The Paper Trail: May 2, 2025

OPM to Continue DOGE’s Work as Musk Backs Away; The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm; Another Fighter Jet Falls Off the USS Harry S. Truman; And More.

The Paper Trail

Announcements

Making the Most of Your Resources: Working with Inspectors General: POGO’s virtual training on working with Inspectors General (IGs) will be Friday, May 9 at 12 noon. This event is only open to staff in Congress, GAO, and CRS. Register HERE.

Top stories for May 2, 2025

Analysis: Trump’s first 100 days of unchecked power: One hundred days into President Trump’s second term, we are seeing our constitutional system of checks and balances among the branches of government bend to the point of breaking under the weight of a willful disregard for the rule of law. The problem isn’t just that the guardrails are being destroyed: some guardrails have always been missing. (Danielle Brian, Project On Government Oversight)

Federal watchdog reveals dozens of inquiries into Trump’s withholding of funds: The GAO has opened 39 investigations to determine whether the president has illegally withheld at least $430 billion in congressionally approved funds. (Tony Romm, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Judge orders Trump officials to disburse funding for Radio Free Europe (Minho Kim, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Trump signs order to cut funding to PBS and NPR (Irie Sentner, Politico)

Connolly demands rescission of regulations reviving Schedule F: Though the rule is not yet finalized, information has begun to trickle out regarding how agencies plan to use the new job classification. The acting head of Social Security ordered the application of Schedule Policy/Career to entire agency subcomponents and offices, while the FEC named just four positions and the Defense Nuclear Safety Board briefly said that it would reclassify just one job. (Erich Wagner, Government Executive)

Judge: Trump’s national security reasoning for anti-union EO was “pretext for retaliation”: U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled that President Trump’s move to strip two-thirds of the federal workforce of their collective bargaining rights on national security grounds was “mere pretext” for retaliating against unions. (Erich Wagner, Government Executive)

Analysis: Nothing to see here: Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement that all federal regulations dealing with immigration and customs are now considered “foreign policy activities” will cut the public out of shaping regulations that have significant, widespread impacts on their lives. (David Janovsky and Janice Luong, Project On Government Oversight)

Fired DOJ attorney says on TikTok that Trump pardons cost $1 billion: Former pardon attorney Liz Oyer said that President Trump’s pardons of people convicted of white-collar crimes will cost Americans $1 billion in lost restitution. (Perry Stein and Beth Reinhard, Washington Post)

Trump-appointed federal judge rejects use of Alien Enemies Act in Venezuelan deportations: U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. rejected the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua. Rodriguez wrote that the administration’s use of the word “invasion” doesn’t match the historical use of the term. (Ryan J. Reilly, NBC News)

Analysis: Mass deportations will rely on authoritarian surveillance: The dangers that accompany unaccountable and unchecked surveillance are all available to Trump as his administration seeks to conduct immigration enforcement on an unprecedented scale. (Don Bell, The Constitution Project at POGO)

🔎 See Also: USPS law enforcement assists Trump mass deportation effort (Jacob Bogage and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: U.S. companies honed their surveillance tech in Israel. Now it’s coming home (Sophia Goodfriend, The Intercept)

At a Dubai conference, Trump’s conflicts take center stage: A $2 billion deal for a state-backed Emirati firm to use a Trump-affiliated digital coin was announced in a panel that included the president’s son and his business partner, the son of Trump administration official Steve Witkoff. Virtually every aspect of the deal poses a conflict of interest. (David Yaffe-Bellany, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Trump-aligned club for the ultra rich launches in Washington (Dasha Burns, Politico)

Elon Musk & DOGE

DOGE employees gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets: Two members of DOGE had accounts for at least two weeks on classified networks that hold highly guarded details about America’s nuclear weapons. The Department of Energy said these accounts “were never activated and have never been accessed,” and the DOGE employees’ presence on the network would not by itself be enough for them to gain access to that secret information. (Geoff Brumfiel and Jenna McLaughlin, NPR)

🔎 See Also: Appeals court upholds block on DOGE access to Social Security systems (Matt Bracken, FedScoop)

A DOGE aide involved in CFPB cuts owns stock prohibited by ethics laws: Gavin Kliger, a DOGE employee tasked with assisting in the downsizing of the CFPB, owns as much as $365,000 worth of stock in companies regulated by the agency, including Tesla. Experts say this could violate federal ethics laws. (Jake Pearson, Government Executive)

DOGE put a college student in charge of using AI to rewrite regulations: Christopher Sweet, a DOGE operative who has no government experience and has yet to complete his undergraduate degree, has been tasked with using AI to propose rewrites to HUD regulations. He was also given access to HUD’s data repository on public housing. (David Gilbert and Vittoria Elliott, Wired)

Other DOGE News:

→ DOGE targets U.S. foreign aid agency created under first Trump administration

→ Musk’s companies got billions from the government. Now he’s pulling up the ladder behind him

→ DOGE’s damage makes way for serious government reform

Signalgate

Waltz spotted using modified Signal app at Cabinet meeting: Newly ousted national security adviser Michael Waltz, who came under scrutiny for his usage of the messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive military operations, was photographed at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday appearing to use a modified Signal app to conduct official business with Cabinet members and other top administration officials. (Michael Birnbaum and Amy B Wang, Washington Post)

