The Trump administration is seeking to cut deeply into traditional — and sometimes politically popular — EPA programs, while following through on Administrator Lee Zeldin’s vow to return the agency’s core workforce to levels last seen during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
A detailed version of the administration’s fiscal 2026 budget blueprint released late Friday would slice the ranks of “full-time equivalent” EPA employees from 14,130 this year to 12,856 in 2026, a 9 percent drop. That would be the lowest total since 1985, according to official numbers posted online.
Helping to take up the slack, the proposal suggests, would be more reliance on artificial intelligence.
“By leveraging AI to transition from paper-based and analog processes to digital ones, the Agency can speed up and automate administrative and operational tasks as well as improve data analysis and collection,” the request says.
