Newsletter

The Paper Trail: March 11, 2025

Layoffs Nearly Wipe Out Entire GSA Offices; Enola Gay a Victim of Anti-DEI Purge; Federal Officials' Financial Ties to Musk; and More.

Mar 11, 2025

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Announcements

Working with Whistleblowers on Oversight & Investigations: POGO’s virtual training on an introduction to oversight will be Friday, March 21 at 12 noon. This event is only open to staff in Congress, GAO, and CRS. Register HERE.

Top stories for March 11, 2025

Judge orders urgent release of DOGE records, citing ‘unprecedented’ power and ‘unusual secrecy’: U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said the vast and “unprecedented” authority of DOGE, combined with its “unusual secrecy” warrant the urgent release of its internal documents under the Freedom of Information Act. (Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, Politico)

‘Unlawful’ suspension of USAID funding likely violated Constitution, judge says: U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali ruled that the Trump administration likely violated separation of powers by withholding nearly $2 billion in Congress-approved foreign aid funds and must pay out USAID bills owed through Feb. 13. (Annie Gowen, Washington Post)

North Sea oil tanker fire still raging as U.S. probes causes: Authorities from the U.S., Portugal, and the UK are probing the collision between a cargo ship and an oil tanker transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military, which occurred off the eastern coast of England on Monday. (Noah Keate, Politico)

Several top career officials ousted at Justice Department: The DOJ ousted several top officials on Friday, including Jeffrey Ragsdale, the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Liz Oyer, the U.S. pardon attorney. The DOJ didn’t provide a reason explaining why it removed the officials, who are not legally allowed to be fired for political reasons. (Perry Stein et al., Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: DOJ drug, organized crime task force chief fired (Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill)

GSA continues slow drip of RIFs, nearly wiping out entire offices: The GSA is slowly moving through its organization to lay employees off en masse, leaving some of its offices with few or no workers. (Natalie Alms and Eric Katz, Government Executive)

These words are disappearing in the new Trump administration: As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” and DEI initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid. (Karen Yourish et al., New York Times)

Trump’s spy chief urged to declassify details of secret surveillance program: Civil liberties organizations are lobbying Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to follow through on a pledge to bring about new levels of oversight and transparency to the Section 702 program, a key surveillance program that’s long been plagued by reports of misuse. (Dell Cameron, Wired)

“People are going silent”: Fearing retribution, Trump critics muzzle themselves: More than six weeks into the Trump administration, there’s a chill spreading over political debate. People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies, and frightened for the safety of their families. (Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times)

Under Trump, Social Security resumes what it once called ‘clawback cruelty’: Last year, the government stopped cutting off people’s monthly Social Security benefits to claw back overpayments. Last week, under President Donald Trump, it reversed that change. (David Hilzenrath and Jodie Fleischer, KFF Health News)

USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks: States have been notified that they will not receive 2025 funding for schools and food banks to buy food from nearby farms. (Marcia Brown, Politico)

Trump administration eyes 30 percent payroll reduction at National Park Service: Managers were asked to put together plans to eliminate 30 percent of payroll, which could lead to long lines and diminished services during the summer vacation season. (Rachel Frazin, The Hill)

Elon Musk & DOGE

Musk's deep financial ties to top Feds revealed: Three senior OPM political appointees have deeper ties to Elon Musk’s businesses than previously known. Financial disclosure records show that the three officials — Amanda Scales, Riccardo Biasini, and Gavin Kliger — either hold large financial stakes in or are on a leave of absence from a Musk-owned company. (Nick Schwellenbach, Project On Government Oversight)

DOGE’s $1 spending card limit touches everything from military research to trash pickup: A freeze on purchase cards that agencies use to cover everything from dumpster pickups at national parks to liquid nitrogen for lifesaving military research is upending work across the government. (Hannah Natanson, Emily Davies, and Dan Lamothe, Washington Post)

Agency guidance on ‘five accomplishments’ email still inconsistent: Bureaus inside DHS are still reviewing past submissions from staff and have instructed their workers to hold off on sending more updates. (Eric Katz and David DiMolfetta, Government Executive)

Other DOGE News:

→ Federal judge rejects request to block DOGE staff from Treasury system

→ Turmoil within DOGE spills into public view as Musk’s group confronts a PR crisis

→ Former Social Security official describes hostile takeover by Musk team

→ Companies warn investors that DOGE’s federal cuts might hurt business

→ NIH faces renewed DOGE directive to cut staff, putting thousands in line for RIFs

→ NOAA set to fire 1,029 more employees

Insurrection

Justice Dept. says many Jan. 6 pardons extend to crimes after that date: Defendants who picked up more charges while being arrested for the Capitol riot argue that Trump’s pardon extends to those too. The Justice Department agrees in most cases. (Tom Jackman, Washington Post)

