FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 21, 2024
CONTACT:
Steven Fantes, Public Affairs Manager
617-817-1297 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
Environmental Protection Network Speaks Out Against Vought Cabinet Consideration
Russell Vought, former director of the Office of Management and Budget under the first Trump administration, is being considered for a top position in the president-elect’s next cabinet. Previously, Vought expressed plans to put career civil servants “in trauma” under a second Trump administration.
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Vought said in the videos obtained by ProPublica.“When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so. We want to put them in trauma.”
In response, Environmental Protection Network Executive Director Michelle Roos said, “This is a chilling revelation of how far political operatives will go in their attempts to paralyze staff at EPA. Any effort to demonize government employees to serve a politically driven agenda is morally offensive.”
“This is another reckless attempt to drive a nail in the coffin of our civil servants, and the Senate should not consider confirming anyone who dares to threaten them,” said Jeremy Symons, Environmental Protection Network Senior Advisor. “Regardless of how many political operatives the president-elect attempts to place in his administration, EPA still has broad support for its mission to protect people’s health and the environment.”
Environmental Protection Network Senior Advisor Jeremy Symons is available to speak with the media about the consideration of Russell Vought to the Trump administration cabinet and its impact on the EPA and government employees.
About Jeremy Symons: Jeremy Symons is Principal of Symons Public Affairs and a Senior Advisor for the Environmental Protection Network. He is a former Climate Policy Advisor for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.