With a push from President Donald Trump, House Republicans sent a GOP budget blueprint to passage Tuesday, a step toward delivering his “big, beautiful bill†with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts despite a wall of opposition from Democrats and discomfort among Republicans.
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Passage of the budget package is just one step in a longer process
Trump wants the Republicans who control Congress to approve a massive bill that would , which he secured during his first term but are expiring later this year, while also across federal programs and services.
The next steps are long and cumbersome before anything can become law — weeks of committee hearings to draft the details and send the House version to the Senate, where . And more big votes are ahead, including an unrelated deal to prevent a government shutdown when federal funding expires March 14. Those talks are also underway.
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House GOP pushes ‘big’ budget resolution to passage, a crucial step toward delivering Trump’s agenda
With a push from , House Republicans sent to passage Tuesday, a step toward delivering his “big, beautiful bill†with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts despite a wall of and discomfort among Republicans.
had almost no votes to spare in his and was fighting on all fronts — against Democrats, uneasy rank-and-file Republicans and skeptical GOP senators — to advance the party’s signature legislative package. Trump was making calls to wayward GOP lawmakers and had invited Republicans to the White House.
The vote was 217-215, with all Democrats opposed, and the outcome was in jeopardy until the gavel.
“On a vote like this, you’re always going to have people you’re talking to all the way through the close of the vote,†Majority Leader Steve Scalise said before the roll call. “It’s that tight.â€
Democrats highlight the impact of DOGE’s job cuts on veterans working in the federal government
Nearly 6,000 veterans have been fired across the federal government, according to data from House Democrats. The analysis found that the Department of Government Efficiency has fired about 38,000 federal employees since the start of Trump’s term.
Democratic lawmakers have spoken out in speeches and taken to social media raising alarm about fired veterans in the workplace. Republicans frequently retort that the job cuts are a necessary part of the Trump administration’s push for efficiency. Veterans comprise about 30% of the federal workforce.
Trump to suspend the security clearances of lawyers who aided in his investigation
Trump has directed federal agencies to suspend the security clearances that belong to employees of the law firm Covington & Burling who provided pro bono services to Jack Smith, the U.S. attorney who as special counsel oversaw his criminal investigations.
“Deranged Jack Smith,†Trump said before the document signing in the Oval Office.
Trump asked if this could be done to other law firms as well. Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, responded: “We’re looking at sort of the whole panoply of options.â€
As a result of Smith’s investigation, Trump was indicted for the mishandling of classified documents and his role in the events leading to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Both cases were dismissed. The insurrection case was dismissed after Trump won the 2024 election.
Trump reinstates rule requiring cost transparency in health care
The order requires hospitals to post online the rates for some of their most common services, from MRI scans to caesarean section deliveries. Trump has long sought to address the secrecy that often surprises patients with treatment invoices.
The president calls the transparency requirement “one of the biggest things that can happen to reducing costs in health care.â€
Trump issued a similar rule during the last year of his first term in office, but President Joe Biden did little to enforce it.
Hospitals and insurers had strongly opposed the rule, and many had not complied.
“It’s been unpopular in some circles because people make less money,†Trump said during a signing event in the Oval Office. “But it’s great for the patient. It’s great for the people in our country.â€
___ Correction: Trump signed an executive order reiterating a previous rule from his first administration. A previous version of this post incorrectly called the newly signed requirement a rule, not an executive order and said that Biden had rescinded the original requirement during his term.
Trump wants to offer wealthy immigrants ‘gold cards’ for $5 million
Trump wants to offer wealthy immigrants “gold cards,†offering to sell them the possibility of citizenship for $5 million.
“We’re going to be selling a gold card,†Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship.â€
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested the program would begin in two weeks and replace the existing EB-5 immigrant investor program. He said the immigrants would be vetted and help to reduce the budget deficit.
Trump said he expects companies will pay to get educated workers into the U.S. with gold cards and that the country could sell one million cards. The president said the card would be a path to citizenship, but people would not be buying access to citizenship.
USAID gives staffers 15 minutes to retrieve belongings — no dynamite allowed
Administration officials are giving U.S. Agency for International Development staffers 15 minutes apiece later this week to retrieve belongings from their now-closed headquarters, under guard.
The Associated Press viewed the notices sent Tuesday advising of the arrangements.
