U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the next phase of organizational improvements to the agency to better provide clean air, water, and land for all Americans. These workforce changes impact the Office of the Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), and Office of Water.

Following President Trump’s Executive Order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” the Federal government “commence[d] a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy” to “empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself.” 

“With these organizational improvements, we recommit to fulfilling all of our statutory obligations and exceptionally delivering on EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment. This reorganization will bring much needed efficiencies to incorporate science into our rulemakings and sharply focus our work on providing the cleanest air, land, and water for our communities. It will also save at least $300 million annually for the American people,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.  

With this action, EPA is delivering organizational improvements to the personnel structure that will directly benefit the American people and better advance the agency’s core mission, while Powering the Great American Comeback. 

EPA is creating the first-of-its-kind Office of State Air Partnerships within the Office of Air and Radiation. This office will be focused on working with, not against, state, local and tribal air permitting agencies to improve processing of State Implementation Plans and resolving air permitting concerns. This will help ensure national consistency so that a state, local or tribal air permitting agency receives the same answer regardless of where they are in the country. EPA is also creating the Office of Clean Air Programs that will align statutory obligations and mission essential functions based on centers of expertise to ensure more transparency and harmony in regulatory development.  

Similarly, changes to the Office of Water will better align the development of regulations, guidance, and policy with the science that underpins it. EPA is also elevating issues of cybersecurity, emergency response, and water reuse and conservation to ensure they are receiving appropriate resources to address today’s pressing water issues. 

In this reorganization, the agency is shifting its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices to tackle statutory obligations and mission essential functions. This includes the creation of the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions (OASES) in the Office of the Administrator to align research and put science at the forefront of the agency’s rulemakings and technical assistance to states.

Specifically, OCSPP will gain more than 130 scientific, technical, bioinformatic, and information technology experts to work directly on the backlogs of over 504 new chemicals in review that are beyond the statutorily required timeframes and over 12,000 pesticide reviews that are well beyond their expected timelines. In this process, EPA is also gaining the tools needed to advance a PFAS testing strategy to ensure that we are furthering our understanding of PFAS and its impacts on human health and the environment. These organizational improvements provide better tools and capabilities to allow OCSPP to use computational and bioinformatic tools—and eventually artificial intelligence—to streamline and improve the review of chemicals and pesticides. 

This phase of reorganization will save taxpayers more than $300 million annually by Fiscal Year 2026. It is all part of a larger, comprehensive effort to restructure the agency, and when finalized, EPA expects to have employment levels near those seen when President Ronald Reagan occupied the White House.

Earlier this year, EPA announced the termination of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Environmental Justice (EJ) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) arms of the agency. In doing so, EPA began a Reduction in Force for approximately 280 DEI and EJ employees and transferred 175 employees who perform statutory obligations and mission essential functions to other offices.