The Paper Trail: July 15, 2025

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The Paper Trail

Announcements

Applications are now open for a two-day intensive Boot Camp on the art and practice of oversight and investigations hosted by POGO, the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy, and The Lugar Center. This training is only open to staff in Congress. Apply at THIS LINK by July 21.

House staff and Members are invited to join the Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds next virtual Fireside Chat on July 24 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. EDT discussing practical do’s and don’ts for working with whistleblower constituents and oversight sources. House staff can register for the event through the Congressional Staff Academy website. For more information and to view speaker details, see the Office’s events page.

Top stories for July 15, 2025

Firings without explanation create culture of fear at Justice Dept., FBI: Scores of experienced DOJ and FBI staffers are opting to voluntarily leave the government to avoid being fired at random or asked to do things that would potentially violate their legal ethics. Their departures are worsening staff shortages. (Perry Stein, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit (Andrew Goudsward, Reuters)

🔎 See Also: Attorney General Bondi fired at least 20 officials with ties to Jack Smith investigation (Katherine Faulders and Alexander Mallin, ABC News)

Internal DOJ messages bolster claim that Trump judicial nominee spoke of defying court orders: A fired DOJ attorney provided Congress with a trove of emails and text messages to corroborate his claims that Trump judicial nominee and top DOJ official Emil Bove discussed defying court orders. (Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, Politico)

Gabbard’s team has sought spy agency data to enforce Trump’s agenda: A special team created by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is trying to gain access to emails and chat logs of the U.S. spy agencies, intending to use AI tools to ferret out efforts to undermine the administration’s agenda. Career intelligence officials are worried that Gabbard is allowing politics to taint the gathering and analysis of intelligence. (Ellen Nakashima, Warren P. Strobel, and Aaron Schaffer, Washington Post)

Supreme Court allows Trump administration to implement widespread Education Department layoffs: The Supreme Court yesterday allowed the Trump administration to move ahead with plans to carry out mass layoffs at the Department of Education. (Lawrence Hurley, NBC News)

State Department lays off 1,350 employees: Around 1,100 civil service employees will be impacted by the reduction in force, in addition to nearly 250 foreign service officers currently on domestic assignments. State said the total reduction would amount to “nearly 3,000 members of the workforce.” (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

High case numbers could snarl federal employees who appeal their removals: So far this year, the Merit Systems Protection Board has received 11,166 appeals, which is twice its typical workload. (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Analysis: Behind the new rule that’s the latest attack on public servants: A proposed rule allowing the government to evaluate the “suitability and fitness” of federal employees would strip employees of due process protections and allow the current and future administrations to further politicize the civil service. (Joe Spielberger, Project On Government Oversight)

New Senate report on Trump assassination attempt calls for more severe disciplinary action: The report found “multiple, unacceptable failures” in the Secret Service’s planning and response and criticized the agency for “insufficient accountability” following the attack. (Freddie Clayton, NBC News)

🔎 See Also: Secret Service commits to continued improvements one year after Trump assassination attempt (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Analysis: Congress must protect the GAO from executive overreach: GAO doesn’t exist to pander to whatever administration is in office at any given time. Its job is to inform Congress, with the goal of ensuring taxpayer dollars are being spent properly. It’s Congress’s job to defend the agency against the Trump administration’s attacks. (Janice Luong, Project On Government Oversight)

Elon Musk & DOGE

Facing painful cuts, the VA reported dubious savings to DOGE: The VA claimed credit for canceling contracts that had not been canceled, and tallied savings unrelated to DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts. DOGE was supposed to fact-check the VA’s dubious claims; instead, it amplified them via its online “Wall of Receipts.” (David A. Fahrenthold, Nicholas Nehamas, and Jeremy Singer-Vine, New York Times)

This is DOGE 2.0: The post-Elon Musk DOGE is still very much present and continuing its wholesale assault on federal agencies. But without flashy leadership, DOGE technologists are now quietly cycling in and out of federal agencies, spending days or weeks building products and cutting contracts. All of it is being done with little oversight. (Makena Kelly and Vittoria Elliott, Wired)

🔎 See Also: The fight between Musk acolytes and the White House for control of DOGE (Shalini Ramachandran, Scott Patterson, and Katherine Long, Wall Street Journal)

DOGE told regulator to “rubber stamp” nuclear: A DOGE representative in May told the chair and top staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to give “rubber stamp” approval to new reactors tested by the departments of Energy and Defense. The incident raised concern that the White House is trying to exert more control over the NRC’s historical function of ensuring commercial nuclear projects are safe. (Francisco “A.J.” Camacho and Peter Behr, Politico)

DOGE keeps gaining access to sensitive data. Now, it can cut off billions to farmers: A DOGE staffer recently got high-level access to a Department of Agriculture system that controls tens of billions of dollars in government payments and loans to farmers and ranchers. In addition to privacy concerns, there are concerns the administration will use the data in a way that could harm small farms owned and operated by people of color. (Jenna McLaughlin, NPR)

