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Reorganization plans can look clean on paper and turn out far messier in real life

by Federal News Network | May 18, 2026
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 ...

U.S. Government Pushes $10 Billion D.C. Makeover As National Parks Get $1 Billion Cut

by The Travel | May 15, 2026
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 ...

First came the redundancies at the EPA, now peer-reviewed science written by agency scientists has fallen dramatically

by Chemistry World | May 13, 2026
‘These numbers represent a diminution of scientific contributions from the fewer, remaining EPA scientists,’ stated Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney who is Peer’s science policy director and formerly worked at the EPA. ‘It is as if EPA is seeking to reduce the sum total of ...

BLM Nixes Conservation Rule for Public Lands

by The Missoula Current | May 12, 2026
Also on Monday, the White House released a proposed rule that would overhaul the BLM’s grazing regulations, reviving and advancing an earlier effort to weaken government oversight on 155 million acres of public land across the West. The rule would eliminate public input on grazing ...

Watchdog Sues Trump Interior Dept, Demanding Transparency on Freedom 250 Funding

by Common Dreams | May 12, 2026
In late February, PEER’s FOIA requests sought information from DOI on reports that public funds are being directed to Freedom 250 through the congressionally chartered National Park Foundation, “with no transparency, no accountability, and no guardrails.” “America’s 250th ...

Trump Admin Sued for Diverting $100 Million in Taxpayer Funds

by The New Republic | May 12, 2026
PEER alleges that the Trump administration is using Freedom 250 to redirect $100 million in taxpayer funds from America 250 without congressional approval, mix private funding and public taxpayer money without oversight, sell “access to President Trump” for up to $2.5 million, solicit ...

Interior Refuses To Release Documents Related To Freedom 250, Prompting Lawsuit

by National Parks Traveler | May 12, 2026
The Department of the Interior has refused to release documents related to President Trump’s controversial Freedom 250 initiative, prompting watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility to file a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Washington, DC. Congress ...

Enviros criticize Trump administration change to grazing rules

by Tucson Sentinel | May 11, 2026
On Monday, the White House proposed “sweeping” changes to how the agency manages grazing allotments without preparing full Environmental Impact Statements to understand “the cumulative impacts to wildlife, watersheds, land health and public oversight,” said the ...

Advocates decry Trump’s plan to open 24m acres of federal lands to cattle grazing

by The Guardian | May 11, 2026
The plan also contains “unusual provisions to benefit” big agriculture, said Chandra Rosenthal, western lands and rocky mountain advocate with the Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility (Peer) non-profit. Among those is the establishment of “immersion and training programs ...

Workers paint Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue

by BBC | May 10, 2026
Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of nonprofit watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told the BBC this project was evidence that “the system of checks and balances has broken down in the United States”. “Burgum is dispensing with a variety ...

Trump hands multimillion-dollar Washington project to his ‘pool guy’

by The Telegraph | May 10, 2026
The White House has been sued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation over its destruction of the East Wing, while there have been sustained complaints about the use of “no-bid” contracts. Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the watchdog group Public Employees for ...

The No-Bid Contract That Is Turning Washington’s Reflecting Pool Blue

by The New York Times | May 8, 2026
Mr. Trump paved over the Rose Garden’s lawn without seeking approvals. He has installed a 13-foot statue of Christopher Columbus on White House grounds without submitting a plan to any panel. And, most prominently, he tore down the historic East Wing of the White House without consulting ...

EPA producing less scientific research after 20% staffing cut, data shows

by Federal News Network | May 7, 2026
Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency are producing fewer peer-reviewed studies following recent staffing cuts, according to data released from an environmental nonprofit group. Figures released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility show the EPA produced 275 peer ...

Former Interior lawyer heads to watchdog group

by E&E News | May 6, 2026
A longtime Interior Department attorney has landed at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Tony Irish, who served over 20 years at Interior, has joined the watchdog group as a senior counsel, PEER announced Tuesday. He will support legal and investigatory work by the ...

Number of Scientific Publications from EPA Authors Has Dropped During Trump Administration

by Eos | May 5, 2026
The analysis was published by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit organization that advocates for public employees in the natural resource and environmental professions. The report tracks the number of peer-reviewed scientific studies authored by EPA ...

What happens to career expertise when agency leaders choose another path?

by Federal News Network | May 4, 2026
This is now being challenged, at least before the Merit Systems Protection Board, the group of EPA employees who were fired after they signed the letter, ended up taking their case — they’re being represented by a few law firms, as well as Public Employees for Environmental ...

DC Circuit dismisses case for fast-tracked PFAS review

by E&E News | May 1, 2026
At issue is a process to make the insides of plastic barrels more durable called fluorination, which creates dangerous PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, as unintended byproducts that then leach into fertilizers, condiments and other products stored in the barrels. Environmental ...

Is one fire service better than many? The feds think so, but what about Nevadans?

by Nevada Independent | April 30, 2026
Last year, the Department of Interior issued an order requiring thousands of employees from all its constituent bureaus transfer to the Office of the Secretary. The “consolidation, unification and optimization of administrative functions” would “achieve effectiveness, ...

Yellowstone National Park Employee Claims Silent Killer Is Present In Staff Housing

by The Travel | April 30, 2026
On Monday, April 27, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) published a press release sharing a disclosure filed by a current federal employee who wished to remain anonymous. According to the document, the NPS has failed to warn current and former workers about ...

We’re Paying Millions to Make Hegseth ‘Secretary of War’

by New York Magazine | April 30, 2026
For all its claims of being tight-fisted stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars, the Trump administration really is footloose and fancy free when it comes to vanity projects and symbolic measures. A 2025 estimate suggested the federal government might be on the hook for a cool half-billion ...