Zeldin said in a video message posted to his X account that he has met with agency teams across the country and is honored to be working alongside individuals who he described as “many of the brightest minds on the planet.”
“To the dedicated employees who have been showing up to the office every day, thank you. Your commitment to our mission does not go unnoticed,” he said, before speaking directly to those who have continued to work out of the office.
WATCH — Lee Zeldin: EPA “Working Round the Clock” to Help Rebuild L.A.:
“To all the other great members of the team, it’s time to return to the office, to partner, collaborate, and to deliver,” he said, noting the average occupancy at headquarters on Mondays and Fridays since January 2024 — over one year ago — has only been “in the single digits.”
“In fact, the highest single day of attendance since January of last year was only just over a third,” Zeldin said, noting in his post that EPA headquarters had a daily attendance of 8.9 percent on Mondays and Fridays last year.
“Our spacious, beautiful EPA headquarters spans two city blocks in DC across five buildings,” he said. “Federal hallways have been too vacant, desks empty and cubicles filled with unoccupied chairs.”
“The American people rely on every single one of us to protect their access to clean air, land and water. Our mission of protecting human health and the environment is far too important for any of us to ever come up short,” he said, ultimately asking employees who have been absent from the office to return.
“As we embark on this journey together, I humbly ask you to return to the office. I’ll be present every day, and I hope to see you here as well,” he continued.
WATCH:
Returning to in-person work has been a priority of the Trump administration, as President Donald Trump took executive action on day one, urging heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of government to end remote work and return to the practices of old “as soon as practicable.”
The January 2020 memo reads:
Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the first confirmed member of Trump’s Cabinet — was the first major figure to take this action, ordering all State Department personnel to return to work at the State Department, effectively ending coronavirus-era changes.
Breitbart News
Read the full article .
