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MEDIA ADVISORY |
Contact: Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate |
Former EPA Officials Urge OPM to Uphold Scientific Integrity in Federal Hiring
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, a group of former senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials submitted a public comment urging the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to uphold and strengthen scientific integrity through its proposed revisions to the hiring qualifications for the federal government’s natural resources and environmental occupations (Docket ID: OPM-2025-0004).
In the letter, ten former EPA leaders with decades of public service experience express serious concern that OPM’s proposed rule fails to align with the previous administrations’ commitments to scientific integrity, environmental justice, and climate policy. The signatories argue that the proposal as drafted would weaken the federal workforce’s ability to meet current and future environmental and public health challenges.
“There are not significant levels of poor performance or resistance among policy-influencing employees that undermine administration policies and that warrant such an extreme solution. On the contrary, removing civil service protections will have negative impacts on the effectiveness of government far beyond what the proposal acknowledges. It will chill policy-influential employees and other career employees from providing candid, expert advice to political appointees, which is essential for political appointees to develop and implement agency policies,” the former EPA leaders state.
Key recommendations include:
- Maintaining civil service protections for policy-influencing employees to ensure candid, expert advice.
- Recognizing the professionalism and historical nonpartisan service of career federal employees.
- Abandoning the proposed Schedule Policy/Career (“Schedule P/C”) classification in favor of improving existing performance management systems.
The letter was submitted to the public docket as part of OPM’s open comment period on its proposal to update qualification standards for scientific and technical positions in the federal workforce.
Note to Editors: While Mary Nichols and Jim Barnes are signatories to the letter, they are not available for press. However, several other signatories are available for comment upon request.
Available Signatories Include:
- Gina McCarthy, Former EPA Administrator
- Bob Perciasepe, Former Deputy Administrator
- Linda Fisher, Former Deputy Administrator
- Janet McCabe, Former Deputy Administrator
- William K. Reilly, Former Administrator
- Christine Todd Whitman, Former Administrator
Read the letter in full here.
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
Founded in 2017, the Environmental Protection Network harnesses the expertise of more than 650 former EPA career staff and confirmation-level appointees from Democratic and Republican administrations to provide the unique perspective of former scientists and regulators with decades of historical and subject matter knowledge.