The Paper Trail: March 25, 2025

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The Paper Trail

Top stories for March 25, 2025

The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans: About two hours before the U.S. bombed Houthi targets in Yemen earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accidentally texted sensitive information about the operation to The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Hegseth and other top administration officials including Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard discussed the operation over a Signal group chat that included Goldberg. (Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic)

Trump revokes security clearances for Biden, Harris, Clinton and more: A presidential memo rescinded the security clearances and access to classified information for a slew of erstwhile Trump opponents including Kamala Harris, Letitia James, Alexander Vindman, Liz Cheney, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and “any other member” of Biden’s family. (Shawn McCreesh, New York Times)

With new decree, Trump seeks to cow the legal profession: A presidential memo threatens to use government power to “seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation against the United States” or in matters that come before federal agencies. The memo identifies one particular lawyer by name: Marc Elias, who has long represented Democrats and played a role in the creation of the so-called Steele dossier. (Devlin Barrett, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Trump’s crackdown on top law firms spreads to Congress (Dasha Burns, Caitlin Oprysko, and Daniel Lippman, Politico)

House Dems cite “fundamental conflict” of Rubio’s acting appointments atop USAID and National Archives: Reps. Gerry Connolly and Gregory Meeks’ concern with Marco Rubio’s “triple hatted” appointment at the State Department, USAID, and NARA stems from a March 11 document destruction order to USAID employees. (Erich Wagner, Government Executive)

White House scraps public spending database: OMB took down its public website where approvals of federal funding provided in appropriations laws are statutorily required to be posted. Sources familiar with the decision said it was made because posting apportionments data might pose a risk to national security. (Paul M. Krawzak, Roll Call)

Trump fires nearly the entire civil rights branch of DHS: Nearly the entire DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was fired on Friday, gutting an office responsible for conducting oversight of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Another DHS oversight office, the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, was also closed. (Zolan Kanno-Youngs et al., New York Times)

Analysis: Where is Congress? Congress is at a crossroads. For decades, it has gradually been ceding its power to the executive branch. Now, Congress is faced with an administration that’s working to expand executive power at an unprecedented speed. (Caitlin MacNeal, Project On Government Oversight)

Analysis: A big step toward authoritarianism: The Trump administration has claimed the extraordinary power to arrest, detain, deport, and perhaps even disappear people who live in the U.S. without full information on who they are — let alone the due process guaranteed by our Constitution. The president’s flouting of a judicial review of this power ought to be a five-alarm fire. (David Janovsky and Sarah Turberville, The Constitution Project at POGO)

Killing grants that have saved lives: Trump’s cuts signal end to government work on terrorism prevention: Tens of millions of federal dollars slated for preventing terrorist attacks and mass shootings have been cut or are frozen pending review. Scholars of terrorism and white supremacist violence are concerned they won’t be able to continue tracking threats without running afoul of the administration’s DEI ban. (Hannah Allam, ProPublica)

Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down: The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts. In the field, office managers have to fill in as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. The agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experiences because that office was eliminated. And the phones keep ringing. (Lisa Rein and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Why DOGE is struggling to find fraud in Social Security (Todd C. Frankel and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post)

Tax revenue could drop by 10 percent amid turmoil at IRS: Senior tax officials are bracing for a sharp drop in the revenue collected this spring — upwards of $500 billion — due to agency’s downsizing. (Jacob Bogage, Washington Post)

New Trump demand to colleges: Name protesters — and their nationalities: The Education Department’s demand for the names and ethnicities of students suspected of harassing Jewish students or faculty followed a February 3 notice that the agency’s Office for Civil Rights planned to investigate five schools “where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported”: Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. (Laura Meckler, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Decades ago, Columbia refused to pay Trump $400 million (Matthew Haag and Katherine Rosman, New York Times)

Elon Musk & DOGE

Musk is positioned to profit off billions in new government contracts: At the Pentagon, NASA, Commerce, FAA, and FCC, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is positioning itself to get billions of dollars in new contracts or other federal support. (Eric Lipton, New York Times)

FBI launches task force targeting anti-Tesla “domestic terrorism”: The FBI announced on Monday the creation of a task force which will work in conjunction with ATF to crack down on the recent spate of violence and vandalism against Tesla vehicles and facilities. (Matthew Rehbein et al., CNN)

DOGE is wasting billions while calling it reform — taxpayers are the ones paying: The salaries and benefits for the thousands of federal employees put on administrative leave are still being paid — millions of dollars a month — with no work being done. Legal exposure for unlawful terminations could also cost the government untold sums in damages and attorney fees. (Deborah Grieser, Federal News Network)

Analysis: A new system won’t boost transparency — fix USASpending.gov: A recent executive order directing DOGE to create a centralized federal award payment system won’t improve federal spending transparency. Better oversight and data quality on USAspending.gov will. (Janice Luong, Project On Government Oversight)

Other DOGE News:

