The Paper Trail: May 16, 2025

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The Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds encourages House staff to become certified in the office’s Working With Whistleblowers Curriculum. Accessible through the Congressional Staff Academy, the curriculum teaches the fundamentals of working with whistleblowers from the public and private sectors.

Top stories for May 16, 2025

Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest in the Middle East are staggering: All of the countries involved in recent business deals announced by Eric Trump — Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — are key U.S. partners in the region. And President Trump will be meeting with the leaders of these countries this week during his Middle East trip. (Russ Choma, Mother Jones)

🔎 See Also: Syria offered to build Trump Tower in Damascus before presidents’ meeting (Timour Azhari and Humeyra Pamuk, Yahoo! News)

🔎 See Also: We still don’t know what FBI Director Kash Patel did as a consultant for Qatar (David Corn and Dan Friedman, Mother Jones)

🔎 See Also: Musk’s Saudi trip caps Gulf dealmaking spree (John Hyatt, Forbes)

Democrats question Hegseth on Trump’s Qatar jet security risks: Several Democratic senators questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over President Trump’s acceptance of a luxury Boeing 747-8 jet from Qatar, stressing ethics, national security, and counterintelligence concerns. GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Todd Young and Ted Cruz, also expressed discomfort about the transaction. (Sophia Vento, The Hill)

The Trump administration is staffing up parts of FAA, it’s also incentivizing thousands of departures and threatening layoffs: The administration launched new efforts to build up the government’s cadre of air traffic controllers, though it's continuing to shed staff in other parts of the FAA. There are concerns that reductions to support staff will continue to hamper agency capacity and passenger safety. (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

🔎 See Also: National Airport, Pentagon hotline had been disconnected for three years (Ian Duncan, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also Transportation Secretary changed his wife’s flight to avoid Newark airport (Matt Novak, Gizmodo)

FEMA head admits in internal meetings he doesn’t yet have a plan for hurricane season: David Richardson, the newly appointed head of FEMA, acknowledged in private meetings that, two weeks before the start of hurricane season, the agency still doesn’t have a fully formed disaster-response plan. (Scott Patterson, Tarini Parti, and Josh Dawsey, Wall Street Journal)

Gabbard fires leaders of intelligence group that wrote Venezuela assessment: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired the top two officials at the National Intelligence Council a week after the council wrote an assessment that contradicted President Trump’s rationale for deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process. (Warren P. Strobel, Washington Post)

CIA rejects diversity efforts once deemed as essential to its mission: After 9/11, the CIA’s leaders came to believe that having analysts from an array of backgrounds would lead to better conclusions and would better enable agents to work in foreign countries without being detected. But what was once a bipartisan priority is facing new pressure under the Trump administration. (Julian E. Barnes, New York Times)

HHS recalls some previously laid off worker safety employees: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health appears to be the first HHS component to issue large-scale reduction in force (RIF) rescissions. NIH has recalled employees on a limited basis, but each person brought back required additional staff to receive RIFs so the total impacted would remain unchanged. (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

“Intense culture of fear”: Behind the scenes as Trump destroys the EPA from within: EPA staffers are speaking out in the wake of staff cuts and the gutting of programs to remove lead from drinking water, support rural wastewater treatment, and address racial disparities in environmental pollution. “Americans are going to be less healthy. And frankly the EPA is going to be less efficient,” said an agency official. (Akela Lacy, The Intercept)

Analysis: Power grab at the Library of Congress: President Trump’s appointment of DOJ officials to replace the Library of Congress’s leadership encroaches on the legislative branch’s independence and power. (Faith Williams and Tim Stretton, Project On Government Oversight)

🔎 See Also: GOP leaders draw the line at Trump’s Library of Congress takeover (Katherine Tully-McManus, Politico)

End of pandemic inspector general’s office could hurt ongoing efforts to enforce accountability: The Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, charged with overseeing billions of dollars in federal funds spent in response to the COVID pandemic, closed at the end of March after Congress failed to reauthorize it. The office had dozens of pending investigations, raising the possibility that some fraudsters could escape punishment and some stolen funds may never be recovered. (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Federal contract employees who alleged discrimination forced to wait as enforcement agency is dismantled: As the administration downsizes the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, federal contractor employees who filed discrimination complaints with the agency are seeking updates on their cases. In some instances, staffers can’t inform them because the agency’s work is largely paused. Meanwhile, cases are piling up. (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Elon Musk & DOGE

Analysis: What’s wrong with DOGE? Its disregard for the law: When it comes to accessing data, cutting personnel and federal funds, dismantling agencies, and providing public access to its records, DOGE and those in its orbit demonstrate a disregard for the rule of law. (Faith Williams, Project On Government Oversight)

