EPA Union Deal to Shield Science From Politics as Election Looms

The EPA’s biggest union said on Wednesday it had ratified a new contract with the agency, winning scientific integrity protections for the first time.

Those provisions matter to the American Federation of Government Employees because they allege Donald Trump’s first presidency resulted in distortions and silencing of their scientific work.

“President Trump attacked the federal workforce in ways we never thought we’d see,” said Marie Owens Powell, president of AFGE Council 238, which represents some 8,000 agency employees.

The contract “puts employees in the best possible position to continue with the mission of the agency, no matter who sits in the Oval Office,” Powell said.

Under the new four-year deal, Environmental Protection Agency staffers can report scientific misconduct to the agency, and can’t be subject to retribution, reprisal, or retaliation for having done so. A grievance can be escalated to an independent arbiter to determine whether science has been undermined.

Employees are also expressly allowed to participate in “the free flow of scientific information” by talking about their work at conferences, meetings, and with the press, as long as they don’t inappropriately use their official titles, share non-public information, or imply that the EPA sanctions their opinion.

The language covers any EPA employee who collects, generates, uses, or evaluates scientific data, whether they are technically scientists or not.

Other parts of the contract feature extended protections for remote work and secured guarantees of growth opportunities so employees can advance in their careers.

AFGE prioritized both those clauses during negotiations, and was consistently supported by Democrats in Congress who feared the EPA would lose staff and struggle to attract new talent without more generous policies.

The contract is now undergoing a high-level legal review within the EPA. Assuming there are no snags, it will take effect June 19.

The protections come as the Biden administration has taken its own steps to shore up scientific integrity across the government.

Last year, a White House working group released the first-ever mandatory set of instructions aimed at standardizing and strengthening the way federal agencies handle science.

Under those instructions, federal agencies must commit to best practices for managing and using science, promote the transparent flow of information, and enact protections for whistleblowers.

The Biden administration also issued a memo in 2021 aimed at restoring trust in government through evidence-based policymaking.