EPA Shuts Down Its Scientific Research Office

Eliminating the Office of Research and Development Harms All Americans

 

Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, issued the following statement in response to EPA’s announcement that it is eliminating the Office of Research and Development.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to eliminate the Office of Research and Development (ORD) will devastate the country’s ability to protect human health and the environment and politicize scientific research at the agency.

ORD’s science, data, and research support all of EPA’s work, from protecting the public from harmful chemicals to setting air quality standards to keeping our drinking water safe. It conducts research in its in-house laboratories, funds extramural research at academic institutions and other organizations, and provides technical services in support of the agency’s mission.

ORD scientists are at the top of their fields, generating data and developing methodologies to study the impact of chemicals, wildfire smoke, air pollution, and global warming on human and environmental health. They also manage grant programs that fund these activities at universities and private companies, and they interpret research from other scientists and apply it to EPA problems.

No one should be fooled by the agency’s announcement that “key ORD functions will be absorbed into EPA’s existing air, water and chemicals programs or new science office directly underneath the administrator.”

The move to eliminate ORD is part of the Trump administration’s war on science. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is laying off and forcing out scientists in record numbers, and slashing research and travel budgets for the remaining EPA scientists. With ORD eliminated, those who remain will work in policy offices or under the administrator. One reason ORD has been a separate office since 1970 was to protect its scientific work from policy-oriented biases and political interference.

One aspect of ORD’s work that will be greatly impacted is its ability to generate scientific information on cancer and non-cancer health effects of chronic exposure to environmental contaminants from its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). Local, state, and federal agencies use the information in IRIS, and it is relied on in EPA regulations under the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Clean Water Act.

ORD and IRIS have long been in the crosshairs of polluting industries. ORD’s work has led to stricter environmental protections and has at times contradicted industry-funded assessments. The Heritage Foundation, which created the Project 2025 playbook, called the office “bloated, unaccountable, closed, outcome-driven, hostile to public and legislative input, and inclined to pursue political rather than purely scientific goals.”

Lee Zeldin, with no Congressional approval, is destroying decades of investment in people, processes, learned experiences, and accomplishments that are the foundation for improving our understanding of how pollution affects the world we live in, and he is doing so as part of the Trump administration’s effort to turn the reins of government over to powerful polluting industries.

That is a true form of waste, fraud, and abuse.