The Environmental Protection Agency has sent over 1,000 buyout notices to agency employees according to a local union official.
According to a report in the Washington Free Beacon, American Federation of Government Employees local 704 Michael Mikulka said that 182 EPA employees in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota have received notices regarding early retirement or buy-out options that would eliminate their positions at the EPA.
“EPA wants over 1,200 of us to leave, purportedly to save money going forward and claiming that they no longer need the positions occupied by staff that in some cases worked at EPA for over 30 years,” according to Mikulka.
He added that he anticipates many of his members will take the buy-out deal. “We’re going to have to do less with less,” he said.
The Trump administration’s budget proposal called for a 31% reduction to the EPA’s budget, although any actual cuts will not become finalized until Congress approves spending legislation for 2018. A House panel recently approved a spending bill with budget cuts for the agency, sending it to the House floor for a vote. Another House bill has even been introduced in the latest session of Congress to eliminate the agency altogether.
