The Paper Trail: May 9, 2025

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Top stories for May 9, 2025

Trump seeks to strip away legal tool key to civil rights enforcement: President Trump ordered federal agencies to curtail the use of “disparate-impact liability,” a core tenet used for decades to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by determining whether policies disproportionately disadvantage certain groups in areas including employment, housing, policing, and education. (Erica L. Green, New York Times)

Agencies with majority women and minority workforces are some of the hardest hit in Trump staff cuts, new report finds: A new report by the National Women’s Law Center argues that the president’s mass removals of federal employees are likely to disproportionately impact women and minorities. The report notes that the three departments with the highest percentages of female employees — VA, Education, and HHS — are slated to experience some of the largest workforce reductions. (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Judge orders halt to the shuttering of three independent agencies: U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. found the Trump administration violated the Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act, and federal spending laws when it downsized the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and the Minority Business Development Agency. (Erich Wagner, Government Executive)

Bipartisan House and Senate leaders urge White House to restore spending website: The top Republicans and Democrats on the congressional appropriations committees questioned the White House’s decision to take down a website intended to provide current information about where federal dollars are going to make sure that spending is in line with congressional directives. (Carl Hulse, New York Times)

Trump accelerates upgrades of air traffic control systems amid FAA departures: The administration is preparing to spend billions to fix America’s outdated and understaffed air traffic control system, but it will have to launch the plan under a FAA with decimated leadership and demoralized staff. (Ian Duncan et al., Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: FAA suspends work of independent panel reviewing air traffic control (Lori Aratani, Washington Post)

IRS reverses staffing gains made under Biden: The IRS has shed over 20,000 employees — more than 20% of its workforce — through the deferred resignation program. More significant cuts are still expected. (Eric Katz, Natalie Alms, and David DiMolfetta, Government Executive)

NOAA will stop updating database tracking costliest weather disasters: Federal scientists will no longer update a list of weather disasters that cause billions of dollars in damages, a list that has been growing dramatically in recent years due to extreme weather and increasing development. Existing disaster records, spanning from 1980 through 2024, will remain accessible. (Scott Dance, Washington Post)

DOGE at the Fed? Inside the $2.5 billion HQ upgrade that Elon Musk calls “an eyebrow raiser”: The Federal Reserve’s sweeping, multiyear upgrade of its Washington campus is aimed at updating infrastructure, reducing leasing costs, and improving operational efficiency. But what began as a $1.9 billion plan has ballooned to $2.5 billion. Critics also point to the fact that the Fed has been losing money in recent years. (Chris Matthews, Market Watch)

Elon Musk & DOGE

Elon Musk set to win big with Trump’s trillion-dollar Pentagon budget: The White House’s budget proposal will benefit SpaceX with huge new projects like the Golden Dome missile shield. At the same time, Trump’s budget blueprint will cut back NASA business for SpaceX competitors like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin. (Nick Turse, The Intercept)

U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show: Internal government communications don’t show that the Trump administration has explicitly demanded favors for Starlink in exchange for lower tariffs. But they show Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instructed department officials to push for regulatory approvals for the company as part of trade talks. (Jeff Stein and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post)

DOGE aims to pool federal data, putting personal information at risk: DOGE is racing to build a single centralized database with vast troves of personal information about millions of U.S. citizens and residents, an effort that raises fears of privacy and security risks. (Hannah Natanson, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: With its destruction of government data silos, DOGE is building a “surveillance weapon” (Vanessa Taylor, Gizmodo)

🔎 See Also: Trump’s Pentagon-personnel nominee wants to curb DOGE data access (Lauren C. Williams, Government Executive)

Other DOGE News:

→ DOGE aide who helped gut CFPB was warned about potential conflicts of interest

→ DOGE software engineer's computer infected by info-stealing malware

→ DOGE supercharges mass-layoff software, renames it to sound less dystopian

Weaponization of the Government

Agency moves to fire a judge who rejected a Trump directive: The EEOC is seeking to fire Karen Ortiz, an administrative judge who spoke out against a Trump administration directive for the agency to pause its discrimination investigations regarding transgender people. (Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times)

“They actually had a list”: ICE arrests workers involved in landmark labor rights case: An immigration raid carried out by federal agents in western New York last week targeted a group of immigrants involved in an effort to unionize farm workers. The company employing the immigrants denied having a role in the raid. (Noah Hurowitz, The Intercept)

USDA agrees to not freeze Maine nutrition funds over transgender athletes: The settlement doesn’t affect the Trump administration’s Title IX suit over Maine allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ and women’s sports or the Department of Education’s attempt to cut off all federal education funding for the state’s public schools. (Nate Raymond, Reuters)

Trump administration proposes terms for federal oversight of Columbia University: The administration told Columbia it can accept a proposed consent decree mandating viewpoint diversity among faculty and that the school not consider race in admissions, or lose federal funding during a long court battle that could end up with the same kind of agreement, but with worse terms. (Liz Essley Whyte and Douglas Belkin, Wall Street Journal)

