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Activities around the 250th highlight America’s disunity

by Roll Call | June 4, 2026
Democrats and other critics have raised questions about whether funds appropriated by Congress for America250 have been diverted to the White House group and combined with private donations that are not being disclosed. The watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ...

Great American meltdown: Trump’s Freedom 250 concerts are collapsing while the project rakes in taxpayer dough

by The Independent | June 3, 2026
Watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit last month demanding key documents behind Freedom 250’s funding scheme. The organization is asking for details about the project siphoning $100 million in taxpayer dollars from the competing America 250 ...

Dismantling the EPA – with Dr. Kyla Bennett

by Green Street | May 29, 2026
This week on Green Street, Patti and Doug talk about the rise of anti-bacterial resistance due to climate change, and the EPA’s latest attempt to weaken drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals. Then former EPA scientist Dr. Kyla Bennett, senior scientist at Public Employees for ...

Why Trump administration’s plan to attempt to destroy Pfas is ‘nonsenscial’

by The Guardian | May 26, 2026
The idea that the administration is going to destroy its way out of the Pfas problem is “nonsensical”, said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist. It parallels fossil fuel industry attempts to use unreliable carbon capture technology as a solution – both offer the appearance of ...

Kids were allegedly poisoned in Yellowstone. The park says it isn’t responsible.

by SFGate | May 22, 2026
“Thousands of Yellowstone employees and their families have been and/or are currently being exposed to harmful levels of lead through the paint in their housing,” states the disclosure, filed by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in late April with the U.S ...

Reorganization plans can look clean on paper and turn out far messier in real life

by Federal News Network | May 18, 2026
A year ago, the Interior Department pitched a sweeping reorganization as a way to save money and streamline operations. We look at what the evidence actually shows about how that played out. “They’re moving things around on paper without recognizing the effects that may have in ...

U.S. Government Pushes $10 Billion D.C. Makeover As National Parks Get $1 Billion Cut

by The Travel | May 15, 2026
While the reorganization was implemented to “achieve effectiveness, accountability, and cost savings for the American taxpayer,” the DOI has failed to provide documents demonstrating such savings. According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), SO 3429 ...

First came the redundancies at the EPA, now peer-reviewed science written by agency scientists has fallen dramatically

by Chemistry World | May 13, 2026
‘These numbers represent a diminution of scientific contributions from the fewer, remaining EPA scientists,’ stated Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney who is Peer’s science policy director and formerly worked at the EPA. ‘It is as if EPA is seeking to reduce the sum total of ...

BLM Nixes Conservation Rule for Public Lands

by The Missoula Current | May 12, 2026
Also on Monday, the White House released a proposed rule that would overhaul the BLM’s grazing regulations, reviving and advancing an earlier effort to weaken government oversight on 155 million acres of public land across the West. The rule would eliminate public input on grazing ...

Watchdog Sues Trump Interior Dept, Demanding Transparency on Freedom 250 Funding

by Common Dreams | May 12, 2026
In late February, PEER’s FOIA requests sought information from DOI on reports that public funds are being directed to Freedom 250 through the congressionally chartered National Park Foundation, “with no transparency, no accountability, and no guardrails.” “America’s 250th ...

Trump Admin Sued for Diverting $100 Million in Taxpayer Funds

by The New Republic | May 12, 2026
PEER alleges that the Trump administration is using Freedom 250 to redirect $100 million in taxpayer funds from America 250 without congressional approval, mix private funding and public taxpayer money without oversight, sell “access to President Trump” for up to $2.5 million, solicit ...

Interior Refuses To Release Documents Related To Freedom 250, Prompting Lawsuit

by National Parks Traveler | May 12, 2026
The Department of the Interior has refused to release documents related to President Trump’s controversial Freedom 250 initiative, prompting watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility to file a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Washington, DC. Congress ...

Enviros criticize Trump administration change to grazing rules

by Tucson Sentinel | May 11, 2026
On Monday, the White House proposed “sweeping” changes to how the agency manages grazing allotments without preparing full Environmental Impact Statements to understand “the cumulative impacts to wildlife, watersheds, land health and public oversight,” said the ...

Advocates decry Trump’s plan to open 24m acres of federal lands to cattle grazing

by The Guardian | May 11, 2026
The plan also contains “unusual provisions to benefit” big agriculture, said Chandra Rosenthal, western lands and rocky mountain advocate with the Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility (Peer) non-profit. Among those is the establishment of “immersion and training programs ...

Workers paint Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue

by BBC | May 10, 2026
Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of nonprofit watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told the BBC this project was evidence that “the system of checks and balances has broken down in the United States”. “Burgum is dispensing with a variety ...

Trump hands multimillion-dollar Washington project to his ‘pool guy’

by The Telegraph | May 10, 2026
The White House has been sued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation over its destruction of the East Wing, while there have been sustained complaints about the use of “no-bid” contracts. Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the watchdog group Public Employees for ...

The No-Bid Contract That Is Turning Washington’s Reflecting Pool Blue

by The New York Times | May 8, 2026
Mr. Trump paved over the Rose Garden’s lawn without seeking approvals. He has installed a 13-foot statue of Christopher Columbus on White House grounds without submitting a plan to any panel. And, most prominently, he tore down the historic East Wing of the White House without consulting ...

EPA producing less scientific research after 20% staffing cut, data shows

by Federal News Network | May 7, 2026
Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency are producing fewer peer-reviewed studies following recent staffing cuts, according to data released from an environmental nonprofit group. Figures released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility show the EPA produced 275 peer ...

Former Interior lawyer heads to watchdog group

by E&E News | May 6, 2026
A longtime Interior Department attorney has landed at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Tony Irish, who served over 20 years at Interior, has joined the watchdog group as a senior counsel, PEER announced Tuesday. He will support legal and investigatory work by the ...

Number of Scientific Publications from EPA Authors Has Dropped During Trump Administration

by Eos | May 5, 2026
The analysis was published by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit organization that advocates for public employees in the natural resource and environmental professions. The report tracks the number of peer-reviewed scientific studies authored by EPA ...