During a period of sustained political pressure on the EPA, the agency's workforce, mission, and scientific integrity were under direct strain. AFGE Council 238 represented roughly 9,000 scientists, engineers, and public-health professionals responsible for enforcing core environmental protections.
This was not routine policy disagreement, it was a coordinated effort to weaken the agency from within. Deregulation, budget cuts, and attacks on science were paired with union pressure, forced retirements, and hostile working conditions, accelerating a "brain drain" of institutional knowledge. The erosion of workforce capacity risked being normalized as governance rather than recognized as a direct threat to public health protections.
Caplan designed and executed the national Save the U.S. EPA campaign as an integrated rapid-response effort. We aligned earned media, op-eds, digital strategy, and public events with policy developments, elevating frontline voices and connecting workforce impacts directly to regulatory consequences.
The story turned from internal political conflict to a clear public understanding: dismantling the EPA's workforce and sidelining scientific expertise would directly weaken the government's ability to protect air, water, and public health.
The campaign generated sustained national visibility, increased scrutiny of agency leadership, and reinforced that defending environmental protections requires defending the people and expertise that make them possible.
