The Paper Trail: February 11, 2025

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The Paper Trail

Announcements

To kick off Valentines Day, the Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds will hold a pop-up tabling event in the Longworth Dunkin’ Donuts on February 13 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Stop by and meet the whole team, pick up their latest guides, and get your questions answered on how your office can work effectively with whistleblowers from the public or private sectors. Complimentary donuts and coffee will be available!

Top stories for February 7, 2025

Judge directs Trump administration to comply with order to unfreeze federal grants: Federal Judge John McConnell directed the Trump administration to abide by his previous order and “immediately” end any federal funding pause. Attorneys general in 22 states and Washington, D.C., sued the administration after it withheld funds appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act and funds intended for institutes and federal agencies. (Ella Lee, The Hill)

🔎 See Also: Judge temporarily blocks Trump cuts to medical research funding (Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Christina Jewett, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Farmers on the hook for millions after Trump freezes USDA funds (Daniel Wu, Gaya Gupta, and Anumita Kaur, Washington Post)

Trump fires top government ethics, whistleblower officials: President Trump yesterday fired Office of Government Ethics Director David Huitema, the federal government’s top ethics official. Late last week, Trump fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency charged with protecting federal employees’ rights and safeguarding the merit system. (Justin Doubleday, Federal News Network)

Judge extends restraining order to ban Trump admin buyout offer to federal workers: Federal Judge George O’Toole yesterday extended a temporary restraining order blocking the administration’s “Fork in the Road” offer to federal employees. Around 65,000 workers have accepted the offer. (Louis Casiano, Fox News)

🔎 See Also: OPM skirted agency norms in assessing the privacy of its new email system (Natalie Alms, Government Executive)

Trump White House says it can talk to Justice Dept. on criminal cases: The Trump administration’s rules for how White House staff can interact with the DOJ are a departure from Biden-era guidance, explicitly saying the president and vice president and their lawyers can discuss ongoing criminal and civil cases with the attorney general and her deputies. Legal experts say the guidance will erode guardrails that give the DOJ a degree of independence from the president. (Perry Stein and Jeff Stein, Washington Post)

Pam Bondi ends task force on Russian oligarchs to focus on cartels: Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded a task force established to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs, arguing that resources need to be shifted to focus on Mexican cartels and criminal activity along the southern border. (Peter Aitken, Newsweek)

🔎 See Also: Trump signs order pausing enforcement of foreign bribery ban (Eamon Javers and Dan Mangan, CNBC)

USAID watchdog warns of lack of oversight of $8.2 billion in unspent aid: The rapid dismantling of USAID has left oversight of $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid largely nonoperational, the agency’s inspector general warned. That includes the greatly reduced ability to ensure aid doesn’t fall into the hands of violent extremist groups. (Business Standard)

The Trump administration is restricting research funding through keywords: National Science Foundation staff have been comparing existing grants to a lengthy list of terms to establish whether the work being conducted violates executive orders eliminating DEI. Research proposals containing such terms as “gender,” “advocate,” “women,” “inequities,” and “racial” are getting flagged for extra scrutiny. (Philip Bump, Washington Post)

Trump purges inspectors general investigating Musk’s businesses: At least five of the IGs Trump fired last month came from agencies currently leading or that previously led investigations into Elon Musk’s businesses. (Katya Schwenk, Lucy Dean Stockton, and Veronica Riccobene, The Lever)

🔎 See Also: One agency tried to regulate SpaceX. Now its fate could be in Elon Musk’s hands (Heather Vogell, ProPublica)

Other DOGE News:

