President Donald Trump named Tom Croci as acting assistant administrator of the U.S. EPA's Office of Land and Emergency Management, the agency confirmed on Thursday. Croci takes over from John Busterud, who previously announced he would leave the role on March 7.
Croci was most recently associate administrator for national security and operations coordination at the EPA, a position he took in September. That follows a yearlong stint in the Department of Defense.
He was also an aide for EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin when the latter was a state senator, according to Newsday. Croci successfully ran to replace him in the statehouse when Zeldin won a race for the U.S. House in 2014. He also served as an in the U.S. Navy and in national security roles, beginning with the administration of President George W. Bush.
“Tom brings a wealth of military and legislative experience to this new role and will advance our efforts to provide clean air, land, and water for every American on some of the agency’s most impactful programs like Superfund, Brownfields, RCRA, and emergency response,” an EPA spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Busterud was confirmed to the lead the waste office in October but announced in February he was departing to focus on his health. He was the first Senate-confirmed person to lead waste programs since the first Trump administration, when Peter Wright helmed OLEM. President Biden nominated Carlton Waterhouse in 2021, but his nomination stalled out in the Senate.
The EPA saw an influx of political appointees with experience lobbying for chemicals and plastics interests at the start of Trump’s second term. Steven Cook, who is currently OLEM’s principal deputy assistant administrator, spent more than two decades lobbying for chemicals and plastics company LyondellBasell.
Croci now takes a leadership role in a rapidly changing agency. Roughly 4,000 employees have left the EPA over the last year, bringing the agency to its lowest staffing levels in 40 years, according to a report by Inside Climate News.
Those staff reductions have also come with reorganizations. That includes internal shuffles for OLEM, as well as larger changes. The EPA moved to end the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, as well as all other environmental justice-related programs, last year. It’s also taken steps to dismantle the Office of Research and Development and shuffle staff to other agency offices, which waste industry groups worry could affect activities relevant to their members.
At OLEM, Croci will oversee several ongoing policymaking efforts, including rules and regulations addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The agency has also indicated it would continue certain grant programs supporting waste and recycling projects, including the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant program.
The EPA declined to say whether Trump would submit Croci’s nomination to the Senate for official confirmation. The agency deferred that question to the White House, which did not respond as of publication.
