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Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Epa eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs
The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees. The agency's Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA's mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues like air and water. The agency said Friday it is creating a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science more than ever before. Once fully implemented, the changes will save the EPA nearly 750 million, officials said. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement that the changes announced Friday would ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback. The EPA also said it is beginning the process to eliminate thousands of jobs following a Supreme Court ruling last week that cleared the way for President Donald Trump's plans to downsize the federal workforce despite warnings that critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be out of their jobs. Total staffing at EPA will go down to 12448, a reduction of more than 3700 employees or nearly 23 percent from staffing levels in January when Trump took office, the agency said. 'This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,' Zeldin said, using a government term for mass firings. 'Heart and brain of EPA' The research and development office is the 'heart and brain of the EPA,' said Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees. 'Without it, we don't have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,' Chen said. 'It's destruction will devastate public health in our country.' The research office – EPA's main science arm – currently has 1540 positions excluding special government employees and public health officers, according to agency documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House Committee on Science Space and Technology earlier this year. As many as 1155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists, and other scientists could be laid off, the documents indicated. The research office has 10 facilities across the country stretching from Florida and North Carolina to Oregon. An EPA spokeswoman said Friday that all laboratory functions currently conducted by the research office will continue. In addition to the reduction in force or RIF, the agency also is offering the third round of deferred resignations for eligible employees including research office staff, spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said. The application period is open until July 25. Declaration of dissent The EPA's announcement comes two weeks after the agency put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a declaration of dissent with agency policies under the Trump administration. The agency accused the employees of unlawfully undermining Trump's agenda. In a letter made public June 30, the employees wrote that 'the EPA is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment'. The letter represented rare public criticism from agency employees who knew they could face retaliation for speaking out.
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Judge limits a small part of a court order blocking Trump's election overhaul as lawsuits continue
A federal judge on Friday modified part of a previous ruling that blocked much of President Donald Trump's sweeping executive order seeking to overhaul elections in the US. The minor change affects just one aspect of a preliminary injunction that US District Court Judge Denise J. Casper granted on June 13 in a case filed by Democratic state attorneys general. The judge said Friday that the part of Trump's order directing certain federal agencies to assess people's US citizenship when they ask for voter registration forms will now only be blocked in the 19 states that filed the lawsuit. Election law experts said the modification will have little if any practical effect because a judge in a different lawsuit filed against the executive order also blocked the federal agencies from obeying the mandate in all 50 states. 'If there are two partially overlapping orders, the effect of changing one of them would not change what is binding in the other,' said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California Los Angeles. Friday's order follows a US Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case that judges are limited in granting nationwide injunctions. Government lawyers pointed to that ruling in arguing the court needed to narrow the scope of the injunction in the elections case. The 19 Democratic attorneys general who filed the case told the judge they would not object to the narrower scope. The rest of Casper's initial preliminary injunction against other aspects of the election executive order remains intact. In June, the judge blocked various parts of Trump's sweeping order, including a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal voting form and a requirement that mailed ballots be received rather than just postmarked by Election Day. The government continues to fight the attorney general's lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Boston, and has a motion to dismiss it. The Department of Justice on Friday did not reply to multiple requests for comment. The development comes as other lawsuits challenging Trump's executive order on elections continue to play out. That includes the one with the other preliminary injunction filed by Democrats and civil rights groups. It also includes another from Washington and Oregon, where voting is done almost entirely by mail ballot.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump says BRICS would end quickly if they ever form in a meaningful way
US President Donald Trump on Friday repeated his threat to slap a 10 percent tariff on imports from members of the BRICS group of developing nations and said the group would end very quickly if they ever formed in a meaningful way. 'When I heard about this group from BRICS, six countries, basically, I hit them very, very hard. And if they ever really form in a meaningful way, it will end very quickly,' Trump said without naming the countries. 'We can never let anyone play games with us.' Trump also said he was committed to preserving the dollar's global status as a reserve currency and pledged to never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency in America. Trump announced the new tariff on July 6, saying it would apply to any countries aligning themselves with what he called the 'Anti-American policies' of the BRICS group. With forums such as the G7 and G20 groups of major economies hamstrung by divisions and the disruptive 'America First' approach of the US president, the BRICS group is presenting itself as a haven for multilateral diplomacy. Since issuing the threat, Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that the group was set up to hurt the United States and the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency. BRICS leaders have rejected the claim that the group is anti-American. Brazil in February nixed plans to push for a common currency during its presidency this year, but the group is advancing work on a cross-border payment system known as BRICS Pay that would facilitate trade and financial transactions in local currencies. The BRICS group expanded last year beyond Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to include members such as Iran and Indonesia. Leaders at the group's summit in Brazil voiced indirect criticism of US military and trade policies. Trump has also taken aim at Brazil specifically, announcing a 50 percent tariff rate on its imports, starting in August, and launching a separate investigation into what Washington called Brazil's 'unfair' trading practices.