Weaponization of the Government

FBI launches criminal investigations of John Brennan, James Comey: The DOJ is investigating former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey for potential crimes related to the Trump–Russia probe, including allegedly making false statements to Congress. (Brooke Singman, Fox News)

🔎 See Also: Comey tracked by Secret Service after post critical of Trump (Michael S. Schmidt and Eileen Sullivan, New York Times)

Education Department announces investigation against George Mason over DEI: It’s the second civil rights investigation the Department of Education opened against George Mason University; the first is looking into allegations the university failed to protect Jewish students from a hostile environment. George Mason joins dozens of other universities on the Trump administration’s radar for alleged DEI practices and antisemitism on campus. (Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill)

🔎 See Also: George Mason is the latest university under fire from Trump. Its president fears an “orchestrated” campaign (Katherine Mangan, ProPublica)

Natural Disasters

FEMA didn’t answer thousands of calls from flood survivors, documents show: Two days after the Texas floods, FEMA struggled to answer calls from survivors because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers after their contracts expired. On July 7, FEMA fielded 16,419 calls and answered just 2,613, or around 16%. (Maxine Joselow, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Camp Mystic asked FEMA to remove buildings from government flood maps despite risk (Laura Sullivan, NPR)

🔎 See Also: California awaits disaster relief as GOP offers full support to Texas (Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Maeve Reston, and Marianna Sotomayor, Washington Post)

In flash flood hotspots, many federal meteorologist positions remain unfilled: In more than a third of the National Weather Service offices overseeing regions that are particularly vulnerable to flash floods, senior leadership roles, including chief meteorologist, are unfilled. (Hiroko Tabuchi and Mira Rojanasakul, New York Times)

Los Angeles weighs a disaster registry. Disability advocates warn against false assurances: Amid the increasing frequency of natural disasters, state and local governments have turned to disaster registries to prioritize help for vulnerable residents. But disability advocates see them as ineffective tools that give people a false sense of security. (Miranda Green, CBS News)

Middle East Conflicts

U.S. issues sanctions against a UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza: The State Department’s decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, follows an unsuccessful campaign to force her removal. (Farnoush Amiri, Associated Press)

Analysis: In Gaza, U.S. mercenaries advance Israeli war aims: The Trump administration has been virtually silent on the deployment to Gaza of U.S. contractors from opaque companies like UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions — first to help secure checkpoints in Gaza as part of a multinational consortium, and more recently to provide perimeter security for the U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation at aid centers, where over 500 civilians have been killed in the last month. (Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, The American Conservative)

Insurrection

Judge orders Jan. 6 rally organizer to pay $2K daily until compliance with subpoena: U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said January 6 rally organizer Caroline Wren’s “pattern of disregard and non-engagement” has unnecessarily delayed proceedings in a lawsuit brought by Capitol Police officers. Rudy Giuliani has also defied the court in the case, which has been pending for four years. (Ella Lee, The Hill)

Russia-Ukraine War

Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized pause on weapon shipments to Ukraine, sources say: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth didn’t inform the White House before he authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine two weeks ago. The pause was the second time this year that Hegseth decided to halt the flow of U.S. weapons to Ukraine, catching senior national security officials off guard. (Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen, CNN)

🔎 See Also: U.S. resumes sending some weapons to Ukraine after Pentagon pause (Tara Copp, PBS News)

🔎 See Also: Trump threatens 100% tariffs on Russian export buyers unless Ukraine peace deal is reached by September (Erin Doherty, CNBC)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Army major faced retaliation for advocacy on water contamination: An inspector general report found Maj. Amanda Feindt faced retaliation for sharing information with Congress about the Navy’s jet-fuel tainted tap water in Hawaii in 2021. (Todd South, Army Times)

Army updates misconduct investigations, will punish false accusations: The Army’s new rules, which include punishment for soldiers who file false or “frivolous” complaints, may complicate how soldiers make anonymous reports of misconduct. (Todd South, Army Times)

Army lacks accountability in D.C. air disaster, families say: The families of the Flight 5342 victims say the Army has shown a troubling pattern of avoiding responsibility and called for an independent investigation. (Alex Horton, Washington Post)

DOD may be missing out on millions due from companies for satellite launches, audit finds: The Pentagon is struggling to accurately bill commercial space companies for launches at government facilities and may be losing out on millions of dollars as a result, according to the GAO. (Matthew M. Burke, Stars and Stripes)

New aircraft carriers face years of delivery delays: Two new aircraft carriers will yet again experience delays in delivery due to material availability and supply chain issues. The delays are the latest setbacks in a decades-long struggle within the Navy to obtain new ships. (Zita Ballinger Fletcher, Navy Times)

Business and Finance

EEOC to consider some transgender discrimination cases after months-long pause: In a change from its previous stance, the EEOC will process complaints filed by transgender workers, although they will be subject to a heightened level of review. (Julian Mark, Washington Post)

T-Mobile follows orders from Trump FCC, ends DEI to get two mergers approved: T-Mobile isn’t the only carrier to end DEI policies in an attempt to gain FCC merger approval: The agency approved Verizon’s purchase of Frontier in May, one day after Verizon committed to end DEI policies. (Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica)

