Retaliation Within the EPA Following Declaration of Dissent

Several insiders at the Environmental Protection Agency have revealed that Administrator Lee Zeldin is reportedly taking retaliatory measures against staff members who endorsed a Declaration of Dissent, which criticized his leadership. Such actions may potentially violate legal standards.

Reports indicate that affected employees started receiving notifications—some via personal email—that they were placed on administrative leave “pending an investigation” into their participation in the dissent. According to one source, this leave could extend up to 10 days initially. It appears that regional directors and other senior officials were summoned to a meeting on Thursday morning to deliberate on possible disciplinary actions for those who signed the declaration, which essentially urged the EPA to refocus on its core mission of environmental protection.

An EPA insider, confirmed by a ProPublica journalist via Bluesky, mentioned that approximately 144 leave notices were issued, targeting about a quarter of the declaration’s signatories. The specifics of the “investigation” into these federal employees remain uncertain. Another staffer from the EPA shared with Splinter that the non-profit organization Stand Up For Science, which facilitated the Declaration (and a similar initiative by National Institutes of Health employees), ensured that all signatories participated strictly in their personal capacity, during their own time, and without using agency resources. The Declaration explicitly states that it was signed “in our personal capacity, on our own time, and without Agency resources.”

More details will be provided as this story develops.