After a string of disastrous decisions that will harm Americans, the Trump Environmental Protection Agency should consider dropping “Protection” from its name. Under Administrator Lee Zeldin, the agency is failing people, putting polluters’ profits ahead of public health.
EWG has a plan to change that.
We’re proposing a nine-point “Make America Actually Healthy Again,” or MAAHA, agenda for Zeldin. From banning toxic pesticides to taking steps to tackle the harmful “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, our blueprint is rational, achievable and health-protective.
And the plan doesn’t contradict itself, unlike the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, agenda.
MAHA, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says it wants clean air, safe water and real protections from toxic chemicals and pesticides.
Zeldin says he’s working on a MAHA agenda for the EPA. But almost every action his agency has taken will cause more pollution and more harm to Americans’ health.
EWG doubts Zeldin’s MAHA plan will be any different. It’ll probably end up like the Trump administration’s first-term Infrastructure Week – ambitious plans promised, never delivered.
So, Administrator Zeldin, let’s save you some homework. Just adopt EWG’s MAAHA plan, below. You already have the authority to implement the steps we’re recommending. And if you’re serious about safeguarding the environment and public health, this is the way.
It’s time to restore science, enforce the law and make the agency a true defender of communities – not an enabler of industry.
You’re welcome.
1. Rebuild EPA staff and expertise
Real MAAHA action: Stop incentivizing mass resignations and halt hiring freezes, and bring back highly trained scientists, enforcement attorneys and technical staff.
Under Zeldin’s direction, the EPA has pursued a double threat of weakening public health protections. First, it has slashed the jobs of thousands of critical personnel. Second, it is dismantling core science and enforcement programs, including eliminating the vital Office of Research and Development, or ORD.
That office “is the heart and brain of the EPA,” said Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, a union representing thousands of EPA employees.
“Without it, we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,” added Chen. “Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.”
2. Stop gutting science and reinstate research and evidence‑based decision‑making
Real MAAHA action: Reverse the shutdown of the EPA’s premier air pollution human research lab and restore the ORD.
Experts warn that closing the lab impairs the very scientific foundation needed to protect kids from dangerous air pollution – yet MAHA claims to champion children.
“It was one of the only places in the country where you could put humans in a chamber and measure their reaction to ozone,” said Laura Kate Bender, vice president of nationwide advocacy and public policy at the American Lung Association.
“Those studies have long informed our understanding of how much of these pollutants are safe to breathe,” she added.
3. Reinstate and strengthen chemical safety standards
Real MAAHA action: Cancel the absurd industry‑friendly formaldehyde risk assessment that raises acceptable exposure levels of the known carcinogen. Reverse proposed changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act that would expose people to additional harmful chemicals.
Instead, use the best available science to protect people from cancer-causing substances that come from multiple sources of exposure and that are often present in mixtures.
Zeldin’s EPA favors methods and advice from top agency officials he plucked from the chemical industry, enlisting their help to weaken chemical safety standards.
4. Reverse toxic pesticide approvals and protect farmworkers, kids and consumers
Real MAAHA action: Reverse the EPA’s fast‑track approvals and extended uses for several toxic agricultural chemicals, including PFAS pesticides and dicamba. Implement strict health-protective drift and residue limits and truly phase out the worst crop chemicals.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump and top MAHA figures like Kennedy promised real protection from pesticide exposure. But under Zeldin, the agency is accelerating pesticide approvals while ignoring mounting evidence of health harms.
5. Protect drinking water
Real MAAHA action: Enforce the Biden EPA’s 2024 binding drinking water standards, known as maximum contaminant levels, for the most notorious PFAS. An estimated 41 million people will be drinking PFAS contaminated water for two more years because of the EPA’s delayed implementation of the new standards.
Stop delaying or softening enforcement of the standards for corporations that dump those chemicals into our drinking water supply.
Zeldin is planning to roll back or weaken those health-protective legal limits for highly toxic PFAS contaminants in drinking water.
“With a stroke of the pen, EPA is making a mockery of the Trump administration’s promise to deliver clean water for Americans,” said Erik Olson, senior strategic advisor for health and environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
6. Clean up the air – not just talk about It
Real MAAHA action: Keep and strengthen air pollution limits on smog, fine particulate matter, and mercury from coal-fired power plants, avoid delayed enforcement of vehicle tailpipe pollution standards and reverse attempts to weaken the EPA finding that climate pollutants endanger public health and welfare.
Delaying clean-air rules and undermining their scientific foundation risks an increase in air pollution, leading to more asthma, heart attacks and premature deaths.
“The result will be more toxic chemicals, more cancers, more asthma attacks and more dangers for pregnant women and their children. Rather than helping our economy, it will create chaos,” said Amanda Leland, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund.
7. Restore and expand grants for community health and environmental justice
Real MAAHA action: Re‑establish EPA environmental justice, community science and public health grants cancelled by Zeldin.
These cuts undermine local efforts to reduce pollution exposure in underserved and overburdened communities, not to mention likely violating federal court orders in terminating the congressionally approved funds.
“The illegal termination of these EPA grants not only violates congressional appropriations law, contractual agreements, and multiple court orders, but it also undermines essential programs aimed at eliminating childhood lead poisoning, reducing toxic air pollution, and mitigating health risks from heat and wildfires,” said Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the environment committee.
8. Protect polluter enforcement – rather than undermine It
Real MAAHA action: Work with the Department of Justice to reinstate vigorous enforcement that holds polluters accountable.
Under Zeldin, the EPA’s enforcement of laws designed to stop companies from releasing dangerous chemicals into communities has grown remarkably weak. Zeldin must reverse course, restore strong oversight and ensure polluters face real consequences for putting public health at risk.
“The future is grim for environmental protection,” said Gary Jones, a former top EPA enforcement attorney who now is the executive director of the nonprofit CREEDemocracy, which promotes renewable energy and democracy globally.
“The risk will be most felt in overburdened communities, but this will hurt red and blue districts alike. If the EPA cop is not on the beat, then people are going to be harmed,” he said.
9. Actually deliver on MAHA promises
Real MAAHA action: Put public health first by taking health-protective actions in an effort to cut cancer rates; cleaning up our air and water and dramatically reducing people’s exposure to toxic chemicals and pesticides.
MAHA was sold as a health-first agenda. But under Zeldin, the EPA mirrors the priorities of polluters who treat toxic emissions as a business cost rather than a public health threat.
Enough with the nonsense.
A true MAHA agenda puts people above profits, science above spin and public health far ahead of polluter priorities. Anything less than fully reversing Zeldin’s rollbacks, restoring EPA expertise and enforcing laws that protect communities from pollution is a sham.
Your favorite agency, the EPA
The actions outlined above are just the first steps the EPA should take to better protect public health and the environment. There are many other things that the agency can and should do to make all Americans healthier.
But, Administrator Zeldin, the MAAHA agenda is a good start.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
– EWG