Student loan repayments are about to look very different: President Trump’s tax-and-spending law makes radical changes to the way Americans will pay for college and could make access to higher education more difficult. (Tara Siegel Bernard, New York Times)

Tech

Grok is the latest in a long line of chatbots to go full Nazi: Grok, the AI-chatbot created by Elon Musk’s xAI, was disabled last week after it began generating vile, bigoted, and antisemitic responses. This wasn’t the first time that AI chatbots have made antisemitic or racist remarks — in fact, it wasn’t even the first time Grok went off the rails. (Nikita Mazurov, The Intercept)

🔎 See Also: Defense Department to begin using Grok, Musk’s controversial AI model (Faiz Siddiqui, Washington Post)

AI “nudify” websites are raking in millions of dollars: Apps and websites allowing people to create nonconsensual nude images of women and girls have mushroomed, despite lawmakers and tech companies taking steps to limit them. Most of the sites rely on tech services from Google, Amazon, and Cloudflare. (Matt Burgess, Ars Technica)

Teachers union partners with Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI to launch AI-training academy: The rapid rise of AI has raised concerns about students using the technology to cheat or complete their assignments. Research has also shown that over-reliance on AI can reduce brain activity and cognitive functions. (Mary Cunningham, CBS News)

Health Care

Justice Dept. demands patient details from trans medicine providers: The DOJ issued subpoenas demanding confidential patient information from more than 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-related treatments to minors, a move seen as an attempt by the Trump administration to pierce powerful federal confidentiality protections. (Azeen Ghorayshi and Glenn Thrush, New York Times)

Kennedy cancels meeting of key preventive health panel: The health secretary abruptly canceled a meeting this week of a federal task force that helps determine which preventive health measures must be covered fully by insurance companies, raising concerns about the future of the nonpartisan panel. (Andrew Jacobs, New York Times)

Can female crash test dummies improve safety? A bipartisan group of senators push for equality in testing: Women are 73% more likely to suffer serious injuries in a crash than men and are 17% more likely to be killed. A group of senators is pushing for more diversity in crash test dummies, hoping it will help solve the problem. (Kris Van Cleave and Kathryn Krupnik, CBS News)

The surprise medical bills just keep coming: The No Surprises Act, which took effect in 2022, is supposed to protect people covered under group and individual health insurance plans from receiving surprise medical bills. Yet for some people those bills are still coming. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, Washington Post)

Even grave errors at rehab hospitals go unpenalized and undisclosed: Rehab hospitals that help people recover from major surgeries and injuries have become a highly lucrative slice of the health care business. But some facilities run by for-profit corporations have had serious incidents of patient harm and perform below average on key safety measures. Even when inspections find serious incidents, federal health officials don’t inform the public or impose fines. (Jordan Rau and Irena Hwang, New York Times)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings

→ ICE memo outlines plan to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens

→ Is ICE following rules for ID’ing itself in migrant arrests?

→ Judge blocks Trump’s order revoking birthright citizenship

→ More immigration judges are being fired amid Trump’s efforts to speed up deportations

→ Cuts to DHS watchdogs spark more questions as deportation efforts increase

→ Trump officials used shadowy website to target pro-Palestinian academics for deportation, court records show

→ Florida officials deny accusations of inhumane conditions at Alligator Alcatraz

Other News:

→ DOJ drops charges against Utah doctor accused of throwing away COVID vaccines, distributing fake vaccination cards

→ Social Security pulls field office staff to answer overwhelmed phone line

→ Trump threatens Brazil with tariffs in letter assailing prosecution of Bolsonaro

→ Fraud-fighting oversight committee gets a life extension in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”

→ Members of Congress investing in defense revealed

→ Congress scrutinized TransDigm 6 years ago. The CEO is now a major political donor

→ The CIA reveals more of its connections to Lee Harvey Oswald

On The Lighter Side

“It’s a heist”: Senator calls out Texas for trying to steal shuttle from Smithsonian: A congressional effort to remove the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian and place it on display in Texas is facing pushback, as Senator Dick Durbin questioned the expense of carrying out what he described as a theft. Furthermore, it’s unclear if Congress even has the right to remove the artifact from the Smithsonian’s collection. (Robert Pearlman, Ars Technica)

Upcoming Events

📌 Zoom Training: Advocacy & The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Chamberlain Network and CIVIC. Wednesday, July 16, 6:00 p.m. EDT.

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - Fraud Risk in Federal Programs: Continuing Threat from Organized Groups Since COVID-19. GAO-25-107508 (PDF)

🔥📃 Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft: Profits of War: Top Beneficiaries of Pentagon Spending, 2020 – 2024. July 8, 2025

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

• Nicholas Adams - Ambassador, Malaysia
• Eric Meyer - Ambassador, Sri Lanka
• Sean O’Neill - Ambassador, Thailand
• Julie Stufft - Ambassador, Kazakhstan