FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2025
CONTACT: Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
As Shutdown Looms, Former EPA Experts Warn Americans’ Health and Safety Already Under Threat from 9-Month “Serial Shutdown”
“This is more than a budget fight—it’s about whether our families are safe from poisoned water, dirty air, and harmful chemicals.”
Washington D.C. – Today, Environmental Protection Network (EPN) gathered former EPA experts to warn that American families are already losing critical health protections due to the Trump administration’s “serial shutdown” of EPA programs. EPN called for Congress to pass a bipartisan EPA budget that invests in clean air and clean water and stops politically motivated attacks on our health.
TOPLINE TAKEAWAYS:
- Sending more EPA employees home from their jobs protecting our health and holding polluters accountable is bad enough—but families are already losing protections that keep their water drinkable, their air breathable, and their communities safe.
- By dismantling EPA piece by piece, the administration is leaving more kids with asthma, more families exposed to toxic chemicals in their water, and more neighborhoods living near sites that go uncleaned. A shutdown—or even a short-term CR—would only make the damage worse and put even more people at risk.
- That’s why this fight isn’t just about “keeping the lights on.” It’s about whether Congress will step up, reassert its role, and give EPA the independence and resources it needs to protect the public by stopping the “serial shutdown” of EPA.
“The real shutdown began nine months ago when the administration began hollowing out the EPA,” said Marc Boom, former EPA Senior Advisor. “If the EPA shuts down tomorrow, nobody will be holding polluters accountable for what they dump into the air we breathe and the water that we drink.” Past shutdowns have endangered families and given polluters a pass when furloughed employees couldn’t do their job—inspecting water treatment plants, chemical factories, and oil refineries.
KEY QUOTES:
Jeremy Symons, former EPA Senior Advisor on climate policy and EPN Senior Advisor
- “This moment in time isn’t about what stops on Wednesday that was working on Tuesday. I think the real question here is what Americans can count on moving forward when we’re trying to protect our kids’ health and our families, and it is going away unless something changes. This isn’t just about the shutdown of the moment. This is about the serial shutdown that we are seeing, and yes, there’s a lot less left.”
Marc Boom, former EPA Senior Advisor on policy and EPN Senior Advisor
- “This time is different. The White House and EPA leadership have already been shutting the agency down from within.”
- “If we look ahead, the president’s budget would slash EPA to levels not seen since the 1980s—cuts so deep the agency simply couldn’t function. And just last week, the OMB memo made it clear this administration has no qualms about firing even more federal workers—using them as bargaining chips to consolidate power and weaken agencies like EPA even further.”
Vicki Arroyo, former EPA Associate Administrator for Policy
- “When EPA funding and staffing are undercut, it doesn’t just hurt these public servants; it hurts us all. Without a functioning EPA, we can’t trust that the water out of our tap is safe, as Jeanne said, whether drinking from our own taps or, as I was traveling this weekend.”
- “EPA’s budget accounts for less than one-half of a penny of every dollar of federal spending—and much of that money goes to states to use to provide clean air and water. Governors, mayors, and state agencies depend on EPA funding to protect their residents. Take that away, and its communities throughout the country—and all of us—who pay the price.”
Jeanne Briskin, former Director of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection
- “The quality of the water coming out of your tap is directly tied to whether EPA is doing its job. When protections are weakened, families are forced to figure out a solution—or risk of cancer and other serious health problems.”
- “The administration itself talks about the need to reduce harmful pesticides and under the Make America Healthy Again initiative—but at the same time, EPA is dismantling the very safeguards that would make that promise real. This is not what Americans expect from their government. Protecting health is EPA’s job. Kids and families deserve that protection.”
- “The administration has been dismantling EPA piece by piece—and it’s putting people’s health at risk every single day.”
Dr. Linda Birnbaum, former Director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program
- “The loss of expertise has already occurred and removed a lot of the capability of the agencies to respond—not only to emerging threats, but to existing problems that have been there. The additional loss of people will essentially take us to a point where EPA will be almost unable to complete its mission.”
EPN has commended the Senate for taking a bipartisan approach to the FY 2026 budget and opposed the massive, partisan cuts to EPA proposed by President Trump (a 55% cut to EPA) and by the House. Meanwhile, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has unilaterally cut EPA’s workforce by more than 4,000 staff and blocked the agency from spending congressionally-appropriated funding, earning a strong and bipartisan rebuke from Senate Appropriators, who said they were “appalled” by Zeldin’s unilateral shutdown of EPA’s Office of Research and Development.
PRESS RESOURCES:
- Recording of the full webinar is available here
- Nationwide polling shows that 88% of all voters, and 81% of Trump voters, want Congress to increase EPA funding or at least keep funding steady.
- Letter from former senior EPA officials confirmed in both Republican and Democratic administrations opposing deep cuts to EPA’s budget.
- Charts showing how budget proposals stack up to historic funding, and how much of EPA’s budget goes to states and tribes.
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
Founded in 2017, the Environmental Protection Network harnesses the expertise of more than 700 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. Find all of EPN’s recent press statements here.