Trump takes aim at EPA staffing levels, popular programs
The Trump administration is seeking to cut deeply into traditional — and sometimes politically popular — EPA programs, while following through on Administrator Lee Zeldin's vow to return the agency's core workforce to levels last seen during Ronald Reagan's presidency.
A detailed version of the administration's fiscal 2026 budget blueprint released late Friday would slice the ranks of 'full-time equivalent' EPA employees from 14,130 this year to 12,856 in 2026, a 9 percent drop. That would be the lowest total since 1985, according to official numbers posted online.
Helping to take up the slack, the proposal suggests, would be more reliance on artificial intelligence.
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'By leveraging AI to transition from paper-based and analog processes to digital ones, the Agency can speed up and automate administrative and operational tasks as well as improve data analysis and collection,' the request says.
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In a landmark moment for Florida higher education, the state university system's Board of Governors on Tuesday blocked Santa J. Ono's appointment as the next president of the University of Florida amid furious conservative backlash. The 10–6 vote capped a fiery and deeply political process, marking the first time the board had overturned a university's choice for its top job. The decision not only leaves UF without a permanent leader, but could potentially have far-reaching consequences for the future of higher education across the state. By rejecting a candidate who most recently led one of the nation's top research institutions, the board signaled that traditional scholars are no longer welcome as academic leaders in Florida. Ono, a molecular immunologist who just finished a two-and-a-half year stint leading the University of Michigan, had been unanimously backed by the UF Board of Trustees last Tuesday. Had the Board of Governors voted yes, the three-time college president would have entered a five-year contract valued up to $15.4 million plus benefits. Ono, having already stepped down from Michigan, is now left without a position. His appointment would have marked a symbolic win for UF, which has long aimed to match the University of Michigan in national rankings. Michigan currently holds the No. 3 slot in the U.S. News & World Report's public university rankings; UF ranks No. 7. UF board chair Mori Hosseini has been in a 'laserfocused' quest to boost UF's standing in national rankings. A major Republican donor and ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Hosseini praised Ono on Wednesday as a leader who has 'seen first hand how liberal orthodoxy that dominates many elite universities is failure, breeding division, eroding public trust and compromising academic rigor.' But Ono had been met with a lukewarm response from DeSantis and bitter opposition from other prominent Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds. From the moment UF announced Ono as the sole finalist for the $3 million-a-year job on May 4, conservatives pounced on his former support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives while at Michigan, including a high-profile 'DEI 2.0' campaign and the expansion of one of the nation's most extensive DEI offices. Although Ono disbanded those programs in March, since describing his views as having 'evolved,' prominent conservatives widely met the reversal with skepticism rather than forgiveness. Christopher Rufo — a Washington-State based conservative activist and key architect of DeSantis' anti-DEI crusade — helped orchestrate a public pressure campaign, celebrating Ono's defeat as a victory in the ideological war for the soul of higher education. 'We conducted an investigation, generated a strong media narrative, and made the case that Ono was a captured left-wing ideologue who would jeopardize Florida's reputation as the place 'where woke goes to die,'' Rufo wrote on X after the vote. Tuesday's proceedings more closely resembled a political interrogation along the lines of a Capitol Hill confirmation hearing than a routine board vote. The board — which is stacked with DeSantis appointees — probed Ono's old tweets and statements and pressed him on what some saw as a less-than-swift response to antisemitism and pro-Palestinian encampments on Michigan's campus. There was scant discussion of Ono's academic vision for UF. 'It's an absolute embarrassment,' Amanda Phalin, a UF business professor who previously served on the Board of Governors, told reporters after the meeting. 'The political questions that were being asked portends more politics in the process and less focus on academics.' Board member Paul Renner — a recent DeSantis appointee and former Florida House Speaker — confronted Ono with a binder of news clippings and past statements and demanded he clarify the timeline of his evolving stance on DEI, pointing to comments that appeared to support those programs long after the school eliminated them. Ono, clearly caught off-guard, struggled to recall or contextualize each item in the stack. 'My name is on a lot of things at institutions that I didn't write,' he said at one point, adding that some statements were written by committees or task forces. Despite the mounting pressure, Ono remained steadfast in his desire to lead UF. In his public statements and before the Board of Governors, he aligned himself closely with DeSantis' vision for higher education, repeatedly affirming his support for the state's dismantling of DEI programs and other academic reforms. 'I support fully, the decision to end DEI,' Ono told the board. 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