Policies & Analysis

As part of its illegal firings across the federal government, the administration has tried to thwart public transparency laws.

As parts of its efforts to dismantle multiple agencies and engage in mass firings across the federal government, the Trump administration has fired scores of agency officials who process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It also tried to entirely close some FOIA offices, such as the CDC's FOIA office. FOIA enables the public to request any written information from the government, enabling the public to better understand how the government makes key decisions and approaches various issues affecting lives across America. Downsizing or closing these offices reduces government accountability and transparency.

The administration cited to various executive orders to impose vague and contradictory new requirements that could threaten existing grants designed to reduce teen pregnancy.

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program, established by Congress in 2010 and continuously funded for the last 15 years, relies on evidence-based policy to fund diverse organizations working to give adolescents, and the adults supporting them, the knowledge and tools needed to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and promote positive experiences, relationships, and environments in order to help youth thrive. But grantees who were approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in June 2023 for five-year projects to reduce teen pregnancy now face newly imposed requirements that programs must "align" with President Trump's anti-gender and anti-DEI executive orders, in direct conflict with the evidence-based principles on which the TPP Program was established.

This letter immediately ends the period previously authorized for schools to use funds that were allocated to address COVID challenges and recovery.

Schools around the country received significant funds to recover from COVID related challenges, per Congress's requirement. To support schools as they recover from COVID, the Biden-Harris administration extended the period of time that schools could use those funds. This letter cancels that extended period to use the funds, functionally withdrawing those funds from schools around the country. This immediately ends funds for tutoring, staff salaries, internet access and other services provided by local and state educational agencies. This places increased burdens on school leaders, harms the educational outcomes of students who depended on thus provided services and hinders the abilities of states and school districts to meet the increased needs of students post-pandemic.

The administration announced the firing of about 10,000 full-time HHS employees and the closure of dozens of agencies and regional offices that serve the American people.

On March 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a "dramatic restructuring" in line with President Trump and DOGE's priorities to gut the federal workforce and reduce access to critical services, ostensibly to "Make America Healthy Again." But these cuts would eliminate about 10,000 full-time jobs, shutter dozens of agencies, and close about half the number of regional offices within the department, severely hampering the department's ability to protect the health and welfare of the American people.

This order suspends security clearances and access to federal buildings for employees of WilmerHale and cancels government contracts with the firm.

Like other executive orders from March 2025, EO 14250 directed agencies to suspend law firm WilmerHale's security clearances, terminate federal contracts with the firm, block access to government buildings for the firm's employees, and discourage federal officials from interacting with WilmerHale employees. The EO cited the firm’s former affiliation with Robert Mueller and alleged that WilmerHale "employs lawyers who weaponize the prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process."

This order designates more than one million federal workers as excluded from the legal protections that govern federal employee union negotiations.

Citing narrow "national security" exemptions from labor laws governing the relationship between federal employee unions and the government, this sweeping Executive Order claims to exempt the majority of federal government employees from laws protecting their right to collectively bargain with their employers. A Fact Sheet issued by the White House in conjunction with this order makes clear that this is retaliation for the unions' challenges to the Trump Administration's lawlessness, including its attempts to force swaths of career civil servants out of their roles. The order exempts federal law enforcement unions, which historically have supported President Trump and his policies.

This order makes it harder to sponsor unaccompanied children by allowing disqualification based on sponsors' immigration status and sharing sponsors' immigration status with DHS.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) promulgated an interim final rule (IFR) rescinding part of the Biden Administration's Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule that prohibited (1) disqualifying potential sponsors of unaccompanied migrant children "based solely on their immigration status," and (2) collecting and sharing "information on immigration status of potential sponsors for law enforcement or immigration enforcement related purposes." The IFR in effect readopts a "memorandum of agreement" established between ORR, ICE, and CBP during the first Trump administration permitting such information sharing for immigration enforcement purposes. This new policy will deter people who are undocumented, including the extended family members of unaccompanied migrant children, from stepping forward to sponsor them for fear of being reported to ICE for deportation.

This order suspends security clearances and access to federal buildings for Jenner & Block employees and cancels government contracts with the firm.

Like similar Executive Orders from President Trump in March 2025 that targeted other private law firms, EO 14246 purported to restrict access to federal buildings for the more than 900 attorneys and staff of Jenner & Block; instructed federal agencies not to meet or engage with Jenner & Block personnel; ordered agencies to immediately take steps to suspend the active security clearances held by Jenner & Block's employees; directed termination of "any contract… for which Jenner has been hired to perform any service"; called the firm "partisan" and "discriminatory"; and questioned Jenner & Block's "values and priorities" because of its association with, or representation of, certain individuals. The EO mentions Andrew Weissmann by name multiple times, who previously worked in the Special Counsel's office that investigated Trump during his first term.

This order directs federal agencies to interpret and enforce federal laws in ways known to prevent eligible citizens from voting.

In this Executive Order, the President directs the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to require certain documents (such as a birth certificate or U.S. passport) as proof of U.S. citizenship for federal elections. It directs the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Elon Musk's DOGE to identify "unqualified" voters, and for certain other federal agencies to "assess" a voter's citizenship before providing a voter registration form to applicants for public assistance. The order also directs the Attorney General to enforce voting laws to limit states from using absentee or mail-in ballots and directs the EAC to condition federal funding to pressure states to adopt a uniform federal standard as to what constitutes a vote. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and as a result, noncitizen voting is nearly nonexistent. However, because most Americans don't have passports and many adult women don't have citizenship documents that match their name if they changed their name after marriage, this Executive Order would functionally deny many citizens their right to vote. Several parts of this order were preliminarily enjoined on April 24, 2025, in League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) v. Executive Office of the President, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

CDC attempted to claw back $11B in COVID funding intended for testing, vaccinations, and community health resources.

On March 24, 2025, the CDC terminated $11B in public health grants that funded COVID testing, vaccines, and other public health responses.

Wrongly claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic is now over, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services attempted to slash billions in research and healthcare funding overnight.

On March 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) abruptly cancelled over $11 billion in critical public health funding that supports identifying and addressing infectious diseases, ensuring access to immunizations, fortifying emergency preparedness, providing mental health and substance abuse services, and modernizing critical public health infrastructure. The next day, an HHS spokesperson justified the cuts by incorrectly stating that "the COVID-19 pandemic is over," despite the fact that the funding also supported essential projects unrelated to COVID-19.

This agreement details the U.S. government's plan to pay $4.76 million to El Salvador to jail people in a notorious prison that engages in torture.

This agreement pays the government of El Salvador to allow the United States to imprison people in its most notorious prison. The agreement is dated one week after the U.S. government renditioned over 200 men to El Salvador on unverified, and at times clearly false, accusations of involvement with the Tren de Aragua gang, and outlines the payment of $4.76 million to the government of El Salvador to imprison those men and potentially others. The agreement contains no terms prohibiting torture, cruel or unusual punishment, or punishment of any kind (immigration detention is civil and must be non-punitive), or obligating the government of El Salvador to provide necessary medical care or access to legal counsel or protect civil rights in any way. Instead, it includes only pro forma prohibitions on using the money for terrorism or corruption, and provides details on how the money will transit through various banks into the El Salvadoran treasury.