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After the first weeks of the Trump administration, we are beginning to see how the campaign rhetoric about the “evils of the deep state” is being implemented. A number of these actions adversely affect Hoosiers. Freezing federal grants on which businesses and local governments have planned and tariffs on major trading-partner countries that many experts predict will raise prices for consumers are two examples.
But Hoosiers should understand that the unprecedented and aggressive assault on the federal workforce will also hurt us. Through a series of executive actions, the Trump administration has fired hundreds of career employees, threatened thousands more with summary dismissal, offered a legally questionable offer—really an ultimatum—to resign, and threatened employees that if they don’t snitch on their colleagues they will be subject to discipline.
The public sector is not the private sector. The civil service exists because most of the work the federal government does for us provides basic services to keep us healthy and safe and provides aid to veterans and retirees entitled to benefits through their service and years of working. It is not partisan. It is informed by science rather than profit or to gain political advantage.
Every day, federal workers help communities respond to natural disasters, process our passports and work with states to build roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure. Every day, federal employees work to find cures for disease, inspect food processing plants across Indiana to protect us from contaminated products and assist small businesses in Indiana’s cities and towns. Civil servants work long hours, make less money than they could in the private sector and sacrifice time with their families to serve communities around the country. I know this from personal experience.
The agency I know best is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where I was the deputy administrator until a few months ago. Here are just a few of the things EPA employees have done for Hoosiers in the past few years:
◗ Awarded more than $500 million for critical infrastructure repairs to aging sewer and drinking water systems in dozens of Hoosier communities. These projects would create thousands of local jobs and replace dangerous lead pipes.
◗ Provided technical expertise and funding to clean up contaminated sites around the state, including the former GM plant in Kokomo, reducing risk to residents and allowing redevelopment of the property.
◗ Stationed two full-time, on-scene coordinators in Indianapolis to provide prompt response to cleanups and emergencies, such as removal of asbestos and other hazardous debris from the My Way Trading Warehouse fire in Richmond.
◗ Accredited in-state training providers who educated hundreds of workers in lead-safe work practices, protecting residents, especially children, from the serious health risks of lead paint and lead dust.
◗ Awarded a $500,000 grant to Indianapolis-based RecycleForce to train formerly incarcerated Hoosiers to handle hazardous substances and petroleum products, creating long-term employability and building a skilled local workforce for brownfield remediation.
◗ Provided internships and early-career opportunities for eager graduates of Indiana universities who want to give back to their communities.
◗ Provided financial support to replace highly polluting diesel school buses with clean electric buses and fast-charging infrastructure in cities throughout Indiana.
The sledgehammer approach comes at great cost to all of us. Let’s make sure we know what we will lose if the agencies that help keep Hoosiers healthy and prosperous are dismantled and that we demand accountability from our elected officials to ensure that basic services to protect our health and prosperity aren’t stripped away under the guise of political rhetoric.•
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McCabe is former deputy administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a former professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and former assistant commissioner at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
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Spoken like a true lifetime bureaucrat. Sorry but elections generate change. The EPA is loaded with DEI and other wasted tax dollars.