This will be a repository of resources, information, and news as fast as we can keep up with the constant flow of changes and updates. If you know something that we don’t, and you think it’s important, email us at civicaction311@proton.me.
Government
“A Seattle lab has lost janitorial services, hazardous waste support, IT and building maintenance as it waits for the Commerce Department secretary to personally approve all contracts over $100,000.” Click image to go to article. Apr 11, 2025“In Yosemite National Park, where the hiring of seasonal employees was delayed by the Donald Trump administration, a resulting shortage of custodial workers now means the park’s scientists, rangers, IT workers and leadership team will pick up shifts cleaning campground bathrooms.” Click image to go to article. Apr 11, 2025“The state department is ordering staff to report colleagues for instances of “anti-Christian bias” during the Biden administration, part of Donald Trump’s aggressive push to reshape government policy on religious expression in his first months back in office.” Click image to go to article in The Guardian.Click image to go to WIRED article. May be paywalled.
HHS RIF running list: This is a running list of HHS offices eliminated entirely or reduced to the point of non-functionality. By Marisa Kabas
Chaos and confusion dominated the restructuring affecting thousands of workers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week. Click image to go to NPR article.Click image to go to article. May be paywalled.Phenomenal article about the lives and impacts of an FDA worker and a family she helped. Click image to go to article.Here’s a good explainer from Heather Cox Richardson about the CR and the politics around voting for/against it. Click image to go to website.BY MIKE STOBBE Updated 3:02 PM EDT, March 13, 2025. Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article. May be paywalled.Mar 5. Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article. May be paywalled.Click image to go to article. May be paywalled.Click image to go to article. May be paywalled.Click image to go to article. May be paywalled.Click image to go to articleClick image to go to post. Click here to go to Washington Post article referenced.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article. “It states that, aside from agencies involved in functions like law enforcement and immigration enforcement, executive branch departments will need hiring approval from an official working with Mr. Musk’s team.Each federal agency, with some exceptions, will be allowed to “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart” after a hiring freeze is lifted, according to Mr. Trump’s order. New career hires would have to be made in consultation with a “DOGE Team Lead,” the order stated. It also said that agencies should not fill career positions that Mr. Musk’s team deems unnecessary, unless an agency head — not a member of Mr. Musk’s initiative — decides that those positions should be filled.”
New York Times, Mar. 3. Click image to go to article.Click image to go to post.
Civil Rights
Speaking to these researchers, I could not help but think of what Rebecca Fielding-Miller, an associate professor of public health at the University of California, San Diego—who’dhad an NIH grant terminated, possibly for including “equity” in the title—told me when we spoke on Sunday: “The result is going to be the systematic removal of women and people of color from the act of research.” Click image to go to article. Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.
Click image to go to NPR article.Click image to go to Bluesky post, screenshot of email in thread.
Health and Science
The top vaccine regulator ousted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the health secretary’s team has sought nonexistent data to justify antivaccine narratives and pushed to water down regulation of unproven stem-cell treatments. Click image to go to Wall Street Journal article.When US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the restructuring of his sprawling agency last week, he pledged that the organization would elevate a new priority: “ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.” The CDC lost roughly 2,500 workers on Tuesday. In some cases, whole divisions and programs were wiped out. One of those was the Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch in the agency’s National Center for Environmental Health. “We no longer have lead experts,” said a person at the agency who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were not authorized to share the information. Click image to go to article.Of note and reported by STAT, all fired members were women, people of color, and/or researchers of minority health disparities. Click image to go to article.Mar. 5. Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click on image to go to article (may be paywalled).Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.
Economy/Finance
This action has big implications for Trump’s plan to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which is a bad idea. Click image to go to article.Click image to go to google doc.
Education
“Also on the chopping block is the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps struggling households pay for heating and cooling, the official said.” Click image to go to USA Today article.“The funding pause involves mostly grants from and contracts with the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services.” Click image to go to article. Apr 8“A resolution passed by the Rutgers University Senate in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on First Amendment rights is “exactly the kind of model” needed in higher education, said one professor on Sunday as word spread of the document—which was approved amid outcry over other universities’ capitulation to the White House’s attacks.” Mar. 31 Click to go to article.Click image to go to article, Apr 2.Click image to go to article.Like many autocrats before him, Donald Trump has launched what could be a devastating attack on universities. Click image to go to article.Mar. 4. Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to Inside Higher Ed article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.
Elections
Click image to go to article.Click to go to article. “Employees tasked with helping to secure elections from foreign threats and disinformation within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have been placed on administrative leave. The move puts the security and integrity of elections in the U.S. — especially at the state level, where local election officials rely on CISA resources to securely run elections — at risk.“
Labor
“It’s almost like when a bodybuilder is taking steroids,” Bessent explained. “Outside, it looks great. You’re muscular. Inside, you’re killing your vital organs. That’s what was going on here.” Click image to go to article.This decision has implications for the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board. Click image to go to article.By HASSAN ALI KANU, 03/28/2025 02:50 PM EDT Click image to go to article.Marsha Blackburn introduced a bill to bar federal workers from unionizing. Click image to go to bill.Mar. 4. Click image to go to article.Good news. Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click to go to article.
Immigration
Apr 15, 2025. “Trump told reporters last week that he “loved” the idea, after Bukele said his country was open to housing US prisoners.” Click image to go to article.“The agency’s chief privacy, financial and risk officers are also resigning, according to two people familiar with the matter and posts made by the individuals on LinkedIn.” Click image to go to article.Click to go to Zeteo post.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.Click image to go to article.
Corruption
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Before Trump took office, Elon Musk was under investigation by a number of federal entities. Two of the Inspectors General investigating Musk were fired by Trump: one at USAID and one at the Defense Dept.
Loyalty test questionnaire for potential employees in the Executive Branch. Click image to go to NY Times website.
International
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Privacy
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Activism
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Civic Action Hub of Maryland 