Former EPA staffers said Wednesday the restrictions imposed under Trump far exceed the practices of past administrations.Update:
The AP has news that the EPA must submit all studies and data to review by political appointees.
Former EPA staffers said Wednesday the restrictions imposed under Trump far exceed the practices of past administrations.
Earlier:
It’s not been a week and already the Trump transition team has left chaos in its wake.
It has issued a series of gag orders, which in themselves, aren’t unusual for a transition. As the New York Times notes:
Longtime employees at three of the agencies — including some career environmental regulators who conceded that they remained worried about what President Trump might do on policy matters — said such orders were not much different from those delivered by the Obama administration as it shifted policies from the departing White House of George W. Bush. They called reactions to the agency memos overblown.
However, the orders went beyond the typical “don’t make statements to the press for the department until the department head is in place” normal for a Presidential transition. They included orders freezing the publication of scientific reports and data, as well as information that is normally given to the public as part of the organization’s functions. That they did so is probably due to the team’s inexperience, rather than an attempt to block citizen access to the data. The end result, though, is the same: concern and confusion.