'Set up for failure': Trump's cuts bring climate and energy agencies to a standstill, workers say [View all]
Source: Politico
06/17/2025 05:00 AM EDT
Cuts and freezes are jamming up some of the basic functions of government at agencies targeted in President Donald Trump’s rollbacks of his predecessors’ energy and environmental policies, more than a dozen federal employees told POLITICO.
Lockdowns of spending and an absence of guidance from political appointees are leaving Environmental Protection Agency scientists unable to publish their research, preventing some Energy Department officials from visiting their department’s laboratories and forcing the cancellation of disaster planning exercises at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the 13 employees, who were granted anonymity to avoid reprisals. They said the chaos has also left recipients of Biden-era energy grants in limbo as they wait for approval to continue the projects they’ve started. “We are set up for failure,” one FEMA official said.
Other affected agencies include the Interior Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which conducts crucial climate research and oversees the National Weather Service.
Rather than save taxpayers money, as Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has promised, federal workers at those five agencies said taxpayers are getting far less return from the government because work has been significantly curbed.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/17/trumps-energy-cuts-means-agencies-failure-00406526
= new reply since forum marked as read