{"id":22817,"date":"2025-08-01T17:24:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T21:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=22817"},"modified":"2025-08-01T17:24:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T21:24:23","slug":"wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington DC<\/strong>\u2013 U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (both D-Ore.) said today they have joined 15 Senate colleagues in pressing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reinstate employees placed on administrative leave after signing a \u201cDeclaration of Dissent\u201d expressing concern with the agency\u2019s direction under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWe write to you with deep concerns regarding recent reporting that you placed more than 140 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees on administrative leave after they signed a \u2018Declaration of Dissent\u2019 on June 30, 2025,\u201d <\/strong>the senators wrote EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. \u201cFederal employees are permitted to speak out on matters of public concern in their personal capacities, and even when they do so in dissent, the First Amendment protects their speech.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIn fact, across the federal government, federal agencies have developed mechanisms to ensure federal workers can express alternative viewpoints without fear of reprisal, understanding that dissent improves policy outcomes, increases accountability, and improves morale; in that spirit, the EPA employees sought to raise issues of public concern to senior officials,\u201d <\/strong>the\u00a0senators wrote. \u201cWe urge you to restore these employees to active service immediately and affirm your employees\u2019 ability to express their viewpoints without fear of retaliation, because debate and dissent are valuable policymaking tools.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Wyden and Merkley, others signing the letter led by U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) included Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Una copia de la carta es aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, DC\u2013 U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (both D-Ore.) said today they have joined 15 Senate colleagues in pressing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reinstate employees placed on administrative leave after signing a \u201cDeclaration of Dissent\u201d expressing concern with the agency\u2019s direction under the Trump administration. \u201cWe write to you with deep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-22817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-civil-rights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington, DC\u2013 U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (both D-Ore.) said today they have joined 15 Senate colleagues in pressing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reinstate employees placed on administrative leave after signing a \u201cDeclaration of Dissent\u201d expressing concern with the agency\u2019s direction under the Trump administration. \u201cWe write to you with deep […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-01T21:24:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-01T21:24:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"357\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Krakoff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Krakoff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Justin Krakoff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb\"},\"headline\":\"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T21:24:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-01T21:24:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/\"},\"wordCount\":296,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Civil Rights\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Press Releases\"],\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/\",\"name\":\"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights - Merkley\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T21:24:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-01T21:24:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":357,\"caption\":\"Senator Jeff Merkley speaking into a microphone.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/\",\"name\":\"Merkley\",\"description\":\"Merkley\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb\",\"name\":\"Justin Krakoff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Justin Krakoff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/author\/justin-krakoff\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights - Merkley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/","og_locale":"es_MX","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights - Merkley","og_description":"Washington, DC\u2013 U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (both D-Ore.) said today they have joined 15 Senate colleagues in pressing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reinstate employees placed on administrative leave after signing a \u201cDeclaration of Dissent\u201d expressing concern with the agency\u2019s direction under the Trump administration. \u201cWe write to you with deep […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/","og_site_name":"Merkley","article_published_time":"2025-08-01T21:24:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-01T21:24:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":357,"url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Justin Krakoff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Krakoff","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/"},"author":{"name":"Justin Krakoff","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb"},"headline":"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights","datePublished":"2025-08-01T21:24:21+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-01T21:24:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/"},"wordCount":296,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg","keywords":["Civil Rights"],"articleSection":["Press Releases"],"inLanguage":"es-MX"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/","name":"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights - Merkley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-08-01T21:24:21+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-01T21:24:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es-MX","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es-MX","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Press-Release-Photo-3.jpeg","width":680,"height":357,"caption":"Senator Jeff Merkley speaking into a microphone."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wyden-merkley-colleagues-urge-administration-to-reinstate-epa-employees-retaliated-against-for-exercising-free-speech-rights\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge Administration to Reinstate EPA Employees Retaliated Against for Exercising Free Speech Rights"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/","name":"merkley","description":"merkley","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es-MX"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb","name":"Justin Krakoff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es-MX","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Justin Krakoff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/author\/justin-krakoff\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22818,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22817\/revisions\/22818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}