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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is placing 144 employees on administrative leave after they signed an open petition protesting the agency’s actions under the Trump administration.

The federal employees published the “declaration of dissent” as a public letter on Monday, criticizing the EPA’s recent deregulatory moves and its transition away from prioritizing “environmental justice” initiatives that were championed under the Biden administration, among other policies. The EPA employees will remain on leave as the agency investigates the matter further, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin followed through on comments he made in January indicating that he has little patience for bureaucrats hoping to undermine the agency from within on his watch.

“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. The will of the American public will not be ignored at our agency,” Zeldin said. “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.”

There are over 15,000 employees at the EPA, meaning that the staffers who signed the letter represent a small fraction of the agency’s overall workforce. The 144 employees placed on leave Thursday signed the letter with their official EPA title, according to the agency. Other signatories were anonymous, used fake names, or were retired individuals, former Democratic appointees or federal employees, according to the EPA.

Among other complaints, the signatories took issue with the Trump EPA’s attacks on a Biden-era program that awarded billions to politically-connected nonprofits and comparison of adherence to climate science as a religion, and the letter directly accuses the agency of “[endangering] public health and [eroding] scientific progress.”

The letter also states that the office of the administrator may have violated the Hatch Act, which limits federal employees from certain political activities, in an agency newsletter. The EPA labeled this claim as misinformation.

“EPA Ethics received several inquiries as to whether the Hatch Act applies. As I indicated to you both orally, the text does not, in and of itself, actually violate the Hatch Act: it does not advocate for or against a candidate for partisan election, political party or partisan group,” EPA’s Director of the Ethics Office Justina Fugh wrote of the complaints regarding the newsletter, according to the agency.

“The vast majority of agency employees are dedicated to the core mission of protecting human health and the environment, Powering the Great American Comeback, and respecting the will of the American people,” Zeldin said. “Our ZERO tolerance policy is in full force and effect and will be unapologetically implemented unconditionally.”

Zeldin also noted in his statement that he has worked with many dedicated career staffers at the EPA since his confirmation that are working to “implement the agenda our country voted for last year.”

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