→ Trump’s declaration allows DOGE to skirt open records laws

→ Judge lets DOGE access sensitive records at Labor Department

→ DOGE-backed halt at CFPB comes amid Musk’s plans for “X” digital wallet

→ The elite lawyers working for DOGE include former Supreme Court clerks

→ DOGE teen was fired by cybersecurity firm for leaking company secrets

→ The now deleted tweets of DOGE staffer Gavin Kliger

Classified Documents

FBI must disclose more info about Trump classified docs case, judge rules: Judge Beryl Howell said Trump’s election as president — which forced the end of the criminal case — combined with the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity mean Trump is effectively insulated from any criminal responsibility for his conduct. That means the FBI’s reasons for refusing to disclose records related to the probe no longer apply, Howell wrote in a ruling in a FOIA lawsuit brought by journalist Jason Leopold. (Kyle Cheney, Politico)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Trump Air Force nominee arranged satellite contract in manner that favored Musk’s SpaceX: While serving as a senior official at the National Reconnaissance Office in 2021, Air Force secretary nominee Troy Meink may have improperly steered a multibillion-dollar contract toward Elon Musk’s company. (Joey Roulette, Marisa Taylor, and Aram Roston, Reuters)

VA deems over 130 occupations ineligible for deferred resignation plan: The occupations the VA deemed ineligible for the buyout offer range from laundry workers and cooks to nurses, pharmacists, and physicians. “The rules are changing day to day,” according to a VA nurse. (Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press)

$571 million in VA spending on suicide prevention isn’t working, vets groups say: Veteran advocates called on recently confirmed VA Secretary Doug Collins to investigate why the millions of dollars that the agency spends each year to prevent suicides has yet to significantly curtail the number of veterans who take their own lives. (Patty Nieberg and Jeff Schogol, Task & Purpose)

Business and Finance

Consumer protection agency neutralized by Trump’s new chief: The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was defanged by its acting chief Russell Vought, with all activities suspended, its upcoming funding facing a cut, and its headquarters temporarily closed. (Douglas Gillison, Reuters)

🔎 See Also: Dismantling the CFPB would turn the consumer finance world into the “wild, wild west,” its former director says (Lloyd Lee and Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, Business Insider)

Whole Foods says Trump’s actions make union win moot: Some see Whole Foods’ move to overturn the results of a union election at a Philadelphia store as a deliberate attempt to exploit the disruption the administration has caused at the National Labor Relations Board. Trump fired two members of the NLRB, leaving it without a quorum and unable to function. (Caroline O’Donovan, Washington Post)

Health Care

New version of bird flu infects Nevada dairy worker: The discovery of this new variant has raised concerns that dairy cows may be more susceptible to the bird flu virus, thereby increasing the risk of cow-to-human spread. (Lena H. Sun, Washington Post)

HIV infections could jump over 6 times if U.S. support is dropped and not replaced, UNAIDS chief says: The head of the U.N. AIDS agency said that the number of new HIV infections could jump more than six times by 2029 if U.S. support for the program is dropped, and that millions of people could die and more resistant strains of the disease could emerge. (Maria Cheng, Associated Press)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Trump orders thousands of IRS agents to be sent to the southern border to remove illegal migrants

→ Federal prisons to house ICE detainees as Trump furthers immigration crackdown

→ The U.S. held migrants at Guantanamo before. Is Trump’s approach different?

→ ICE wants to know if you’re posting negative things about it online

→ Texas National Guard deploying 300 soldiers to Laredo to help with immigration enforcement

Other News:

→ Trump met PGA Tour commissioner about Saudi golf league deal

→ Trump takes over the Kennedy Center

→ 2 Million baked goods are recalled over Listeria risk

Upcoming Events

📌 The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency. Wednesday, February 12, 10:00 a.m., 2247 Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 Nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer to serve as Secretary of Labor. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Wednesday, February 12, 10:00 a.m., G50 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

📌 Nomination of Linda McMahon to serve as Secretary of Education. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Thursday, February 13, 10:00 a.m., 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Nominations & Appointments

Appointments

• Jennifer S. Korn - Deputy Assistant to the President and Faith Director, White House Faith Office
• Jackson Lane - Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Faith Engagement/li>
• Paula White-Cain - Special Government Employee and Senior Advisor, White House Faith Office

Pardons & Commutations

• Rod Blagojevich