WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research office and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists — 75% of the research program's staff — could be laid off, according to documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research office and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists — 75% of the research program’s staff — could be laid off, according to documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

The Trump administration is considering eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific research office and firing as many as 1,155 of its staff members, according to a document reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The deliberations about dismantling the office, first reported by the New York Times, escalate the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the EPA.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering the elimination of its science arm and firing most of its employees, according to documents reviewed by the Democratic staff of the House Science Committee. A plan reviewed by the committee staffers calls for the elimination of the Office of Research and Development as an EPA National Program Office. It called for the elimination of 50 to 75 percent of the office’s 1,540 staffers. This office is the agency’s science branch and provides the underlying research that guides the EPA’s work to protect...