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‘Fundamental conflict’: Ethics holds on Trump EPA chemicals officials lift

by E&E News | March 6, 2026
Others had a different assessment. Kyla Bennett, science policy director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said the ethics rules “were put there for a reason” and “should be mandatory.” “The ethics office hands out these waivers like candy on Halloween,” ...

Unions sue over Trump’s efforts to nix federal worker job protections

by Reuters | March 4, 2026
The lawsuit was originally filed last year by nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group for government whistleblowers, to challenge Trump’s order. The case was stayed pending OPM’s rulemaking. Four unions joined PEER in the amended complaint ...

Lawsuit contends Schedule Policy/Career exceeds presidential authority

by Federal News Network | March 4, 2026
The revised lawsuit expands on previous legal actions from the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, along with the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the American Federation of Labor and ...

Groups sue to block Trump’s fed-firing rule

by E&E News | March 4, 2026
Unions and a watchdog organization are re-upping their legal challenge to stop President Donald Trump’s push to strip civil service protections from thousands of federal employees. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility; the American Federation of Government Employees; the ...

Unions Re-up Suit Against Trump Rule for Federal Worker Firings

by Bloomberg Law | March 4, 2026
The coalition, which includes Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and American Federation of Government Employees, filed a consolidated and updated legal challenge against a final regulation that would potentially reclassify tens of thousands of federal policy-influencing ...

Pepperell sues six companies over ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

by The Boston Globe | March 2, 2026
Kyla Bennett, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in New England, said there are alarming links between PFAS exposure and serious health problems. “With any chemical to say chemical A causes health outcome B is a difficult thing to do,” she said. “But we do ...

PEER Seeks Interior’s “Freedom 250” Funding Records

by National Parks Traveler | February 26, 2026
The 250th birthday of the United States is a day to celebrate nationally, but Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) wants to know whether the Trump administration is leveraging that event to sell access to President Donald Trump and use “taxpayer funds for ...

Yosemite worker fired for hanging trans pride flag on El Capitan sues National Park Service

by CBS News | February 25, 2026
“I think everyone should be very worried as Americans about this kind of targeted repression of free speech,” Joanna Citron Day, an attorney representing Joslin, told CBS News. “We are seeing this administration go after groups it doesn’t agree with, people it doesn ...

Yosemite Park Ranger Who Was Fired After Hanging Transgender Flag Files Lawsuit

by KQED | February 24, 2026
Nobody had ever been disciplined before, much less fired and subject to criminal investigation,” said Paula Dinerstein, senior counsel at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is representing Joslin. The question of whether or not it was a demonstration also doesn’t ...

Park Ranger Sues Interior Department For Wrongful Termination

by National Parks Traveler | February 23, 2026
In August 2025, the Park Service, together with the Department of Justice, targeted Joslin for exercising their First Amendment rights, said a release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. In May of that year, during their time off from work, Joslin and fellow rock ...

US government records reveal dangerous trend threatening public health: ‘They know there are no consequences’

by The Cool Down | February 23, 2026
From January 2025 to January 2026, the EPA filed just one major Clean Air Act consent decree, a legal tool that forces companies to fix violations and pay penalties. That’s down from 26 cases during President Donald Trump’s first term and 22 during President Joe Biden’s ...

Fired Yosemite ranger sues NPS over trans pride flag unveiling

by E&E News | February 23, 2026
“This administration is targeting Dr. Joslin because it wants to scare people into silence,” said Joanna Citron Day, general counsel at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, adding that Joslin “exercised their First Amendment rights and is being punished to send a ...

Federal Worker Fired After Hanging Trans Flag at Yosemite Sues Government

by The Wall Street Journal | February 23, 2026
To determine whether an employee’s speech is protected, there is often a balancing test between an individual’s rights and disruption to agency operations. The speech also must be made in the employee’s capacity as a private citizen on a matter of public concern, which Joslin’s ...

Enforcement of laws against polluters nearly non-existent in US, analysis finds

by The Guardian | February 13, 2026
The EPA’s enforcement program “is dying on the vine, and that’s intentional”, said Tim Whitehouse, Peer’s executive director and a former EPA attorney. “Without an adequate enforcement program that provides deterrence to polluters, the laws become voluntary, and when laws ...

Critics: Trump’s Freedom250 is ‘pay-for-play,’ lacks transparency

by USA Today | February 12, 2026
Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said during the congressional hearing that he’s concerned about the way Freedom 250 accepts donations. “The issue is there’s no accountability. There’s no transparency ...

Potential conflicts over celebrating America’s 250th anniversary spill out in congressional hearing

by The Associated Press | February 10, 2026
A source familiar with the funding for America250, who was not authorized to speak publicly about it, said that the anticipated amount dropped to $50 million and that so far the organization has received just $25 million. Federal funding cuts last year already had led some communities to ...

What’s needed to protect sage grouse? Less grazing.

by High Country News | February 6, 2026
Science has found that grazing can both harm and help sage grouse habitat, but “it’s a question of how it’s managed,” said Nada Wolff Culver, the BLM’s former principal deputy director during the Biden administration. But for decades, the BLM has lacked the staffing to adequately ...

Under Trump, EPA Enforcement Environmental Laws Collapses, Report Finds

by Inside Climate News | February 5, 2026
The findings echo two recent analyses from the nonprofits Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Earthjustice, which both documented dwindling environmental enforcement under Trump. From day one of Trump’s second term, the administration has pursued an aggressive ...

Mountains of plastic turf in limbo after Pa. recycling project falters

by The Evening Sun | February 2, 2026
Kyla Bennett, a science policy director at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, has raised alarm about outdoor turf deposits like the one in Susquehanna County, saying they can release PFAS — man-made chemicals that could be linked to a variety of health risks. “If (the ...

Trump admin clips EPA oversight amid deregulatory blitz

by E&E News | January 28, 2026
In a complaint filed last April, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility accused EPA of violating federal law by idling some workers indefinitely because of their purported connection to environmental justice work. The group asked the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an ...