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#43 – Protecting Whistleblowers and Public Employees w/ Tim Whitehouse

by Our Public Lands Podcast | August 25, 2025
In this episode, I interview Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Tim discusses PEER’s unique mission in representing public employees, particularly whistleblowers. Our conversation touches on the challenges faced by public ...

Yosemite Biologist Fired After Hanging Transgender Pride Flag From El Capitan

by KQED | August 21, 2025
Joanna Citron Day, general counsel at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a legal assistance group that plans to assist Joslin in pursuing reinstatement to their position, said Joslin’s firing was arbitrary and “politically motivated.” “SJ got fired for exercising ...

Advocates push for phasing out lead ammo as states advance voluntary approaches

by KUNC | August 20, 2025
Leslie now serves on the executive council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. Along with the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the group is asking Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to phase out lead ammo and fishing tackle on state lands. In ...

Ranger fired for hanging transgender flag in Yosemite and park visitors may face prosecution

by The Associated Press | August 20, 2025
Joslin said a group of seven climbers including two other park rangers hung the flag. The other rangers are on administrative leave pending an investigation, Joslin said. Flags have long been flown from El Capitan without consequences, said Joanna Citron Day, a former federal attorney who ...

Are turf fields safe to play on? Critics have PFAS, heat and injury-related concerns

by WECT | August 14, 2025
Advocates say the fields help reduce maintenance costs, are more durable and lend themselves to year-round use. Critics, though, say turf fields are dangerous to play on. “My personal belief is that there’s never a good reason to use artificial turf,” said Kyla Bennett, the director ...

Traveler’s View: Why No National Park Service Director?

by National Parks Traveler | August 13, 2025
But the full Senate never voted on the nomination before that session of Congress ended, and Trump never renominated Vela, instead falling back to acting directors. Smith continued to wield the power of director until the fall of 2019 when he left under curious circumstances that led ...

Trump’s EPA to Expand Actions to Speed New Chemical Reviews

by Bloomberg Law | August 11, 2025
It’s imperative to know what decisions the EPA [has] made concerning the recent reviews of new chemicals, said Kyla Bennett, science policy director for the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). If the agency has granted all the applications, Bennett said she’d be ...

Forest Service faces identity crisis in USDA overhaul plan. Again.

by WyoFile | August 11, 2025
A 2021 survey of BLM workers by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility reported that 87% of reassigned employees either retired or quit rather than move. The field offices were staffed largely by new hires who lacked the scientific or experiential backgrounds of the former ...

Q&A: The whistleblowing business is booming

by E&E News | August 7, 2025
“Whistleblowing has traditionally been a nonpartisan thing,” said Tim Whitehouse, who joined PEER as its executive director in 2019, following stints leading Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility and a decade at EPA. But under Trump 2.0, PEER has seen a “20-fold increase ...

Environmental Protection Agency begins Office of Research and Development closure

by The Daily Texan | July 31, 2025
Kyla Bennett, the director of science policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, expressed similar frustrations with the office’s closure. “There’s no reason to reorganize and (reduce the workforce in the) ORD,” Bennett said. “It provides us with so much ...

Top Democrats slam HUD flood management plans

by E&E News | July 31, 2025
According to records collected by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, HUD submitted the rule in early July, and then yanked it just days later. In their letter, the senators said that “the status of the interim rule is unclear.” Read the PEER Story… ...

Forest Service Faces Identity Crisis in USDA Overhaul Plan. Again.

by Mountain Journal | July 30, 2025
A 2021 survey of BLM workers by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility reported that 87 percent of reassigned employees either retired or quit rather than move. The field offices were staffed largely by new hires who lacked the scientific or experiential backgrounds of the ...

Why Farmers May Be Able to Continue Fertilizing Fields With PFAS-Contaminated Sewage Sludge

by Inside Climate News | July 28, 2025
Public health advocates and some Congress members are now mobilizing to kill the rider, which they say is likely illegal because it pre-empts the Clean Water Act. The attempt to kill the risk assessment is “absolutely insane,” said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA attorney who is now science ...

‘It’s about choices’: Debate in Massachusetts over PFAS in artificial turf fields

by Worcester Telegram & Gazette | July 26, 2025
Bennett’s view of PFAS doesn’t align with Taylor’s testimony. Manufacturers continue putting PFAS in their turf fields, said Bennett, adding that academics and nonprofits have tested dozens of artificial turf samples and all of them contained PFAS. Bennett hasn’t ...

EPA Shutting Down Independent Research

by Living On Earth | July 25, 2025
The US Environmental Protection Agency is shutting down its Office of Research and Development, which represents 50 years of independent scientific research. Kyla Bennett is director of science policy for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and she joined host Aynsley O’ ...

EPA on track to lay off 271 environmental justice staffers

by E&E News | July 24, 2025
With the initial shock now passed, affected employees are considering their options, PEER staff counsel Laura Dumais said. “I think everybody’s just trying to move forward; it’s so unfortunate what’s happening,” Dumais said. A religious denomination that played a pivotal role in ...

EPA is closing its research and development office as part of a major agency cut-down

by KPAX | July 21, 2025
“EPA deals with climate change issues in virtually everything that they do,” says Kyla Bennett, the director of science policy for the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The EPA’s research and development office houses work like the Air, Climate ...

Trump administration shuts down EPA’s scientific research arm

by NPR | July 20, 2025
Kyla Bennett, director of science policy for the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), said eliminating the ORD “will not only cripple EPA’s ability to do its own research, but also to apply the research of other scientists. This [reduction in ...

EPA eliminates its scientific research arm

by The Washington Post | July 18, 2025
Staffers from the division were notified about the RIF through the public press release, said Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Staff were then notified about an all-staff meeting scheduled for Monday. Bennett said the manner in ...

Honolulu Worker Paid Not To Work For Nearly Five Years

by Honolulu Civil Beat | July 15, 2025
Kaaa-Swain’s case was the most egregious example identified in Civil Beat’s review of public records, and it is extreme even by national standards. Peter Jenkins, a Maryland-based attorney who has pushed for shorter periods of paid leave for federal employees, said he’s never seen ...
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