...A plan reviewed by the committee staffers calls for the elimination of the Office of Research and Development as an EPA National Program Office. It called for the elimination of 50 to 75 percent of the office’s 1,540 staffers.
All members of the Environmental Protection Agency’s boards of outside advisers on science and clean air were dismissed in a letter emailed late Tuesday, an unusual step the Trump administration said was aimed at depoliticizing the panels.
Panel members expressed disappointment and confusion at the assertion in the letter signed by James Payne, a career EPA attorney Trump installed as acting administrator. Critics charged the Trump administration with politicizing the process by eliminating the current independent advisers and clearing the way for them to be replaced with hand-picked appointees.
