Yesterday, House and Senate appropriations comm. ranking members @murray.senate.gov & @delauro.house.gov sent a letter to OMB Dir. Russ Vought, demanding transparency for how taxpayer dollars are spent, including key “apportionment” data. They wrote: 🔗 full letter: punchbowl.news/2025-5-27-fy...

This is beyond terrifying www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

E. coli outbreak sickened more than 80 people, but details didn’t surface

Food safety inspections are being scaled back and the public was not notified after an investigation into E. coli contamination.

washingtonpost.com

95% of people believe federal civil servants should be hired based on their merit, not political loyalty. Let’s keep it that way. Submit feedback on the Trump administration’s newly proposed regulation - a rebranded version of Schedule F - and keep the civil service nonpartisan.

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

The American federal government is already incredibly politicized. Schedule F would make it much worse. "Although the U.S. civil service is about four times larger than the United Kingdom’s, for example, it has nearly 28 times as many political appointees" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

DOGE Was Bad. Schedule F Will Be Worse.

An executive order will convert 50,000 government employees into de facto political appointees who serve only at the president’s pleasure.

theatlantic.com

I'm up on @lawfaremedia.org today with an article on Trump's attempt to strip federal civil servants of labor protections on national security grounds.

Lawfare@lawfaremedia.org · last yr.

In March, President Trump signed an executive order which purports to bar federal workers from joining unions. @nicholashandler.bsky.social explains the legal challenges to this order and the stakes of the dispute. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/unpa...

Continuing its assault on Social Security, the Trump Admin is preparing to make ~10K SSA staff “Schedule Policy/Career" (was F), eliminating their civil service protections so they can be fired w/o cause. This politicizes nonpartisan jobs & risks abuse of power. 🧵 www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

Dudek calls for entire SSA offices to be converted to new Schedule F

The planned conversions, intended for federal workers in policy-related positions, affect employees making as little as $40,000 per year.

govexec.com

🧵: Trump Administration violating court orders Someone must have already started a 🧵 documenting Trump administration violations of court orders, but I haven't found it. If you know of such 🧵, please let me know. If not, here's the start of one.

Despite a court order, White House bars AP from Oval Office event

The Trump administration has turned a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press away from covering an Oval Office news conference involving President Donald Trump and El Salvador President N...

apnews.com

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

The diversity cube from OPM’s FedScope has been completely removed. Initially taken down from the FedScope home page, it is now completely gone. Researchers and other stakeholders following federal workforce trends need to gather what data still exists publicly asap.

This baby has participated in more notices of intent to offer a motion to discharge than like 99% of the House of Representatives.

ringwiss@ringwiss.bsky.social · last yr.

😳👍

Are you, or do you know, a recent or soon-to-be college grad who's interested in research and deep dives on Congress? @sarahbinder.bsky.social and I are hiring an RA to start this summer. More info here: careers-brookings.icims.com/jobs/3627/re...

I decided to start a #thread 🧵 of stories about legal residents and tourists being (illegally) arrested, detained and/or deported by the Trump regime. I'll only post stories from serious sources, as rumors and conspiracies are really not needed in this authoritarian moment.

A French researcher was detained on arrival in the US and his computer and phone were confiscated. Texts criticizing Trump's cuts to scientific research were deemed by DHS agents as "hatred of Trump …described as terrorism." He was deported.

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found

France’s research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searched

theguardian.com

*Musk pushed for removal of FAA head that regulates one of his businesses *Planes crash *Musk says he will help FAA *FAA ends up purchasing products from another of Musk's businesses

Jason Leopold@jasonleopold.bsky.social · last yr.

SCOOP: Elon Musk’s SpaceX is seeking to deploy Starlink satellite internet terminals to help accelerate an upgrade of the information technology networks that support the US Federal Aviation Administration’s national airspace system www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I have the text of the email. It says: "Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments. Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST."

Nick Bednar@nicholasbednar.bsky.social · last yr.

The resignation of a federal employee must be voluntary. I highly doubt failure to respond to this email---sent on a Saturday---would be understood by any court to be a voluntary resignation.

Hi folks: With @nicholasbednar.bsky.social, @lorenraeds.bsky.social & Don Kettl, I will be talking at an @appam.bsky.social about the attack on public employees and government programs, Thursday, 2/27, 12.30-2pm EST. Free registration. www.appam.org/events/webin...

Oh wow, what a crazy random happenstance.

Eric Lipton NYT@ericlipton.nytimes.com · last yr.

Justice Dept. to Drop Discrimination Case Against Elon Musk’s SpaceX www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/u...

Many saw the extension of OIRA review to independent regulatory agencies coming, but this EO does so much more... 🧵 www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

whitehouse.gov

New, from me: I talked with producers from Last Week Tonight about politicization of government, so was looking forward to seeing this episode. Its a good one, worth sharing. (Plus, what does the research say about politicization and government performance). donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-resea...

What research tells us about politicization and state capacity

Also, Last Week Tonight on Trump's government takeover

donmoynihan.substack.com

More of this: youtu.be/kDC-lmTwi9Q?...

Veteran speaks out after job at VA terminated in DOGE purge

YouTube video by CNN

youtu.be

This is immensely embarrassing. Sen. Grassley has been in Congress for *fifty years*. He is president pro tempore of the Senate. His *own Senate website* says "An often overlooked role of Congress is to ensure the laws it passes are faithfully executed." www.politico.com/live-updates...

Grassley on Musk's DOGE cuts: 'Congress can’t do anything except complain'

Chuck Grassley's comments signal Republicans aren't prepared to fight back against DOGE's crusade to slash government spending.

politico.com

Not even DOGE knows who is running DOGE (because apparently it's not Musk, at least not on paper). From @makenakelly.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/doge-e...

Not Even DOGE Employees Know Who's Legally Running DOGE

Despite all appearances, the White House insists that Elon Musk is not in charge of DOGE. US Doge Service employees can't get a straight answer about who is.

wired.com

I offer a longer and more detailed account of the new politicization in this open access piece @jpam-dc.bsky.social, which in turn was based on my presidential address at the annual @appam.bsky.social meeting. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Rescuing state capacity: Proceduralism, the new politicization, and public policy

The administrative capacity of a government matters enormously to public policy design and implementation. But it is usually taken for granted in public policy settings, a background variable left la...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New from me: The deferred resignation offer expires on Monday. An open letter from a federal employee as they decide their future, plus thoughts and insights about the damage being done from other public servants. Please read, and share. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-forced...

The Forced Fork and the Choice to Stay

Hearing from federal government employees as they make sense of their future

donmoynihan.substack.com

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

I just lost my job, along with most of my coworkers, due to the illegal grant freeze. I worked at an organization that -helped veterans who have lost a limb -Assisted elderly and disabled people -Helped hospitals better treat people who have lost limbs

GovWayback: access historical versions of U.S. government pages by replacing ".gov" in the URL with ".govwayback.com" https://govwayback.com/

www.courtwatch.news/p/lawsuits-r...

All The Federal Lawsuits Related to Trump Admin Executive Orders

We put them all in one place.

courtwatch.news