Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin is “eliminating all diversity, equity and inclusion and environmental justice offices and positions immediately,” according to screenshots of an internal memo obtained by CBS News.
The move means the Environmental Justice Divisions within 10 EPA regional offices will be reorganized and eliminated. EPA headquarters already closed its Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights in D.C. and placed 168 employees on administrative leave, although it did reinstate a handful of those people.
In the memo, dated Tuesday, March 11, Zeldin said this action is in response to President Trump’s executive order on “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferences,” as well as two other executive actions.
The EPA confirmed the closures at regional offices.
“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people,” Zeldin said in a statement provided to CBS News. “Part of this mandate includes the elimination of forced discrimination programs.”
“Our goal at EPA is going to be to remediate these environmental issues directly,” Zeldin told CBS News at a press availability. “We’re not going to discriminate. We’re not going to make people give us 1000 questions about their their background in order to qualify for support, we want everyone to qualify for support.”
It’s not yet clear exactly how many people will lose their jobs with the EPA as a result of the closures. Exact staffing levels across the country are unknown, but sources tell CBS News there were roughly 200 total people employed at environmental justice offices in DC and the 10 regional locations. The EPA confirmed to CBS News that all employees in these regional offices will be placed on administrative leave.
“Generations of progress are being erased from our federal government,” said Matthew Tejada, who was the deputy assistant administrator at the Office of Environmental Justice for over a decade before leaving the EPA in December 2023. “The individuals with institutional knowledge and have long developed connections and trust within these communities are being erased.”
The EPA established the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights in 1992 under former President George H.W. Bush to address “disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on minority and low-income populations.”
The Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights has undergone several reorganizations throughout the years, but it was broadly expanded in 2022 under former President Joe Biden. In September 2022, the office received a $3 billion grant from the Inflation Reduction Act that allowed it to become a national program with regional offices in 10 locations to expand the department’s work within impacted communities that are harmed by environmental pollution.
“It will be incredibly hard to attract individuals who are brave enough to show their faces to these communities,” said Tejada, who now serves as the senior vice president of environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Many of the neighborhoods served by the regional Environmental Justice offices have a mistrust of the government and restoring that relationship will be nearly impossible, Tejada said.
“The government is being shut down right in front of us and it is catastrophic and no one is calling it out,” he said.
