Critics also contend that mandating that pins be worn by feds, who are barred from engaging in partisan political activity while on the job, is illegal. “Requiring NPS personnel, uniformed or not, to wear a pin displaying the trademarked logo of Freedom 250, LLC is unlawful, full stop ...

The Interior Department has refused a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request related to records showing how it is implementing an order to scrub “disparaging” content about American history from national parks. The move prompted Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ( ...

The National Park Service has carried out at least 100 changes across the country, with more in process, according to a court filing earlier this week, including the removal of an entire exhibit on the enslaved servants of former President George Washington in Philadelphia. PEER’s ...

“The Administration is choosing to let roads, trails, and wastewater systems in the park fall into disrepair amidst the peak summer visitor season so it can paint statues gold in Washington,” he said in a June 15 statement to States Newsroom. “This is unacceptable, and I am demanding ...

The “extraordinarily broad” NDA proposal would unlawfully conflict with whistleblower protections and other legal avenues for federal employees to report fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement, PEER said. The organization is urging OPM to fully withdraw the proposal. Tim Whitehouse, ...

For Kyla Bennett with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, that budget rider poses a triple threat, harming farmers, food and water. “It’s appalling to me that these legislators are willing to trade human health, to trade clean water and a clean food supply for ...

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that represents federal workers, has also filed a lawsuit to force Interior to turn over more documents detailing spending on Freedom 250 and separate spending by the National Park Service to prepare Washington-area monuments for ...

“Waiving environmental laws to ram a $1.7 billion border wall through Big Bend National Park is fiscally reckless, ineffective, and an unconscionable sacrifice of one of America’s most irreplaceable wild landscapes,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public ...

Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) told CNN that Trump’s “partisan events” are “not what the American people deserve on their 250th birthday.” PEER has sued the Trump administration over its refusal to release key ...

The NFF is a congressionally chartered foundation that raises private donations to support national forests. Because its official mission is to support the Forest Service, the use of funds from the NFF for anything unrelated to that purpose could subject the foundation to extra scrutiny ...

EPA has rolled out a new approach to reviewing the health risks for existing chemicals, a results-focused, streamlined strategy that advocates warn could skirt necessary public health precautions. An internal training video, obtained and released by watchdog group Public Employees for ...

But EPA staff who spoke to CNN say the shift in the agency’s culture goes beyond the video. Kyla Bennett of PEER said she worries the changes are significant and could extend beyond the Trump administration. “The culture within these agencies outlives the people,” she said. “That ...

Watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit last month demanding key documents behind Freedom 250’s funding scheme. The organization is asking whether Freedom 250 siphoned $100 million in taxpayer dollars from the competing America 250 while co- ...

Democrats and other critics have raised questions about whether funds appropriated by Congress for America250 have been diverted to the White House group and combined with private donations that are not being disclosed. The watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ...

Watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit last month demanding key documents behind Freedom 250’s funding scheme. The organization is asking for details about the project siphoning $100 million in taxpayer dollars from the competing America 250 ...

This week on Green Street, Patti and Doug talk about the rise of anti-bacterial resistance due to climate change, and the EPA’s latest attempt to weaken drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals. Then former EPA scientist Dr. Kyla Bennett, senior scientist at Public Employees for ...

The idea that the administration is going to destroy its way out of the Pfas problem is “nonsensical”, said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist. It parallels fossil fuel industry attempts to use unreliable carbon capture technology as a solution – both offer the appearance of ...

“Thousands of Yellowstone employees and their families have been and/or are currently being exposed to harmful levels of lead through the paint in their housing,” states the disclosure, filed by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in late April with the U.S ...

A year ago, the Interior Department pitched a sweeping reorganization as a way to save money and streamline operations. We look at what the evidence actually shows about how that played out. “They’re moving things around on paper without recognizing the effects that may have in ...

While the reorganization was implemented to “achieve effectiveness, accountability, and cost savings for the American taxpayer,” the DOI has failed to provide documents demonstrating such savings. According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), SO 3429 ...