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The Paper Trail: March 4, 2025

Inside Trump’s Federal Worker Firings; Will DOGE Tackle $2 Trillion in Pentagon Waste?; Treasury Won’t Enforce Beneficial Owner Disclosure; and More.

Mar 04, 2025

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Top stories for March 4, 2025

Some agencies are still firing probationers while others have recalled theirs, following court ruling: On Friday and over the weekend, the departments of Commerce and Homeland Security moved forward with some firings of probationary employees, while the Department of Defense hit the brakes on planned dismissals. The National Science Foundation re-hired all of the 168 probationary employees it fired last month. (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

🔎 See Also: “Prelude to privatization:” Social Security confirms workforce reduction targets, continues to shutter offices (Erich Wagner, Government Executive)

🔎 See Also: Inside Trump’s federal worker firings (Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill)

Judge says Trump cannot fire head of independent watchdog agency: U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s ruling blocks the removal of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistleblower reports filed by government workers and protects federal employees from illegal workplace practices. The Trump administration indicated that it would swiftly appeal to the Supreme Court. (Derek Hawkins, Washington Post)

Senior USAID official ousted as he details problems providing lifesaving aid: Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health at USAID, was placed on leave after he disseminated a memo spelling out the impacts the foreign aid freeze would have on U.S. national security and global public health. The memo contradicts claims by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a functioning system is in place for exempting lifesaving assistance from the freeze. (John Hudson, Washington Post)

Read the memo (PDF)

🔎 See Also: The Trump administration said these aid programs saved lives. It canceled them anyway (Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, ProPublica)

Treasury ends enforcement of business ownership database meant to stop shell company formation: Treasury’s Financial Crimes and Enforcement Network said it won’t take enforcement actions against companies that don’t file beneficial ownership data with the agency. Supporters of the database warn that anonymous shell companies are a favorite tool of criminals, including drug traffickers, money launderers, and tax cheats. (Fatima Hussein, Associated Press)

House Democrats want information on Eric Adams’ dealings with DOJ: Reps. Jamie Raskin and Jasmine Crockett began an investigation into the DOJ’s request to drop federal criminal charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, accusing the department of covering up a quid pro quo agreement between the administration and the mayor. (Hailey Fuchs, Politico)

DOGE claims credit for killing contracts that were already dead: Even after DOGE deleted several large erroneous claims from its “wall of receipts” website, it had added new mistakes — claiming credit for canceling contracts that had actually ended under previous presidents. The mistakes call into question the team’s competence — whether its members understand the government well enough to cut it while avoiding catastrophe. (David A. Fahrenthold, Margot Sanger-Katz, and Jeremy Singer-Vine, New York Times)

Other DOGE News:

→ Where are federal jobs affected by DOGE cuts? A look at congressional districts across the U.S.

→ DOGE presses to check federal benefits payments against IRS tax records

→ Why those reports of DOGE using AI have experts worried about “massive risk”

→ How DOGE detonated a crisis at a highly sensitive nuclear weapons agency

→ The Trump administration may exclude government spending from GDP, obscuring the impact of DOGE cuts

Israel-Hamas War

Rubio bypasses Congress to send Israel $4 billion in arms: Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked “emergency authorities” to bypass Congress and send $4 billion in weapons to Israel, the second time in a month that the administration has skirted the process of congressional approval for sending arms to the country. (Edward Wong, New York Times)

Insurrection

U.S. Attorney Ed Martin demotes Jan. 6 case supervisors: Ed Martin, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, demoted senior supervisors involved in January 6 cases and assigned them to work in significantly reduced capacities. (Ben Penn and Suzanne Monyak, Bloomberg Law)

🔎 See Also: Top New York City FBI agent forced out after clash with Justice Dept. (Adam Goldman, William K. Rashbaum, and Devlin Barrett, New York Times)

Russia-Ukraine War

U.S. suspends offensive cyber operations against Russia, senior U.S. official says: The suspension is “a major blow,” the official said, because a pause on offensive cyber operations will make the U.S. more vulnerable to cyberattacks from Russia, which has a formidable cadre of hackers capable of disrupting critical infrastructure and collecting sensitive intelligence. (Jim Sciutto and Sean Lyngaas, CNN)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Analysis: Hey Elon: We found a place to cut more than $2 trillion in wasteful spending: DOGE has so far made strikingly few cuts at the Pentagon, whose bloated budget accounts for about 13% of federal spending. Potential cuts aren’t hard to find — here’s a road map for achieving as much as $2 trillion in savings over the next decade — but does DOGE have the courage to fight the DOD and its backers? (Nick Turse, The Intercept)

After review, VA scales back plans for contract cancellations: The VA scaled back cost-cutting plans within the department, announcing revised plans to still eliminate nearly 600 professional service contracts they insist will save $900 million without compromising support for veterans. Officials still haven’t provided a public list of what contracts are being ended. (Leo Shane III, Military Times)