Many staffers in the agency’s Washington main building have been barred from entering for about three weeks as the administration dismantles the building. Many have asked permission to retrieve family photos, work shoes stashed in drawers and other belongings.
The notice stipulates the aid workers must pass through security screening. It lists multiple paragraphs of prohibited weapons for the trip back to the office, including firearms, dynamite, spear guns or ice picks.
Trump administration to cut federal housing agency’s frontline staff
The cuts target the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s employees who help officials and citizens navigate government housing programs, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press, and are some of the first in the Trump administration’s plan to slash the department’s workforce in half.
The affected office, Field Policy and Management, is slated to lose at least 145 — roughly 40% — of its employees by May 18, said Antonio Gaines, president of a labor union representing HUD workers. A memo from HUD Secretary Scott Turner dated Monday stated that all of the office’s positions at a certain paygrade and below “are being abolished.
The office’s employees include those handling communication at the department’s offices across the country, fielding calls from people facing eviction to mayors and congresspeople seeking help navigating grant applications. They also are in charge of communicating the administration’s agenda to local officials.
“These cuts could actually create the inverse, creating more of a bureaucracy, creating a greater delay of services and responding to inquiries,†Gaines said. HUD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congressional DOGE Caucus suggests fired veterans can find new jobs
Members of the Congressional DOGE Caucus spoke at a press conference outside the Capitol about how they are working in Congress to enshrine the changes spearheaded by Trump and Elon Musk.
When asked about federal employees who had been fired, Rep. Ralph Norman said, “Why are they not pleading their case?â€
The South Carolina Republican said the fired employees needed to justify why they deserve a job with an average salary that tops $100,000.
And veterans? “Our heart aches,†for anyone who loses their job, said Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., the caucus co-chair.
“There are other opportunities, and if anybody can overcome obstacles getting another job, it’s veterans,†Bean said.
As the lawmakers took turns at the podium, a small group of protesters and passersby interrupted, yelling insults about DOGE and Musk.
Senate Republican leader defends Musk’s efforts as a ‘scrub’ of federal government
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is defending the Trump administration’s slashing of federal workers and programs as a long-needed “scrub†of the federal government, even as he acknowledged that it was impacting GOP senators’ home states.
“I think we all understand that this government, the federal government, is long in need of the kind of scrub that is being done to figure out how we can do things better,†the Republican from South Dakota said at the Capitol, adding that senators would make the Trump administration aware if programs, such as those that impact health and safety, are at risk.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Trump administration’s moves as haphazard.
“They’re just using a meat axe and cutting everything, including many things American families need, want and approve of,†the senator from New York said.
Social Security Administration dissolves its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity
The Social Security Administration announced that it dissolved its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, and its employees will be put on administrative leave as of Tuesday, according to an agency statement.
Lee Dudek, Social Security’s acting commissioner, said terminating the civil rights office “advances the President’s goal to make all of government more efficient in serving the American public.â€
The agency’s Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity is responsible for planning and implementing programs designed to ensure equal opportunity in employment for all employees regardless of race, color, national origin, etc., according to its webpage.
SSA says it will transfer responsibility for processing civil rights complaints and reasonable accommodation requests to other agency offices “to ensure compliance with existing legal authorities.â€
Democratic leader Jeffries vows to bury House GOP budget
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared that House Democrats would “not provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget.â€
Surrounded by colleagues on the steps of the Capitol, Jeffries said that by voting against Republicans’ agenda, Democrats were standing with the American people and would push back on the Republican budget “until it is buried deep in the ground, never to rise again.â€
Decrying potential cuts to Medicaid, veterans benefits, and nutritional assistance, Jeffries called the legislation a “matter of life and death.â€
White House press secreta
ry shares ‘5 tasks that I completed last week’
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management shared the list of five things accomplished last week by Karoline Leavitt, who argued the task was so easy “that even the busy White House @PressSec found time to do it!â€
A shared screenshot of the email lists a press briefing, a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, accompanying Trump to his Saturday speech at the same conservative gathering and giving interviews on Fox News and other news outlets.
Leavitt’s email says the list of everything she completed “is much longer,†and that it took two minutes to draft.
“I am so grateful to have a job and work hard on behalf of the American taxpayers, who fund my salary,†the email reads.
