"Data obtained by The Post via a FOIA request shows that through August, the EPA spent millions to compensate staff on administrative leave."
"One was administering grants to tribes for environmental protection strategies. Another was negotiating cleanup for some of the worst contaminated sites in the country, while a third investigated the impact of air pollution on pregnant women and their babies.
All three belong to a group of Environmental Protection Agency employees who were placed on extended paid administrative leave this year as part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the agency — and were later fired.
In the first nearly seven months of President Donald Trump’s return to office, according to data obtained by The Washington Post via a Freedom of Information Act request, the EPA spent more than $86.5 million to compensate more than 2,600 employees who were placed on administrative leave.
The payment data, which covers the period between Jan. 20 and Aug. 4, represents an early indication of what it has cost to downsize the federal workforce and the limits of Trump’s initiative to reduce waste across the federal government."
Amudalat Ajasa reports for the Washington Post December 17, 2025.
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