Hegseth confirms report on Trump easing rules on military raids, airstrikes: The directive broadens the range of people who can be targeted in attacks and no longer solely focuses on striking senior leadership of terrorist organizations. (Ashleigh Fields, The Hill)

Hegseth returns Army base to Fort Benning in second naming reversal: The defense secretary first changed Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, but rather than recognizing Braxton Bragg, the Confederate general it was once named after, Hegseth said the change honors Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II veteran. Similarly, Fort Benning will now honor Cpl. Fred Benning, a World War I veteran, not Confederate general Henry Benning. (Noah Robertson, Military Times)

Business and Finance

FAA officials ordered staff to find funding for Elon Musk’s Starlink: Elon Musk’s satellite business Starlink may not have officially taken over Verizon’s $2.4 billion contract with the FAA to upgrade the U.S. air traffic communications system; however, on Friday, FAA officials ordered staff to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal. (Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng, Rolling Stone)

SEC turns a new leaf with flurry of crypto probe endings: Over the past three weeks, the SEC closed or paused a series of investigations into crypto firms including Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency platform in the U.S. Several crypto advocates are scattered throughout the Trump administration. (Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill)

🔎 See Also: Trump announces U.S. crypto reserve (Lauren Irwin, The Hill)

Commercials are still too loud, say “thousands” of recent FCC complaints: Complaints about the loudness of TV commercials “took a troubling jump” in 2024 according to the FCC, despite a law requiring TV stations, cable operators, and satellite providers, to ensure commercials don’t suddenly spike in volume. (Scharon Harding, Ars Technica)

Tech

Trump’s funding cuts threaten America’s AI competitiveness: The wave of layoffs pushed by the administration, combined with looming budget cuts, threatens the ability of the National Science Foundation to sustain AI research at the scale necessary for the U.S. to remain competitive. (Jackie Davalos, Bloomberg)

Infrastructure

EPA calls for watchdog to probe $20 billion climate fund: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin wants the agency inspector general to investigate possible conflicts of interest, waste, and fraud linked to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund — although he hasn’t yet provided evidence of any wrongdoing. Several grantees haven't been able to access the funds, which are held at Citibank. (Zack Colman, Politico)

Funding freeze leaves Kansas farmers unpaid for work they already completed: President Trump’s freeze on Inflation Reduction Act funding has tied up USDA funds and programs, leaving in limbo Kansas farmers looking to go green and save money. (Calen Moore, High Plains Public Radio)

Health Care

Federal officials underplaying measles vaccination, experts say: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the measles outbreak in West Texas was a “top priority,” but he hasn’t explicitly encouraged Americans to get vaccinated. (Teddy Rosenbluth, New York Times)

He fought claims of harm from infant formula. Now he regulates it: Kyle Diamantas, the new head of the FDA division that regulates infant formula, was recently a corporate lawyer defending a top formula maker from claims that its product harmed premature babies. (Christina Jewett, New York Times)

The plan to make America hazardous again: The EPA is advancing a proposal to strip the ability of states and local municipalities to require labels on pesticides, herbicides, and other commonly used agricultural applications. The proposal could also limit their ability to warn residents that an area has been recently sprayed with glyphosate, a commonly used herbicide that studies have linked with cancer. (Freddy Brewster, The Lever)

Biden said this plant was a health threat. Trump’s ready to drop a lawsuit against it: The DOJ’s decision to abandon its lawsuit against the Denka Performance Elastomer plant in Louisiana alarmed environmental and public health advocates. They warn that the plant’s continued operations could harm the health of thousands of residents. (Maxine Joselow and Amudalat Ajasa, Washington Post)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Pentagon orders up to 3,000 troops, Stryker combat vehicles to border

→ Trump seeks to fast-track deportations of hundreds of thousands

Other News:

→ Law360 database of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s implementation of executive orders and other initiatives

→ Bondi says she was misled on Epstein documents

→ As Musk consolidates power in the U.S., his mother is in demand overseas

→ FBI returns property seized during Mar-a-Lago raid to Trump

→ Trump made English the official language. What does it mean for the country?

Upcoming Events

📌 Nomination of Dan Bishop to be Deputy Director of OMB. Senate Committee on the Budget. Wednesday, March 5, 10:00 a.m., 608 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

📌 A Hearing with Sanctuary City Mayors. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Wednesday, March 5, 10:00 a.m., HVC-210.

📌 Nomination of Michael Faulkender to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. Senate Committee on Finance. Thursday, March 6, 10:00 a.m., 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

📌 Virtual Discussion: The Risks of Trump’s Politicization of the Military. Center for American Progress. Thursday, March 6, 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. ET.

📌 Holding the Line: Panel Discussion on the Future of U.S. Anti-Corruption Law. The George Washington University Law School. Wednesday, March 12, 2:30 p.m. ET.