Leavitt is one of three administration officials who face a on first- and fifth-amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Department of Veterans Affairs announced another 1,400 dismissals
The firings were in what the department called “non-mission critical positions.â€
The dismissals, announced Monday evening and part of the White House cost-cutting efforts, follow a first round of 1,000 VA layoffs announced Feb.13.
Those let go are probationary employees who’ve served less than two years and could include “DEI-related positions,†according to the VA announcement.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Senate VA committee, said Tuesday the dismissals will damage the VA’s ability to recruit and retain doctors and nurses.
Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, called on Republicans to help push back against the cuts.
Federal judge blocks Trump’s effort to halt the refugee admissions system
A federal judge in Seattle blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to halt the nation’s refugee admissions system Tuesday.
The ruling came in a lawsuit who argued that Trump’s executive order suspending the federal refugee resettlement program ran afoul of the system Congress created for moving refugees into the U.S.
Lawyers for the administration argued that Trump’s order was well within his authority to deny entry to foreigners whose admission to the U.S. “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.â€
The aid groups said their ability to provide critical services to refugees — including those already in the U.S. — has been severely inhibited by Trump’s order.
Some refugees who had been approved to come to the U.S. had their on short notice, and families who have waited years to reunite have had to remain apart, the lawsuit said.
said the refugee program — a form of legal migration to the U.S. — would be suspended because cities and communities had been taxed by “record levels of migration†and didn’t have the ability to “absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees.â€
The federal refugee program has been in place for decades and helps people who have escaped war, natural disaster or persecution.
Judge gives the White House less than two days to release billions in foreign aid
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali said Tuesday that the administration had given no sign of complying with his to ease its funding freeze.
Ali ruled in a federal lawsuit filed by nonprofit organizations over the cutoff of foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department.
The cutoff followed a Jan. 20 executive order by Trump targeting what he portrayed as wasteful programs that do not correspond to his foreign policy goals.
Nonprofit groups who receive federal grant money for work abroad said the freeze breaks federal law and has shut down funding for even the most urgent life-saving programs abroad. USAID and State partners say the administration has stiffed them on billions of dollars in money already owed.
It’s the second time a judge has found the Trump administration did not follow a court order. A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled this month that the administration had not fully unfrozen federal grants and loans within the U.S., even after he blocked sweeping plans for a pause on trillions of dollars in government spending.
How many workers have responded to Musk’s call to list their accomplishments?
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that more than 1 million federal workers had responded to Elon Musk’s request for a list of five things they accomplished the previous week.
That’s less than half of the total government workforce.
Musk had originally said employees would be fired if they didn’t comply, although the Office of Personnel Management later said it was voluntary.
White House abandons the way news organizations have long covered the presidency
“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,†White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing from the press room Tuesday. For decades, that responsibility had been held by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
The action stems from developments in a , a challenge to the White House’s banning of the news organization from Oval Office briefings and from the wire-service seat on Air Force One.
“We will add outlets to the print pool rotation who have long been denied,†Leavitt said, and continue to rotate a radio pool reporter and local hosts “who serve as the heartbeat of the country.†Leavitt promised reporters would be able to “ask substantive questions of the president of the United States.â€
“This administration is shaking up Washington in more ways than one,†she added. “A select group of DC-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.â€
Senate confirms Dan Driscoll as Army secretary, putting an Iraq War vet at the helm
Driscoll, 38, of North Carolina, had served as an adviser to Vice President JD Vance, whom he met when both were attending Yale Law School. He served in the Army for less than four years and left at the rank of first lieutenant.
During his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, Driscoll noted that his father and grandfather served in the Army and he vowed to be a secretary focused on the needs of soldiers.
“We are a family that is grateful to have had the privilege of wearing the uniform of the United States Army,†he said during the hearing. “We are a family that understands the gravity of leading soldiers in and out of combat.â€
Driscoll, who was confirmed in a 66-28 vote Tuesday, takes over an Army that has been moving steadily to through a sweeping overhaul of its programs and staffing, while also revamping and modernizing its weapons systems.
