EPA suspends and investigates around 140 employees who signed a letter critical of the agency

By Ella Nilsen, Rene Marsh, CNN

(CNN) — The Environmental Protection Agency has placed roughly 140 employees on administrative leave days after they signed a public letter expressing concern about the treatment of federal employees and the Trump administration’s regulations on climate and public health.

The EPA is conducting an “administrative investigation” into the employees, who are being placed on administrative leave until July 17, according to internal emails viewed by CNN.

The letter outlined five key concerns, including that the Trump administration was dismantling the EPA office of research and development, canceling environmental justice programs and grants, making employees fearful, undermining the trust of the public, and “ignoring scientific consensus to protect polluters.”

“These actions directly undermine EPA’s capacity to fulfill its mission,” the letter said.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin had a sharp response to the employees’ concerns.

One of the EPA employees who was placed on administrative leave, Scarlett VanDyke, told CNN she was “escorted out of their building” by a higher-level manager after being placed on leave. VanDyke, who works in the EPA’s office of Research and Development in North Carolina, told CNN that the experience “was incredibly surreal.”

“I’m considered an extremely high performing employee, so having management inform me that I needed to be escorted out wrecked me,” she said. “I’m shocked that signing a letter of dissent regarding the direction EPA’s administration is taking was met with such blatant retaliation.”

“The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” an EPA spokesperson said in a statement.

More than 270 people, including around 170 named EPA employees, signed the letter, which was released Monday. It’s not entirely clear what accounts for the roughly 30-person discrepancy between the number of employees who signed and the 140 who were suspended, but some of the signees were already on administrative leave. Amelia Hertzberg, an EPA environmental protection specialist who signed the letter, said it also appears the agency did not place union leaders on leave.

“Since January 2025, federal workers across the country have been denigrated and dismissed based on false claims of waste, fraud, and abuse,” the letter read. “Meanwhile, Americans have witnessed the unraveling of public health and environmental protections in the pursuit of political advantage.”

The EPA did not respond to CNN’s questions about what an administrative investigation would entail. Employees were told in internal emails that the investigation and being placed on leave is “not a disciplinary action,” despite the EPA’s public statement that the letter was akin to sabotage that warranted a zero-tolerance response.

Employees were told they must provide EPA officials with their current contact information, so they could be contacted as part of the investigation while on leave.

“You will be expected to be available at the phone number provided above (and/or any additional or alternative contact information you provide) during your regular duty hours in accordance with your currently approved work schedule should the agency need to contact you,” the internal EPA email reads.

EPA employees told CNN they were surprised at how aggressively Zeldin and EPA officials reacted to the letter. Last month, National Institutes of Health employees published a similar open letter of dissent, and did not face retaliation from officials there.

“I thought that whistleblower laws would keep people safer than they have,” said Hertzberg. “I thought this very public action would make EPA wary of doing any retribution because it would be so public and obvious.”

Hertzberg was placed on administrative leave in early February because she worked on environmental justice issues.

Another EPA employee who says they were also placed on administrative leave after signing the letter of dissent said, “we took an oath to support and defend the constitution. We promised to follow science and follow the law. They are trying to scare us and squash any type of resistance before it starts.”

In a statement given to conservative media outlets, Zeldin said a “small number of employees signed onto a public letter, written as agency employees, using their official work title, that was riddled with misinformation regarding agency business.”

“Our ZERO tolerance policy is in full force and effect and will be unapologetically implemented unconditionally,” Zeldin continued in the statement.

Hertzberg told CNN the EPA’s response demonstrates why Zeldin rarely hears dissent within the agency — employees are afraid.

“We see today that this is why he feels like he’s not getting any negative feedback within the agency, because as soon as he gets negative feedback, he considers you an enemy of the agency,” Hertzberg said. “Science needs to come first, and regulations need to be upheld. The fact we’re saying that and the fact he finds that counter to the agency’s priorities is concerning.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.