Press Releases

In letters sent today to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the United States Forest Service, and Department of the Interior (DOI), which encompasses eleven bureaus, including the National Park Service, House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) demanded answers and transparency from the Trump Administration over the mass termination of federal employees. 

“Your actions are endangering the Department’s ability to protect and manage the Nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage; provide scientific and other information about those resources; and honor its trust responsibilities to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and affiliated Island Communities,” Pingree said in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Pingree pointed to the fact that since President Trump took office, nearly all communication has stopped between the agencies and the House Appropriations Committee, and said it was her understanding that staff “have been directed not to communicate with Congress.”

“Oversight of the executive branch is one of Congress's main responsibilities, and the Department’s utter lack of transparency is unacceptable,” she said. 

“It is clear to me that this reckless and indiscriminate purge of public servants will have lasting harmful effects,” Pingree said. “The chaotic manner in which these mass firings were executed will only make the federal government more inefficient. Ultimately, when the federal government fails to deliver services, it will be the American people who suffer.”

Click here to read the letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

Click here to read the letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Click here to read the letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

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