On Jul. 18, 2025, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

The agency’s Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues like air and water.

The agency said Friday it is creating a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science “more than ever before.” Once fully implemented, the changes will save the EPA nearly $750 million, officials said. Total staffing at EPA will go down to 12,448, a reduction of more than 3,700 employees, or nearly 23%, from staffing levels in January when Trump took office, the agency said.

The Office of Research and Development “is the heart and brain of the EPA,’’ said Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees. “Without it, we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,’’ Chen said. “Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.”

The research office — EPA’s main science arm — currently has 1,540 positions, excluding special government employees and public health officers, according to agency documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House science panel earlier this year. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists could be laid off, the documents indicated.