13. Environmental Protection Agency · Minor

Appoint a Science Adviser and six senior political appointees over EPA science

Partially done

Printed page 436 13. Environmental Protection Agency

“Appoint and empower a Science Adviser reporting directly to the Administrator in addition to a substantial investment (no fewer than six senior political appointees) charged with overseeing and reforming EPA research and science activities.”

What has happened

Jun 15, 2026 Partially done
The Science Adviser exists and the investment behind her does not. EPA's page for the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions names Teresa Booeshaghi as "Associate Administrator and the Agency Science Advisor", and OPM's PLUM listing of EPA's policy and supporting positions, as of 15 June 2026, records that post as a noncareer SES appointment — a political appointee heading an office of the Administrator, which is the reporting line the Quote asks for. The second limb is not met. OASES's other six reported positions — the Deputy Associate Administrator for Science, the Deputy Associate Administrator for Management and four division directors and deputies — are all career SES, the Principal Deputy Associate Administrator is vacant, and no other senior political appointee over EPA science appears anywhere in the listing: the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development post is not reported at all, and ORD carries no policy or supporting position. One political appointee is not "no fewer than six". Under §3b an enumerated count of posts is a limb of its own, so a delivered Science Adviser against an undelivered six is `partial`.
- EPA, About the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions — Teresa Booeshaghi, Associate Administrator and the Agency Science Advisor; the rest of the office's named leadership
  Primary Executive branch May 5, 2026
- OPM PLUM Reporting, PLUM Data (5 U.S.C. 3330f) — EPA positions as of 15 June 2026: the OASES Associate Administrator is a noncareer SES appointment, its six other reported posts career SES; no ORD positions reported
  Primary Executive branch Jun 15, 2026
May 2, 2025 Attempted
EPA created the box but has not been shown to fill it. The reorganization announced on 2025-05-02 established the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions inside the Office of the Administrator under an Associate Administrator, to "align research and put science at the forefront of the agency's rulemakings"; the AO page lists OASES as one of its seven offices. No Science Adviser to the Administrator is named on any allowlisted source, no OASES leader is named, EPA has no page for the office, and there is no record of six or more senior political appointees charged with overseeing and reforming EPA science.
- EPA Announces Next Phase of Organizational Improvements to Better Integrate Science into Agency Offices
  Primary Executive branch May 2, 2025
- EPA FY 2026 CJ Addendum: Consolidations, Reorganizations, Realignments, or Other Transfer of Resources
  Primary Executive branch Sep 1, 2025
- About the Office of the Administrator (EPA), last updated 2026-06-26
  Primary Executive branch Jun 26, 2026

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

One negative search covered the whole cluster of EPA science, appointee and advisory-body asks on pp. 436-437.
This is an ask to appoint people. Our roster of the Mandate’s credited people records no EPA science appointment, and among the Senate nominations we keep and search there is no EPA science nomination — the OASES post is not Senate-confirmed, so a nomination record would not exist either way. Booeshaghi is not one of the Mandate’s credited people.
The 2025-05-02 event was attempted and not partial because an org chart is evidence of function, not a substitute for it: at that date the ask is to appoint and empower people, and no person was on the record.
Reviewed 2026-09-06: attempted → partial, correcting an error. The 2026-08-28 search tried epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-applied-science-and-environmental-solutions-oases and the plural form without “-oases”; neither page exists, and we concluded EPA had no page for the office. It has one, at the singular address without the parenthetical acronym, last updated 2026-05-05 and opening normally. It names the office’s leadership in full and dual-hats the Associate Administrator as the Agency Science Advisor — the appointment the earlier search said was not on the record.
What made the appointment-type question answerable is OPM’s PLUM database (opm.gov/about-us/open-government/plum-reporting/plum-data/, agency-reported, data as of 2026-06-15), not the printed Plum Book, whose 2024 edition is a 16 July 2024 snapshot. The database distinguishes noncareer SES from career SES post by post, which is exactly what “six senior political appointees” needs counted.
Counted for the second limb and not found: the whole EPA listing returns 179 positions, of which the noncareer and Schedule C appointments touching science are the OASES Associate Administrator alone. The Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention and the Deputy Assistant Administrator for New Chemicals are noncareer SES but sit over a regulatory program, not over “EPA research and science activities”, so they are not counted here.

Action: appoint
Object: EPA Science Adviser and senior science political appointees
ID: 1160