Justice Dept. investigating NY attorney general who has targeted Trump: The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency alleges New York Attorney General Letitia James “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire government backed assistance and loans and more favorable loan terms.” James’s lawyer claims any errors by James — who has been the subject of Trump’s vitriol since at least 2018 — were paperwork mistakes. (Shayna Jacobs et al., Washington Post)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Hegseth memo sets swift timeline to get transgender troops out of military: Days after the Supreme Court allowed the administration to start enforcing a ban on transgender service members, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Pentagon to start removing transgender troops from the military in early June if they don’t exit voluntarily. (Filip Timotija, The Hill)

Order by Hegseth to cancel Ukraine weapons caught White House off guard: In early February, the secretary’s office ordered a temporary halt of military aid flights to Ukraine without notifying the White House. The cancelations cost TRANSCOM between $1.6 million and $2.2 million. (Erin Banco et al., Reuters)

Second U.S. Navy jet is lost at sea from Truman aircraft carrier: Another $60 million F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier has been lost in the Red Sea, the second jet lost from the carrier in just over a week. (Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis, and Zachary Cohen, CNN)

Osprey safety investigation stalls in Congress, angering Gold Star families: Congress’ probe into the safety of the V-22 Osprey following multiple deadly crashes has been stalled for nearly a year, angering Gold Star family members who lost loved ones aboard the aircraft. (Thomas Novelly and Konstantin Toropin, Military.com)

DOD should fix parent notifications about alleged child abuse, IG says: New rules requiring military child development center personnel to notify parents within 24 hours after learning of an abuse allegation don’t go far enough, according to a new IG report. (Karen Jowers, Military Times)

Business and Finance

Airlines are collecting your data and selling it to ICE: An aviation industry clearinghouse is collecting passenger information from billions of past and future flights — including flight itineraries, passenger names, and financial details — and selling it to immigration enforcers. (Katya Schwenk, The Lever)

Infrastructure

Land under the country’s largest cities is sinking. Here’s where — and why: The land underneath the largest cities in the U.S. is sinking, a phenomenon threatening buildings, roads, and rail lines. About 10% of the population live in the subsiding areas. (Kasha Patel and Naema Ahmed, Washington Post)

Health Care

How everyday beauty products could pose a toxic health threat: According to a new study, formaldehyde and preservatives that release the chemical over time are in a variety of personal care products marketed primarily to Black women, including lotion, body wash, conditioner, and face cream. (Amudalat Ajasa, Washington Post)

RFK Jr.’s vow of silence: Heath Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is ushering in a new era of secrecy at HHS. Internal emails reveal how the FDA has been working to suppress scientific communication to the public, making it harder for doctors, patients, journalists, and advocates to access public health guidance. (Helen Santoro, The Lever)

🔎 See Also: Sen. Ron Wyden seeks answers on RFK Jr.’s purge of FOIA staff (Rachana Pradhan, KFF Health News)

FDA chief downplays COVID boosters after suggesting no updated shots this season: FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary raised doubts about the need for COVID booster shots and questioned the success of past clinical trials, after earlier suggesting the shots might not be approved for next winter. (Nina Golgowski, HuffPost)

Kennedy announces new database for research into “root causes” of autism: After weeks of confusion about his plans for autism research, Health Secretary Kennedy said this week that the department would build a “real-world platform” that would allow researchers to hunt for causes of the disorder by examining insurance claims, electronic medical records, and wearable devices. The announcement failed to assuage those concerned about privacy violations. (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Federal agents are rounding up criminal defendants and deporting them before trial

→ Migrants are skipping medical care, fearing ICE

→ Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of legal status for 500,000 immigrants

→ Judge says Trump plan to send migrants to Libya would violate court order

→ Trump officials seek to bring first white Afrikaner refugees to U.S. next week

→ A "Trump Card Visa" is already showing up in immigration forms

→ From traffic stop to ICE custody: Georgia student now in limbo, family wants answers

Other News:

→ Even with DOGE cuts, the U.S. has spent $166 billion more than last year

→ Acting FEMA chief fired a day after breaking from the administration

→ Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden is fired by Trump

→ Trump administration releases first wave of acquisition regulation changes

→ Voice of America will carry One America News programming

→ 3 former Memphis police officers acquitted in fatal beating of Tyre Nichols

→ Stockholm reacts to Trump’s DEI ultimatum

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - Priority Open Recommendations: Environmental Protection Agency. GAO-25-108095 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Priority Open Recommendations: Small Business Administration. GAO-25-108048 (PDF)

🔥📃 National Women’s Law Center: Attacks on the Federal Workforce Target Women and People of Color. May 2025 (PDF)

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

• Zachary Bluestone - Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
• Joshua Divine - Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
• Whitney Hermandorfer - Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Maria Lanahan - Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
• Dr. Casey Means - Surgeon General of the United States
• Cristian Stevens - Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri

Appointments

• Jeanine Pirro - Interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia

Withdrawals

• Jennifer Locetta - Alternate U.S. Representative for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations
• Ed Martin - United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
• Cheryl Mason - Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection)
• Janette Nesheiwat - Surgeon General of the United States
• Brent Sadler - Administrator, U.S. Maritime Administration