Spokesman for EPA head Scott Pruitt (pictured): “We should have people who understand the impact of regulations on the regulated community”

Developments on Day 108 of the Trump Administration:

EPA Dismisses 5 Scientists, Promises Replacement With Industry Reps

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, has dismissed scientists on a review board and said he will consider replacing them with representatives of regulated industries.

At least five scientists on the 18-member Board of Scientific Counselors have been removed. A spokesman for Pruitt, J. P. Freire, said, “The administrator believes we should have people on this board who understand the impact of regulations on the regulated community.”

The step is the latest to curb the EPA’s ability to provide research and develop regulations. The Trump Administration has proposed a 31% cut in the budget, including a 40% reduction for the main scientific branch. Programs are being eliminated, with the prospects of sharp decreases in personnel.

The White House, passing executive orders such as the lifting of a ban on coal waste in rivers, has instructed Pruit to roll back other Obama-era regulations on climate change and clean water protection. The EPA has removed some scientific data on climate change from its websites, with Pruitt has publicly questioned the established science of human-caused climate change.

In late March, the GOP-dominated House of Representatives foreshadowed the changes on the review board, passing a bill aimed at changing the composition.

The dismissed scientists received e-mails from an EPA official informing them that their three-year terms had expired and would not be renewed. That was contrary, the scientists said, to assurances given to them in January, just before Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

“Most of us on the council are academic people,” said Ponisseril Somasundaran, a chemist at Columbia University who focuses on managing hazardous waste. “I think they want to bring in business and industry people.”

Courtney Flint, a professor of natural resource sociology at Utah State University, expressed her surprise.

“I believe this is political,” said Dr. Flint, whose research focuses on how communities respond to major disruptions in the environment, such as exposure to toxic pollution, forest fires and climate change. “It’s unexpected. It’s a red flag.”

Spokesman Freire said the agency wanted “to expand the pool of applicants to as broad a range as possible, to include universities that aren’t typically represented and issues that aren’t typically represented”.

Ken Kimmell, the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, responded:

This is completely part of a multifaceted effort to get science out of the way of a deregulation agenda. What seems to be premature removals of members of this Board of Science Counselors when the board has come out in favor of the E.P.A. strengthening its climate science, plus the severe cuts to research and development — you have to see all these things as interconnected.

Trump Extended Program Day Before Kushner’s Visa-for-Investment Pitch in China

Donald Trump extends a visa program a day before a pitch by the sister of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, to Chinese investors about a Kushner family project in New Jersey.

Trump signed the extension of the EB-5 investor program without long-promise changes, as part of a massive federal spending bill. The program, which has been challenged by some lawmakers, allows foreigners to obtain fast-track immigration and seek permanent residency in return for investing $500,000 in U.S. properties.

On Saturday, Nicole Kushner Meyer presented a $976.4 million residential and commercial project in New Jersey to investors in Beijing, offering the EB-5 in return for at least $500,000 investment. She mentioned Jared Kushner’s White House position and showed a photograph of Trump during the pitch.

See TrumpWatch, Day 107: Kushner Visa-Trading in China Raises More Ethical Issues

On Sunday, the Kushner Companies e-mailed that it “apologizes if that mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors. That was not Ms. Meyer’s intention.” It repeated that Jared Kushner “stepped away from the company in January and has nothing to do with this project”.

Kushner Meyer presented the project on Sunday to Shanghai investors.