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“Stand Up for Science was born in February 2025—in the wake of devastating cuts to federal research funding and infrastructure, unprecedented government censorship of scientific work, and targeted attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Supported by a team of over 100 volunteers, we hosted over 30 official Stand Up for Science rallies on March …
Ars Technica: “In another sign that the Trump White House is aggressively moving to slash NASA’s science programs, dozens of mission leaders have been asked to prepare “closeout” plans by the end of next week. The new directive came from NASA’s senior leadership on Monday, which is acting on behalf of the White House Office …
Follow-up to House Bill Would Lay Waste to Congress’s Watchdogs and Information Experts, again via Daniel Schuman, House Republicans Advance Plan to Halve GAO’s Funding: “Monday evening, House Legislative Branch appropriators voted 6 to 4 on party lines to cut GAO’s funding by 50% and reduce the Library of Congress’s funding by 12%. This would …
WHAT: Speak Up for Justice Forum, “Global Threats to the Justice System: A Warning to America.” A powerful, nonpartisan international forum where judges who’ve lived through authoritarian crackdowns will share urgent warnings about what happens when courts are attacked—and how it signals a broader collapse of democracy. Featuring rare remarks by U.S. Supreme Court Justice …
First Branch Forecast – “The House of Representatives is poised to inflict catastrophic damage on its own institutional capacity. Today, the House Appropriations Committee released its proposed funding levels for the Legislative Branch, which would slash the Government Accountability Office’s budget by 50 percent and the Library of Congress by 12 percent from FY 2024 …
Bloomberg – no paywall: “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prepare a memo on how to abolish itself and create a re-branded, radically smaller disaster response organization, according to a copy of the document reviewed by Bloomberg News. As recently as last week, President Donald Trump and Noem said …
The New York Times gift article: “The president’s top aides have signaled they may seize on a timing quirk in law to cancel enacted funds, setting up a clash over the power of the purse. The White House is signaling it may soon invoke a little-known and legally untested power to try to cancel billions …
The Alan Turing Institute and LEGO Foundation: “There is a growing body of research looking at the potential positive and negative impacts of generative AI and its associated risks. However, there is a lack of research that considers the potential impacts of these technologies on children, even though generative AI is already being deployed within …
YouTube: Donald Trump’s proposed FY 2026 budget for the National Park Service is nothing less than catastrophic. Among other measures, the budget proposes firing 5,500 more Park Rangers, reducing the agency’s budget by $1 billion, and selling off 350 of the Park System’s 433 Units. Defenders of Wildlife has called it an “extinction budget,” and …
CRS Legal Sidebar: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is primarily responsible for immigration enforcement in the interior of the United States. ICE has considerable authority to arrest and detain aliens identified for removal. While DHS’s immigration enforcement priorities may change over time depending on the …
Axios: “President Trump quietly took a red pen to much of the Biden administration’s in a little-noticed move late Friday. Why it matters: Until now, it has been unclear which Biden-era cybersecurity policies the Trump administration would keep — if any. Cybersecurity is a rare bipartisan area. It’s pretty common for new administrations to keep …
EFF: “New reporting has revealed that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is attempting to create the Intelligence Community’s Data Consortium–a centralized online marketplace where law enforcement and spy agencies can peruse and buy very personal digital data about you collected by data brokers. Not only is this a massive escalation of …
