Weekly Spotlight: Gutting the Government

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GUTTING THE GOVERNMENT

Schedule F returns with a vengeance

The administration is officially making good on their day-one promise to reimplement the Schedule F plan from President Trump’s first term (now called “Schedule Policy/Career”, which will reclassify federal workers). And even more civil servants could be swept up under this revamped policy than the administration originally projected. Whole offices at the Social Security Administration are being converted. What could this mean for Social Security benefits? “Taking away civil service protections drives out experts who know how to manage these critical services,” says POGO’s Joe Spielberger. “These are people who analyze research, adjudicate disability claims, manage contracts, and keep the agency operational. Schedule Policy/Career won’t just upend operations. It’ll give the administration immense political control over the agency and who it does and doesn’t serve.”

• Dig deeper into how this reclassification would politicize the federal workforce.
• The new Trump-appointed head of the Office of Special Counsel, a key watchdog office that is supposed to protect federal workers and whistleblowers, has effectively barred investigations into the administration’s mass firings.  
• Attacks on the federal workforce have already been causing a “brain drain.” Schedule Policy/Career will likely add to the exodus. 
• Schedule Policy/Career risks hurting seniors, veterans, and rural communities just as Schedule F would have. 

POGO INVESTIGATIONS DESK

DHS took its watchdog’s investigative records offline. We made them public again. 

DHS took offline nearly all of the investigative reports from its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties back in February. These records document systemic problems and alleged abuses at DHS, such as use of excessive force incidents, violations of civil rights, conditions in detention centers, and more — all information the public needs to know and continue to have access to in order to hold DHS and its sub-agencies accountable. POGO managed to recover 100+ of these reports, which we’ve made accessible to the public on pogo.org.

DO(D)GEING OVERSIGHT

Elon Musk says he will step back from DOGE. But he has likely already profited.

Musk announced that he will be stepping back from his work on DOGE to focus more on Tesla. The world’s richest person shouldn’t have been given such a sweeping position of power or outsized say in our democracy in the first place. Musk’s enterprises have been hugely subsidized by the federal government and have billions of dollars in federal contracts. And that’s just the half of it when it comes to his conflicts of interest. POGO’s Faith Williams explores the big rewards Musk and other DOGE staffers are positioned to rake in in a new analysis.

• ANALYSIS What’s wrong with DOGE? Where to start? Its structure, for one and its glaring conflicts of interest for another.
• Amid the spending cuts, Musk cut some new deals - for himself: New contracts for SpaceX and Starlink. 

CHECKS AND BALANCES

Federal court orders the return of a second wrongfully deported man

A 20-year-old Venezuelan man was removed to El Salvador on March 15 despite being part of a class action settlement that prevents his removal from the U.S. while his asylum application is being reviewed. A federal judge appointed by the Trump administration is now ordering the administration to facilitate his return.

• It has been two weeks since the Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s return — the White House continues to do nothing. Email your members of Congress and urge them to intervene. It’s their job to hold the executive branch accountable.
• Abrego Garcia’s wife and children were forced to go into hiding after the Department of Homeland Security published her home address on social media. They’re continuing to smear Abrego Garcia as a gang member, despite the lack of evidence. 
• For undisclosed reasons, the federal judge on Abrego Garcia’s case has halted the order requesting information on the administration’s efforts to return him.