EPA Administrator’s Resignation Letter Touts CAFO Rule Among Environmental Achievements
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 05.25.03
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman tendered her resignation to President Bush on May 20, citing her wish to return to her home and family in New Jersey. Whitman praised the Bush Administration's “strong belief that environmental protection and economic prosperity can and must go hand-in-hand.” She also specifically identified EPA's revised CAFO regulations among several key accomplishments of the agency during her tenure. According to Whitman, “[i]mprovements to the rules governing Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations will protect surface water by requiring reductions of at least 25 percent in runoff of nitrogen and phosphorous from those large agricultural operations.” Administrator Whitman's resignation letter is posted on EPA's website.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