Inside the shadowy crew leading the government’s HR office: The top ranks of OPM include Elon Musk company and DOGE employees, a Project 2025 contributor, accused fraudsters, and the former head of a group accused of peddling lies about the 2020 election. Some OPM senior staff also have White House roles — undermining the office’s independence. (Nick Schwellenbach, Project On Government Oversight)

Musk adviser may make as much as $1 million a year while helping to dismantle agency that regulates Tesla and X: Chris Young is simultaneously working as a political adviser to Elon Musk while helping to dismantle the CFPB, the federal agency that regulates two of Musk's biggest companies. Ethics experts say Young’s dual role — working for a Musk company as well as DOGE — likely violates federal conflict-of-interest rules. (Jake Pearson, ProPublica)

The Trump administration leaned on African countries. The goal: Get business for Elon Musk: Since Trump’s inauguration, the State Department has intervened on behalf of Starlink in Gambia and at least four other developing nations. (Joshua Kaplan et al., ProPublica)

🔎 See Also: FCC threatens EchoStar licenses for spectrum that SpaceX wants to use (Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica)

🔎See Also: FCC commissioner writes op-ed titled, “It’s time for Trump to DOGE the FCC” (Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica)

Other DOGE News:

→ DOGE went looking for phone fraud at SSA — and found almost none

→ DOGE removes dozens of resurrected contracts from its list of savings

→ DOGE is falling spectacularly short of its target

→ White House considers plan B as DOGE cuts hit a wall on the Hill

Weaponization of the Government

DOJ "weaponization” group will shame individuals it can’t charge with crimes, new head says: Former interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin was named pardon attorney, associate deputy attorney general, and director of the DOJ’s “Weaponization Working Group.” Martin said he plans to “name” and “shame” individuals who launched past investigations into Trump and his allies but whom the DOJ can't charge with crimes. (Ryan J. Reilly, NBC News)

🔎 See Also: Ed Martin discloses he is subject of ethics probe (Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill)

20 states sue Trump over immigration demands and threats to cut funding: A coalition of 20 states filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration after it threatened to withhold billions in federal transportation, counterterrorism, and emergency preparedness funding unless the states followed its demands on immigration enforcement. State attorneys general have also sued over the administration’s threat to withhold federal funding unless they end DEI programs, as well as over tariffs and mass firings at federal agencies. (David W. Chen, New York Times)

Federal grand jury indicts Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan in ICE case: Judge Hannah Dugan was indicted on charges of helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest in her courtroom last month. Dugan faces a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $350,000 fine. (John Diedrich et al., Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

🔎 See Also: Violent threats against U.S. judges are skyrocketing online (David Gilbert, Wired)

Trump administration escalates Harvard feud with new Justice Dept. investigation: The administration opened a new front in its effort to force Harvard to overhaul its practices to align with the president’s political agenda, notifying the school that it’s investigating whether its admissions process was used to defraud the government. (Michael C. Bender and Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times)

Police Misconduct

Supreme Court broadens standard for unreasonable force claims against police: The Supreme Court made it easier to bring unreasonable force claims against police, ruling unanimously that courts should examine the circumstances beyond the split seconds when an officer fears for their safety when evaluating excessive force claims. (Ella Lee, The Hill)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

NDAs for VA employees working on staff reduction plans prompts House Dems probe: House Democrats are probing whether the VA is unlawfully preventing its employees from engaging with lawmakers and other oversight bodies, asking the VA about its requirement for employees working on the agency’s plan to slash its workforce to sign non-disclosure agreements. (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

Military adds gender dysphoria screening to troops’ annual physical amid transgender ban: The Pentagon will start screening troops for gender dysphoria during their annual physicals as part of the effort to kick transgender service members out of the military. Officials estimate 4,200 service members are affected by gender dysphoria. (Ellen Mitchell, The Hill)

U.S.-Saudi $142 billion defense deal sparks questions, few answers: The administration calls the deal with Saudi Arabia “the largest defense sales agreement in history.” But like the broader $600 billion economic deal that it’s part of, the defense agreement lacks specifics, and skeptics say the numbers don't add up. (Courttney McBride, Military.com)

Price tag for Trump’s military festival could reach $45 million: The military parade and festivities planned in Washington next month will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million and will involve dozens of warplanes, hundreds of Army vehicles, and thousands of soldiers from across the country sleeping in government office buildings. (Olivia George, Washington Post)

