EPA Employees ‘Coming to Work in Tears’ Because of Trump Win
'The mood remains dark'
AP
BY:
Environmental Protection Agency employees have not accepted Donald Trump’s victory and are still “coming to work in tears” more than two months after the election.
“At EPA headquarters, the mood remains dark,” ProPublica reported Wednesday. “A longtime career communications employee said in a phone interview Tuesday that more than a few friends were ‘coming to work in tears’ each morning as they grappled with balancing the practical need to keep their jobs with their concerns for the issues they work on.”
Trump’s victory has been tough for bureaucrats. The State Department held stress workshops after the election so they would not “become paralyzed by fear.” EPA employees were caught crying before, just after the election, as were White House aides. Energy Department employees were granted counseling. Sobbing staffers greeted Hillary Clinton on Capitol Hill a month after her loss.
EPA employees are upset that the new president will take a different approach than the Obama administration. ProPublica called Trump’s nomination of Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general who has sued the EPA over its climate change regulations, to lead the agency “dramatic.”
The Trump administration froze all EPA grants and contracts to make sure new grants are in line with the new administration’s objectives. They also asked for the schedule of all planned meetings and presentations by the agency through mid-February.
Doug Ericksen, the EPA’s communications director for the transition, told National Public Radio that “we’ll take a look at what’s happening so that the voice coming from the EPA is one that’s going to reflect the new administration.”
Employees are also scared that the climate change part of the EPA’s website will be removed.
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