and if they wish to investigate or retaliate against those that expressed those concerns, it is clear they do not value EPA employees and it is clear they are trying to threaten those that are trying to protect the public health of ALL American and the environment,” one declaration signer told Important Context on the condition of anonymity.
The EPA declaration echoed a similar effort at the National Institutes of Health. Workers there published the Bethesda Declaration last month, excoriating NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and the Trump administration for cuts to staff and research as well as politicizing science. Thus far, the NIH declaration signers have not faced similar retaliation.
As more information comes out, we will update this piece.