The Trump Administration’s Latest Effort to Destroy Sound Science

Last week, the New York Times reported that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, “firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists, and other scientists,” according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Further reporting from Inside EPA on the text of the plan revealed that the agency would conduct an employee assessment against “statutory responsibilities” to determine who will be retained. It is anticipated that such cuts would amount to up to 75% of its research staff.

That research arm, the Office of Research and Development (ORD), is the EPA’s largest program office and is one of the most impactful scientific bodies that most people have never heard of. ORD conducts scientific research that underpins many EPA regulations and programs, including those that protect the health of people and communities from the harmful impacts of pollution. Additionally, ORD operates and maintains four research laboratories that measure and evaluate chemicals and emerging contaminants to improve our understanding of the health and ecological risks posed by environmental pollutants.

Here are some of the ways ORD’s research has benefited everyone in the United States:

Air, Climate, and Energy

ORD’s work has contributed to major improvements in public health, including the science underpinning the development of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The NAAQS reduced emissions of six criteria pollutants by 78% between 1970 and 2023 even as gross domestic product more than tripled. Improvements to the particulate matter NAAQS and other air pollution rules adopted between 2021 and 2024 — developed with critical input from ORD scientists — will save more than 200,000 lives by 2050 and result in over $250 million in net benefits every year.

Chemical Safety for Sustainability

ORD’s research on chemical safety has also been instrumental in building our understanding of the impacts of toxic chemicals on human health and the environment, including the impacts of toxics — such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or “forever chemicals” found in drinking water — on children and their greater susceptibility to these substances.

Health and Environmental Risk Assessment

Research by ORD’s Health and Environmental Risk Assessment Research Program has guided efforts to protect human health from exposures to some of the most hazardous chemicals, including carcinogens and endocrine disruptors that harm children’s brain development before and after birth.

Homeland Security

Besides providing the science EPA relies on to regulate pollutants, ORD research plays an important role in the response to homeland security incidents involving biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear agents.

Safe and Sustainable Water Resources

It is also ORD, through its Safe and Sustainable Water Resources program, that does the science used to clean up and keep safe our drinking water supplies, including preventing lead contamination of drinking water.

Sustainable and Healthy Communities

ORD scientists also work to support health protection at the community level by helping advance the understanding of the cumulative risks faced by communities exposed to multiple environmental stressors.

Why cut so many important programs?

Despite — or perhaps because of — its importance, ORD’s work has long been a target of the polluter lobby, which supports legislation introduced in early 2025 to ban EPA from using chemical risk assessments developed by the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), ORD’s flagship program that studies the risk of chemicals to human health. The resulting lack of accurate risk assessments will allow polluters to push EPA into watering down environmental rules that protect people from powerful contaminants, including chemicals that cause asthma attacks, birth defects, and cancer. And as ORD scientists have recently pointed out, the effect on laboratories — some of which conduct animal studies that require 24/7 monitoring — would be “irreversible” should those studies be shuttered, causing the loss of decades of institutional research and knowledge.

Without ORD scientific analyses to provide a solid basis for EPA regulatory actions, polluters will have an easier time fighting EPA regulations in the courts. This deregulatory chaos will benefit polluters at the expense of every person in this country.

Under Trump, all roads lead back to Project 2025

Project 2025, an initiative of the Heritage Foundation to dismantle large swathes of government by dramatically scaling back or eliminating many essential functions Americans rely on, envisioned a drastic downsizing of ORD. Among other things, Project 2025 advocates for placing political appointees in charge of key science decisions and opposes ORD conducting any science activity not explicitly authorized by Congress, such as the IRIS program. ORD scientific activities, whether spelled out in the law or not, are indispensable for EPA to be able to implement the environmental laws Congress has tasked it with implementing and form the basis for many critical public health protections.

Asking EPA to work without ORD’s scientific input would be like asking someone to build you a house without a foundation. While President Trump attempted to publicly distance himself from Project 2025, his administration has been actively targeting the very EPA functions that the Project 2025 architects singled out for attack.

Surely this will have far-reaching, long-term impacts?

Polluters will finally achieve the plan to bulldoze the very foundation of EPA’s ability to utilize sound science in its decision-making. The safeguards that require regulations of toxic chemicals and emissions will be completely eliminated. The dismantling of ORD would undo decades of investment and progress on public health. Its effects will be a legacy our grandchildren will still be grappling with. Some harms, like the shuttering of long-standing research studies, will be irreversible.

Vulnerable communities, already burdened by the cumulative impacts of long-term exposure to multiple pollutants, will be the most immediately and severely affected when science identifying adverse health and environmental effects is eliminated and public health protections are weakened.

States will also lose resources to support cleanup efforts and other environmental challenges. ORD assists states with highly technical matters, like measuring arsenic in drinking water wells, which in turn provides a stopgap measure for states that lack the expertise and/or resources to conduct these efforts.

While it is still unclear what impact the elimination of ORD would have on existing grant programs, like the STAR (Science to Achieve Results) program, according to its website, over 4,100 grants have been administered since the inception of the program.

The Trump administration has been “flooding the field,” announcing new, ever more unhinged policies day and night. This sows confusion, chaos, and outrage fatigue and prevents many of us from engaging with or even understanding the administration’s plans. However, it is worth underscoring that this particular plan is exceptionally destructive for communities and our environment. Communities will begin to experience the immediate impacts of these cuts soon, but the reverberations of this decision will be felt for decades to come. Our grandchildren will be forced to contend with the burden created by the dearth of science today.

How can we defend science and scientists?

You can help ensure that ORD can continue its vital functions by asking your members of Congress to oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken or dismantle ORD, and to oppose the No IRIS Act and any other legislation that threatens ORD scientific activities.