EPA's Staff Buyout Plans Will Harm Agency's Oversight Role, Union Warns

摘要

EPA is quietly planning staff buyouts across all 10 of its regional offices in order to save potentially millions of dollars at a time of dwindling budgets, but the move is prompting push-back from agency union officials who warn that the workforce cuts will hinder EPA's ability to oversee and enforce environmental laws. Some of the buyout plans - which include a goal of losing roughly 88 full time employee equivalents (FTEs) or about 7 percent in EPA's Midwest Region V alone, according to documents obtained by Inside EPA - have already been approved by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and an EPA spokesperson expects the other plans to be approved soon. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for details.