40% of New England EPA employees furloughed amid government shutdown, union says

Employees at the New England office of the Environmental Protection Agency began receiving furlough notices Monday amid a government shutdown now entering its third week, in a rollout that some called chaotic and confusing.

The notices affected an estimated 40% of New England EPA employees, according to a union survey. They included employees in nearly all of the agency's departments, except the Superfund and Emergency Management Division. Union leaders and other employees said they could discern little pattern or logic around which staff members received the notices.

Lilly Simmons, an environmental scientist and president of AFGE Local 3428, the union representing New England EPA employees, said her team — focused on quality assurance — was all furloughed. But she said employees on teams in the same department and in other divisions continued working as of Wednesday. She added that the furloughs weren’t consistent across staff with particular job titles.

For now, Simmons said she's worried about junior employees, who may not have prepared for the hardship of stopped paychecks as senior staff typically do.

“It’s one trauma on top of another,” she said.

In a statement, the EPA said it has been "intentional and aggressive" to ensure a focus on statutory obligations and the president's priorities, "not the overreach of the previous administration."

The EPA is operating under its lapse plan, the statement said, which directs the agency to continue "significant activities" like law enforcement and emergency assistance. According to the plan, the EPA could furlough more than 13,000 of its roughly 15,000 employees nationwide.

The federal government shut down this month after Senate Democrats refused to support a Republican-led spending bill that did not extend health care tax credits under the Affordable Care Act.

The EPA's statement about its limited operation specifically attributed the shutdown to Democrats in Congress, saying they can choose to re-open the government at any time.

In addition to Simmons, WBUR spoke to three current EPA New England employees for this story. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing their positions.

One employee said furlough notices started hitting inboxes on Monday afternoon. Unlike previous shutdowns, employees said staff had no advance warning and only a few hours to go through shutdown procedures like securing work documents or discussing pending projects.

In another departure from past shutdowns, employees said they were instructed to take home their government-issued computers, despite being directed not to work. One employee worried the laptops could signal plans for layoffs announced via "reduction in force" emails to their agency inboxes.

Adding to the confusion, the number of furloughs appeared to be uneven across divisions, prompting questions about how the lists of who is — or isn’t — considered “essential” were made.

Until this week, most New England EPA employees had continued working, and had been notified that they were exempt from the shutdown due to “carryover funds” that remained in the agency's budget.

Because of the furloughs, Simmons, the union leader, said functions like monitoring air and water quality, reviewing permits, and working with state partners could slow or pause altogether.

For example, monitoring soil levels of PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, requires digging into the ground. With colder temperatures on the way, a delay could mean that monitoring doesn’t get done by the end of the year, she said.

Massachusetts officials did not immediately respond for a request for comment on the impact of EPA furloughs.

For some employees, the furloughs are just the latest development in a year of uncertainty. Layoffs, early retirements and voluntary departures have already slashed staff at the New England EPA office to just over 460 people, according to the union. That was down from 640 employees in January, prior to the start of the second Trump administration.

The furloughs “will give Americans a taste of the toxic consequences of the deliberate campaign to dismantle EPA piece by piece,” said Peter Murchie, senior director at the nonprofit Environmental Protection Network, in an emailed statement. The EPA's staff and capacity continue to be eroded by the administration, he wrote.

The president has signaled he’ll use the shutdown to shrink the government through mass layoffs targeting what he called “Democrat programs.” Those efforts are paused for now after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration’s attempts to fire federal workers during the shutdown.