→ Judge bars DOGE access to sensitive personal information at 3 federal agencies

→ DOGE honing in on federal consulting contracts; wants waste identified

→ Job applications from federal workers surge 50% as staff targeted by DOGE run for the exits

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Trump and DOGE propel VA mental health system into turmoil: Therapy and other mental health services at VA facilities around the country have been thrown into turmoil amid the dramatic changes pushed by DOGE. (Ellen Barry, Nicholas Nehamas, and Roni Caryn Rabin, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Senate Democrats plan “shadow hearings” on controversial VA cuts (Leo Shane III, Military Times)

Boeing gets lifeline in Pentagon deal to build most expensive jet fighter ever: The Pentagon is entrusting its most expensive jet-fighter program in history to a company that hasn’t successfully launched a commercial or military aircraft in a decade and is trying to recover after a series of safety problems with its 737 MAX jet and a crippling labor strike. (Sharon Terlep, Wall Street Journal)

Business and Finance

Animal Farm: Eggflation’s monopoly problem: With the help of the Trump administration, agribusiness is working to eliminate state-level animal welfare regulations under the auspices of lowering egg prices. The federal government’s own data, however, indicates that those regulations aren’t contributing to the egg shortage or driving up costs. (Luke Goldstein, The Lever)

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr starts granting telecom lobby’s wish list: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, through his “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative, intends to get rid of as many “outdated” regulations as possible and ease infrastructure and disclosure requirements on telcos. (Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica)

Delete your DNA from 23andMe right now: Genetic information company 23andMe announced Sunday it’s headed to bankruptcy court. Unless you take action, there’s a risk your genetic information could end up in someone else’s hands and used in ways you never considered. (Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post)

Tech

Trump administration’s blockchain plan for USAID is a real head-scratcher: According to an internal State Department memo, the administration plans to rename USAID as US International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA) and bring it directly under the secretary of state. The memo also says the agency will “leverage blockchain technology” as part of its procurement process, although it’s not clear what this means. (Vittoria Elliott, Ars Technica)

Emboldened by Trump, AI companies lobby for fewer rules: During the Biden administration, technology leaders at the forefront of developing AI wanted Washington to regulate them. But since Trump’s election, Meta, Google, OpenAI, and other tech companies have changed their tune, demanding the government stay out of their way. (Cecilia Kang, New York Times)

Infrastructure

U.S. infrastructure improves, but cuts may imperil progress, report says: Increased federal spending in recent years has helped to improve U.S. ports, roads, parks, public transit, and levees. But that progress could stagnate if those investments, some of which were put on hold after President Trump took office, aren’t sustained. (Niraj Chokshi, New York Times)

Health Care

Health benefits company co-founded by Dr. Oz could be a conflict of interest: Mehmet Oz, the nominee to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, co-founded health benefits company ZorroRX with his son last year. As head of CMS, Oz would lead an agency that could directly influence how much money hospitals — and in turn companies like ZorroRX — make from the federal system. (Lauren Weber and Caitlin Gilbert, Washington Post)

Tribal health leaders say Medicaid cuts would decimate health programs: Advocates fear that Medicaid cuts would hit particularly hard health facilities that serve Native Americans. (Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez, Wisconsin Examiner)

FDA approved lab-grown blood vessel despite warnings: The FDA approved an artificial blood vessel to restore blood flow in patients, even though its own scientists flagged questionable study results and potentially fatal ruptures of the product. (Christina Jewett, New York Times)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Trump administration invokes state secrets privilege in deportation case

→ IRS nears deal with ICE to share addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants

→ Trump wants immigrants on U.S. soil to hand over social media accounts to apply for citizenship

→ “They are being treated like dogs”: Families concerned over living conditions at Krome Detention Center

Other News:

→ FEMA set for elimination, Noem says, amid bipartisan House reform proposal

→ U.S. Postal Service head DeJoy resigns

→ Sanctioned Trump attorney Alina Habba to be interim New Jersey U.S. Attorney

→ “Ludicrous” situation: Jeffrey Epstein case redaction takes over FBI’s New York office

→ Measles arrives in Kansas, spreads quickly in undervaccinated counties

→ White House invites a new guest to its Easter event: corporate sponsors

Upcoming Events

📌 Oversight Hearing National Transportation Safety Board. House Committee on Appropriations. Wednesday, March 26, 9:30 a.m., 2358-A Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 2025 Annual Worldwide Threats Assessment. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Wednesday, March 26, 10:00 a.m., 1100 Longworth House Office Building.

📌 NTSB Preliminary Report: The DCA Midair Collision. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation. Thursday, March 27, 10:00 a.m., 253 Russell Senate Office Building.

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - COVID-19 Relief: Improved Controls Needed for Referring Likely Fraud in SBA’s Pandemic Loan Programs. GAO-25-107267 (PDF)

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

• John Giordano - Ambassador, Namibia

Appointments

• Alina Habba - Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey