We cannot talk about many of the best things we do at PEER. Working behind the scenes, we have saved the careers of hundreds of conscientious public servants, often by talking them out of publicly blowing the whistle and convincing them to work through PEER to expose a problem.
Not surprisingly this year, the reelection of Donald Trump has posed special challenges for us.
Here are ten things we can talk about from the past year as PEER worked directly with our clients and supporters to protect public employees and our environment by –
- Fighting to protect our nonpartisan civil service system from politicization. PEER is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to block the Trump plan to convert civil servants into at-will employees, subject to termination at will. Trump’s plan would be a giant step towards a return of the political spoils system.
- Deflecting a plan to require all civil service job applicants submit an essay about how they would further the Trump agenda and his Executive Orders. The White House and the Office of Personnel Management are proceeding on a “voluntary” basis, but we are working to remove these partisan considerations from the hiring process altogether.
- Suing to protect federal employee free speech. Our precedent-setting suit aims to secure the ability of public servants to speak, publish, and petition the government on their own time on matters not affecting their job. PEER is also defending the right of federal employees to express dissent on social issues as well as the direction of their own agency.
- Preventing the closure of two-dozen Water Science Centers, the national network tracking stream flow for flood warnings and drought management as well as water quality, by blowing the whistle on an ill-considered Musk/DOGE plan to let leases on these specialized facilities lapse.
- Curbing noisy, disruptive air tours over national parks with two legal victories: a court order directing a more rigorous overflight management plan for four San Francisco Bay Area parks and another upholding complete air tour bans across Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Parks.
- Battling on several fronts to remove toxic forever chemicals (PFAS) from our food chain, including litigation to prevent the contamination of crops and livestock from toxic “forever chemicals” inside biosolid fertilizers made from sewage sludge; to end use of millions of plastic containers used for shipping which leach PFAS into their contents; and to get PFAS out of pesticides sprayed on crops or near our waters.
- Launching a legal action to protect scores of EPA’s Environmental Justice specialists marooned by a Trump Executive order ending the program. We also compiled a compelling video explaining the importance of this work.
- Exposing the dangerous control Elon Musk is exercising over NOAA programs affecting his satellite corporate interests. Musk is pushing to relax eco-monitoring of space operations just as the tremendous pollution load from mega-constellations of commercial satellites is posed to skyrocket.
- Ripping the cover off false claims by the turf industry that it was recycling its product when, in fact, used carpets are being dumped in wetlands and other rural areas. We are also waging a SLAPP suit to make a major turf manufacturer pay for its efforts to stifle eco-exposés by community groups.
- Inducing Maryland to end clean air incentives for polluting, toxic incinerators. This ended the state’s practice of providing subsidies to companies that burn trash to create electricity under its premier climate program.
Besides these achievements, we continued to render direct assistance to scores of confidential whistleblowers and internal activists. We robustly used Freedom of Information Act litigation as part of a wide-ranging transparency program guided by insider sources. Through these and other methods, we help public servants exercise their Free Speech rights to communicate concerns to their true employers – you, the public.