"Staff from the EPA’s Office of Water were summoned to a town hall meeting this week and told to pause the publication of most research, pending a review."
"The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered scientists in at least one of its research offices to immediately pause almost all efforts to publish research, according to two agency employees familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Staff from the EPA’s Office of Water were summoned to a town hall meeting this week and instructed to halt work on most ongoing research papers, the two employees said. The researchers were told that unless scientific journals had already returned proofs — the final step in the academic publication process — the studies would be subject to a new review process, the employees said.
The decision to reevaluate all manuscripts was made by political appointees, the two employees said.
EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch denied that political appointees had ordered a review of research papers. After this article was published, she called it “false information that has been credibly refuted.”"
Amudalat Ajasa and Hannah Natanson report for the Washington Post September 20, 2025.
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