Pentagon inspector general expands investigation into Hegseth’s use of Signal: The Pentagon inspector general is expanding its probe into Defense Secretary Hegseth’s sharing of military plans on Signal chats to include the second Signal chat that included his wife and brother. The probe is focused in part on who took information from a government system for highly classified information and put it into Hegseth’s Signal app. (Nancy A. Youssef and Lindsay Wise, Wall Street Journal)

Russia-Ukraine War

U.S. announces deal to share Ukraine's mineral wealth: The U.S. will share future revenues from Ukraine’s mineral reserves under a deal announced on Wednesday that creates a joint investment fund between the countries. The White House didn’t provide details about the agreement, and it wasn’t clear what it means for the future of American military support for Ukraine. (Alan Rappeport et al., New York Times)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Service leaders laud quality-of-life improvements, but concerns linger: Military leaders see continued areas for additional improvements. At the top of the list are improvements to barracks and dorms, with better options and maintenance for troops’ living quarters, and family services. (Leo Shane III, Military Times)

🔎 See Also: “This is going to be a challenge”: Service officials detail fallout from civilian resignations pushed by Trump (Rebecca Kheel and Drew F. Lawrence, Military.com)

Jennifer Hegseth holds unorthodox role shaping Pentagon affairs: Some officials are concerned that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife Jennifer wields outsize influence over certain Pentagon operations. (Dan Lamothe, Washington Post)

Military sexual assault reports decreased 4% last fiscal year: But officials noted that sexual harassment reports rose slightly, and many victims remain reluctant to file formal complaints. (Leo Shane III, Military Times)

Hegseth cancels Pentagon program. It was signed into law by Trump: The defense secretary’s targeting of the Women, Peace and Security program is especially ironic since President Trump signed the program into law during his first term, and two members of Trump’s current Cabinet — Kristi Noem and Marco Rubio — backed the effort as members of Congress. (Eric Bazail-Eimil and Joe Gould, Politico)

Business and Finance

Trump’s auto tariff relief “helps Tesla a lot” — leaving other carmakers behind: President Trump’s latest adjustment to automobile tariffs were billed as relief for the Big Three automakers, but a leading analyst said that Elon Musk’s Tesla will benefit most. (Matt Sledge, The Intercept)

Workers overheated and died under Trump’s workplace safety nominee: David Keeling, President Trump’s nominee to head OSHA, is a former safety executive for companies that were repeatedly cited by the agency for worker illnesses and deaths caused by extreme heat. (Sam Pollak, The Lever)

“No appointments here”: A mad dash to get a Real ID ahead of the deadline: In 30 states, less than 70% of residents have a Real ID that will be required starting next week for domestic flights. (Michael Levenson, New York Times)

Tech

The tech companies fighting to sell your data: If the Trump administration continues to weaken the CFPB and Big Tech trade groups get their way, the sensitive data of millions of Americans — including Social Security numbers, home addresses, financial information, dating app usage, health metrics — will continue to be up for sale to nefarious actors. (Freddy Brewster, The Lever)

Health Care

Upheaval in Washington hinders campaign against bird flu: Experts say the campaign to curb bird flu on the nation’s farms has been slowed by an administration that is determined to cut costs, reduce the federal work force, and limit communications. (Apoorva Mandavilli, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: HHS orders lab studying deadly infectious diseases to stop research (Emily Mullin, Wired)

Kennedy issues demands for vaccine approvals that could affect fall COVID boosters: Health Secretary Kennedy’s plan to require all new vaccines to be tested against placebos and to develop new vaccines without using mRNA technology raises concerns about whether COVID boosters will be available in the fall. (Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times)

Federal report denounces gender treatments for adolescents: The HHS report declared that the use of hormonal and surgical treatments in young people with gender dysphoria lacked scientific evidence and could cause long-term harms, a stark reversal from previous agency recommendations and the advice of top medical groups. (Azeen Ghorayshi and Amy Harmon, New York Times)

U.S. delays hospital payments as Medicaid scrutiny intensifies: Unexpected delays in billions of dollars of supplemental Medicaid payments have forced hospitals in at least 10 states to cut costs by laying off staff and pausing payments to medical suppliers. (Dominique Mosbergen, Wall Street Journal)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Behind Trump’s deal to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s most feared prison

→ Haitian woman dies in ICE custody

→ First migrants charged with entering restricted military zone at border

→ A mother and father were deported. What happened to their toddler?

→ For one Texas county, arresting migrants made big money

→ New England Patriots’ charter plane flies to Guantanamo Bay

Other News:

→ Trump, brushing aside separation of church and state, establishes religious liberty commission

→ GOP lawmakers propose legislation scrapping auditor watchdog PCAOB

→ U.S. prosecutors accuse large insurers of paying kickbacks for private Medicare plans

→ Trump pardons Palm Beach Gardens tax cheat two weeks after judge sentenced him to prison

→ Common chemicals in plastic linked to over 350,000 deaths from heart disease

Because It’s Friday

Is Trump waging a war on dolls?: The comments from President Trump struck a chord with some parents, who acknowledge that children have more toys than they need or even want. Critics point out the irony of such remarks coming from an uber-wealthy celebrity with a personal brand built around luxury, excess, and conspicuous consumption. (Martine Powers, Washington Post)

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - VA Nursing Home Care: Opportunities Remain to Enhance Oversight of State Veterans Homes. GAO-25-108441 (PDF)

🔥📃 Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction: Quarterly Report to Congress. April 30, 2025 (PDF)

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

• Mike Waltz – United States Ambassador to the United Nations
• Philip Weinberg - Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller

Pardons & Commutations

• Paul Walczak