Russia-Ukraine War

U.S. arms exports to Europe triple, boosted by Ukraine aid: A new analysis found that U.S. arms exports to Europe have more than tripled on aid for Ukraine and as European countries boosted weapons buying in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Rudy Ruitenberg, Military Times)

🔎 See Also: Visualizing Ukraine’s military aid after the U.S. freeze (Maham Javaid, Amaya Verde, and Adam Taylor, Washington Post)

After Poland spat, Musk vows Ukraine can keep Starlink: Elon Musk vowed Sunday to maintain Ukraine's access to his Starlink satellite network, after a fierce online clash with Poland's outspoken foreign minister. (Yahoo)

Political Misbehavior

Tulsi Gabbard says she canceled security clearances for top Biden aides and officials who pursued cases against Trump: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revoked security clearances for top aides to former President Joe Biden and former intelligence personnel who called a 2020 effort to expose information from Hunter Biden's laptop "disinformation," and some who were involved in legal cases against President Trump. (Mark Strassmann, CBS News)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Chaos at the VA: Inside the DOGE cuts disrupting the veterans agency: Cuts at the VA have produced chaotic ripple effects: They have disrupted medical studies, forced some facilities to fire support staff, and created uncertainty amid the mass cancellation, and partial reinstatement, of hundreds of contracts targeted by DOGE. (Roni Caryn Rabin and Nicholas Nehamas, New York Times)

Army Corps knew Trump order would waste California water, memo shows: The Army Corps of Engineers colonel responsible for releasing water from two California reservoirs at President Trump’s direction in January knew that it was unlikely to reach the Los Angeles wildfires as Trump had promised. (Scott Dance and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post)

Military to remove “Enola Gay” photos for violating DEI rules: Images of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima are among photos the U.S military mistakenly flagged as DEI-related and targeted for removal. A picture from an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project was flagged seemingly because an engineer in the image had the last name “Gay.” (Shane Croucher, Newsweek)

Pentagon is placing probationary employees on leave in advance of mass firings: The terminations are expected within weeks under plans to fire nearly one-tenth of DOD’s 55,000 “probies.” (Meghann Myers, Government Executive)

U.S. Coast Guard Academy censors ‘climate change’ from its curriculum: The terminology will be stricken in classes for future officers in a service that confronts global warming every day, a move some say will weaken it. (Marianne Lavelle, Military Times)

Business and Finance

Automakers want to start banks, hoping to benefit from lighter-touch rules: Detroit’s Big Three automakers seek green light from FDIC to mix commerce with banking; GM’s former bank imploded during the financial crisis. (Andrew Ackerman, Washington Post)

White House cancels $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia: The administration announced on Friday that it had canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing the school’s failure to protect Jewish students from harassment during protests last year over the war in Gaza. The statement said that the cancellations represented the “first round of action” and that additional cancellations would follow. (Sharon Otterman and Liam Stack, New York Times)

🔎 See Also:Education Department says 60 universities under investigation for antisemitism(Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill)

🔎 See Also: State Dept. to use AI to revoke visas of foreign students who appear “pro-Hamas” (Marc Caputo, Axios)

🔎 See Also: Judge halts deportation of Palestinian activist whose arrest was celebrated by Trump (Amanda Freidman, Politico)

Tech

Trump’s call to scrap ‘horrible’ chip program spreads panic: As President Trump addressed Congress last week, he veered off script to attack a sensitive topic, the CHIPS Act, a bipartisan law aimed at making the United States less reliant on Asia for semiconductors. (Tripp Mickle and Ana Swanson, New York Times)

Trump administration halts funding for two cybersecurity efforts, including one for elections: The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has cut approximately $10 million in annual funding affecting two major initiatives: the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, involving election officials and voting system manufacturers, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, supporting state, local, and tribal governments. (Christina A. Cassidy, Associated Press)

Health Care

U.S. is headed toward a hospital bed shortage, researchers warn: Hospital admissions have remained 11 percent higher since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and that an aging population and dwindling number of hospital beds because of labor shortages and hospital closures could exacerbate the problem. (Erin Blakemore, Washington Post)

Two federal food safety panels get disbanded, worrying advocates: USDA quietly terminated the committees, whose work included studying pathogens linked to foodborne illnesses. (Emily Heil, Washington Post)

Trump eyes slashing ACA enrollment period: The Trump administration is proposing shortening the period in which people can enroll in Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans by one month and disallowing “Dreamers” from getting coverage through the program. (Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi, and Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech, The Hill)

Kennedy links measles outbreak to poor diet and health, citing fringe theories: In a sweeping interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, outlined a strategy for containing the measles outbreak in West Texas that strayed far from mainstream science, relying heavily on fringe theories about prevention and treatments. (Teddy Rosenbluth, New York Times)