Space Force, states at odds over National Guard plans: The head of the U.S. Space Force is moving ahead with plans to pull talent from Air National Guard units to help build up the new military service, but several governors remain opposed and argue it tramples on their right to retain control over their state units. (Tara Copp, Military Times)

Business and Finance

Republicans aim to enshrine rental price-fixing: A provision in the budget reconciliation bill could kill crackdowns on real estate management company RealPage, which has been hit with a torrent of class action lawsuits accusing it of facilitating a price-fixing cartel among landlords. (Luke Goldstein and Katya Schwenk, The Lever)

SEC investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers: The investigation into Coinbase shows that federal enforcement efforts on the crypto world haven’t entirely ceased, even after the SEC largely disbanded its crypto unit. (David Yaffe-Bellany and Matthew Goldstein, New York Times)

Tech

CFPB quietly kills rule to shield Americans from data brokers: CFPB canceled plans to introduce new rules designed to limit the ability of data brokers to sell sensitive information about Americans, including financial data, credit history, and Social Security numbers. (Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra, Wired)

Meta battles an “epidemic of scams” as criminals flood Instagram and Facebook: Meta has become a cornerstone of the internet fraud economy. An analysis found 70% of newly active advertisers on Instagram and Facebook are promoting scams and illicit or low-quality products. (Jeff Horwitz and Angel Au-Yeung, Wall Street Journal)

The professors are using ChatGPT, and some students aren’t happy about it: Because ChatGPT and other generative AI tools make cheating easy, some schools ban them. Now students are complaining about instructors using these tools, calling out the hypocrisy and demanding tuition refunds. (Kashmir Hill, New York Times)

Health Care

FDA to issue new vaccine approval guidance amid questions over coronavirus shots: The FDA said a shift in vaccine testing will increase transparency, but medical experts fear the move could limit access to vaccines while sowing public distrust in immunizations. (Rachel Roubein, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: HHS to stop recommending routine COVID shots for children, pregnant women (Liz Essley Whyte, Wall Street Journal)

EPA will weaken rule curbing forever chemicals in drinking water: The EPA will rescind and reconsider Biden-era limits on four “forever chemicals,” hazardous chemicals linked to a range of serious illnesses. The agency plans to maintain current rules for two such chemicals, but it will extend the deadline for compliance from 2029 to 2031. (Amudalat Ajasa, Washington Post)

Wall Street gutted Steward Health Care. Patients paid the price: Steward Health Care, one of America’s biggest for-profit hospital operators, is bankrupt and responsible for countless mistreated patients. (Hannah Levintova and Melissa Lewis, Mother Jones)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Trump’s military buildup at the border expands

→ Judge dismisses “trespassing” charges promoted by Trump in border “defense area”

→ Migrant drug seizures by Border Patrol incredibly rare, data shows

→ How Trump is disappearing migrants

→ An agency tasked with protecting immigrant children is becoming an enforcement arm

→ Georgetown researcher released from ICE custody after judge’s order

→ Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova charged with smuggling as she fights deportation

Other News:

→ Multiple Trump White House officials have ties to antisemitic extremists

→ Political committees have spent $675K at Trump properties since Trump’s reelection

→ Trump-Kushner hotel project in Serbia hits a snag: alleged forgery

→ AG Pam Bondi sold millions in Trump Media stock the day Trump imposed vast tariffs

→ Buy, sell and hold. Despite calls for limitations, congressional stock trading rolls on

→ GAO reports that its unimplemented recommendations could save $100 billion

→ The surveillance machine, part 1: How we got here

→ The surveillance machine, part 2: No opt-out

→ Voters promised $100 by Musk PAC say they weren’t paid

→ Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal’s work

Upcoming Events

📌 Oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission. House Committee on Appropriations; Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. Tuesday, May 20, 10:00 a.m., 2362-A Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 Breach of Trust: Surveillance in Private Spaces. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation. Tuesday, May 20, 2:00 p.m., 2247 Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission. House Committee on Appropriations; Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. Wednesday, May 21, 10:00 a.m., 2358-A Rayburn House Office Building.

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - 2025 Annual Report: Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve an Additional One Hundred Billion Dollars or More in Future Financial Benefits. GAO-25-107604 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO -  Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Education | Department of Health and Human Services | Department of Labor | Department of the Interior

🔥📃 Public Citizen: Duplicitous Oligarch Grifting Endlessly: Elon Musk has a conflict of interest at more than 70 percent of agencies targeted by DOGE. May 8, 2025

Nominations & Appointments

Withdrawals

• Charlton Allen - Special Counsel, Office of the Special Counsel
• Michael Jensen - Assistant Secretary for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, Department of Defense
• Jonathan McKernan - Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau