REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
The Environmental Protection Agency asked staff to freeze all their grants without telling anyone, the Huffington Post reports. The reported freeze, which has not been confirmed as either temporary or long-term, would cut into funding for research, education, environmental monitoring, and other programs. The EPA has yet to confirm the grant freezes. The Huffington Post also obtained a copy of what appeared to be an internal EPA memo detailing new media policies, which outlined strict new social media policies and heavier screening for media inquiries. Trump’s still-unconfirmed pick for EPA head is Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruit, a climate change denier who has prided himself on combatting the EPA’s “activist agenda” on the environment.