More of President Trump’s Cabinet picks faced confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, including Tom Price for health secretary and Mick…
Emails sent to EPA staff since President Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration on Friday and reviewed by The Associated Press detailed specific prohibitions banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency\u2019s social media accounts.
The Trump administration has also ordered what it called a temporary suspension of all new business activities at the department, including issuing task orders or work assignments to EPA contractors. The orders were expected to have a significant and immediate impact on EPA activities nationwide.
Similar orders barring external communications have been issued by the Trump administration at other federal agencies in recent days, including the Agriculture and Interior departments.
Staffers in EPA\u2019s public affairs office are instructed to forward all inquiries from reporters to the Office of Administration and Resources Management.
\u201cIncoming media requests will be carefully screened,\u201d one directive said. \u201cOnly send out critical messages, as messages can be shared broadly and end up in the press.\u201d
A memo that went out to some members of the EPA staff and was obtained by CBS News outlined a list of bulleted restrictions.
\u201cNo press releases will be going out to external audiences,\u201d it said. \u201cNo social media will be going out. A Digital Strategist will be coming on board to oversee social media. Existing, individually controlled, social media accounts may become more centrally controlled.\u201d
\u201cNo blog messages,\u201d it added.
Epa by News Team on Scribd
A review of EPA websites and social media accounts, which typically include numerous new posts each day, showed no new activity since Friday.
The Office of Public Affairs at the EPA headquarters issued a statement saying, \u201cThe EPA fully intends to continue to provide information to the public.\u201d
\u201cA fresh look at public affairs and communications processes is common practice for any new Administration, and a short pause in activities allows for this assessment,\u201d the statement said.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Tuesday he had no information on the blackout. He said aides were looking into the circumstances.
Doug Ericksen, the communications director for Trump\u2019s transition team at EPA, said he expects the communications ban to be lifted by the end of this week.
\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to get a handle on everything and make sure what goes out reflects the priorities of the new administration,\u201d Ericksen said.
Beyond what was stated in the internal email, Ericksen clarified that the freeze on EPA contracts and grants won\u2019t apply to pollution cleanup efforts or infrastructure construction activities.
The executive director for the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Jeff Ruch, said the orders go beyond what has occurred in prior presidential transitions.
\u201cWe\u2019re watching the dark cloud of Mordor extend over federal service,\u201d Ruch said Tuesday, referring to the evil kingdom in the epic fantasy, The Lord of the Rings.
On whether the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines would benefit President Trump financially, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said during a White…
Ruch noted that key posts at EPA have not yet been filled with Republican appointees, including Trump\u2019s nominee for EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt. That means there are not yet the new senior personnel in place to make key decisions.
Environmentalists said the orders were having a chilling effect on EPA staff, many of whom were suffering from low morale. Trump and Pruitt have both been frequent critics of the agency and have questioned the validity of climate science showing that the Earth is warming and man-made carbon emissions are to blame.
Liz Perera, climate policy director for the Sierra Club, said Trump\u2019s move to freeze all EPA communications and contracts should be \u201ca major red flag for all Americans.\u201d
\u201cEPA was created to ensure that all Americans can enjoy clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and have their health protected from environmental and climate threats,\u201d Perera said.
Staff at the Agriculture Department have also received orders not to release any documents to the public.
\u201cThis includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds and social media content,\u201d read the email memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Agricultural Research Service spokesman Christopher Bentley said the ban would not include scientific publications released through peer-reviewed professional journals.
\u201cAs the U. S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s chief scientific in-house research agency, ARS values and is committed to maintaining the free flow of information between our scientists and the American public as we strive to find solutions to agricultural problems affecting America,\u201d Bentley said, according to a statement.
The agency said that \u201cinformation on our projects, people and locations\u201d would still be available on its website.
AP reported over the weekend that staff at the Interior Department were temporarily ordered to stop making posts to its Twitter account. The prohibition came after the official account of the National Park Service, a bureau of the department, retweeted a pair of posts to its 315,000 followers that seemed to be a swipe at Trump on his initial day in office. The first was a photo that compared the crowd gathered on the National Mall for Trump to the much-larger gathering that stood in the same spot eight years earlier for President Barack Obama\u2019s swearing-in.
Trump later falsely claimed that more than 1 million people attended his inauguration, which Spicer insisted was the most-watched in history.<\/p>\n

\n

\nSimilarity rank: 13\n<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 2.3<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n