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Fired VA cybersecurity leader warns of potential for compromised data
Actions taken by the Department of Government Efficiency could cause sensitive Veterans Affairs financial and health data to be compromised, warned Jonathan Kamens, who used to lead cybersecurity for the VA’s flagship website
“Given how the government has been functioning for the last month, I don’t think the people at VA ... are going to be able to replace me,†Kamens told The Associated Press. “The security posture of the site is going to degrade. And eventually I think there will be a security incident resulting from the lack of adequate security oversight.â€
Kamens oversaw cybersecurity for and was fired this month. He said he’s concerned DOGE could start “digging around inside private VA databases that contain people’s private information.â€
“I don’t think they should have access,†Kamens said. “These are people who have never been background-checked.â€
Johnson isn’t sure he has enough votes to pass what Trump calls a ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill
“There may be a vote tonight, there may not be,†House Speaker Mike Johnson said at the Capitol.
With an extremely slim House majority, the speaker can only afford to lose about a single vote in the face of stiff Democratic opposition.
Votes are set for the evening, but at a morning meeting Johnson was hearing it from all sides – uneasy GOP lawmakers worried about steep cuts and budget hawks who want even more reductions to reduce the nation’s debt load.
“We’re working right now to get everybody on board,†Johnson said. “Everybody wants to be on this train, and not in front of it.â€
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is dismissive of the mass DOGE resignations
“Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years,†Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump will not be deterred from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers.â€
The head of the IRS is resigning
IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell will retire from the agency after roughly 40 years of service, according to a person familiar with his plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to lack to authorization. His last day is Friday.
O’Donnell will be replaced by Melanie Krause — who has worked at the IRS since 2021, having come from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, according to her LinkedIn account.
In January, former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel though his term was not scheduled to end until 2027.
The turnover of officials at the IRS comes as the agency has laid off with one year or less of service at the agency and largely includes workers in the compliance department. The cuts are one of the largest purges of probationary workers this year across the government.
O’Donnell’s resignation also comes as furor spread last week over Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was said to gain access to IRS taxpayer data, though the person said Treasury and the White House have agreed to restrict DOGE access to sensitive data at the IRS.
— By Fatima Hussein
Trump greets the first official White House tour of the year
The president stood behind a roped-off area in a White House hallway Tuesday, saying, “I heard you were here and I said, ‘Let’s stop by and say hello.’â€
He also called the visitors “a very smart-looking group of people.â€
“Maybe you’ll be here some day as president,†Trump said. “Somebody in this group has a chance.â€
The crowd chanted, “USA, USA,†as Trump turned to depart.
Johnson tries to push Trump’s ‘big’ agenda forward, but GOP votes are in jeopardy
The House speaker will try against the odds to muscle to passage this week, a step toward delivering Trump’s “big, beautiful bill†with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts over stiff — and even some Republicans.
With almost no votes to spare in Johnson’s , the speaker is fighting on all fronts — against Democrats, uneasy rank-and-file Republicans and skeptical GOP senators — as he works to keep the package on track. Votes set for Tuesday evening are in jeopardy, and the outcome is uncertain.
The package, if approved, would be a crucial part of the budget process as Trump pushes the Republicans who control Congress to approve a massive bill that would , which he secured during his first term but are expiring later this year, while also across federal programs and services.
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Apple shareholders reject a
proposal to scrap the company’s diversity programs
The shareholder vote rebuffed an attempt to pressure the technology trendsetter into joining President Trump’s push to scrub corporate programs designed to diversify its workforce.
The drafted by the ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ Center for Public Policy Research — — urged Apple to follow that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives currently in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
After a brief presentation about the anti-DEI proposal, Apple announced shareholders had rejected it without disclosing the vote tally. The preliminary results will be outlined in a regulatory later Tuesday.
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Speaker Mike Johnson doubles down on DOGE cuts to government
House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the town hall attacks against GOP lawmakers this past week as coordinated complaints by those opposed to President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The Republican says he’s excited that Musk is able to step in for Congress to slash government.
“You ought to be standing up and applauding,†Johnson said at his weekly press conference, “and we all do.â€
21 federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk slash government
More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s , saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.â€
“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,†the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.â€
The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them.
The mass resignation of engineers, data scientists and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican president’s It comes amid a flurry of court challenges that have sought to stall, stop or unwind their efforts to fire or coerce out of jobs.
The staffers who resigned worked for what was once known as the , an office established during President Barack Obama’s administration after the botched rollout of , the web portal that millions of Americans use to sign up for insurance plans through the Democrat’s signature health care law.
New York’s governor wants to hire federal workers fired by DOGE
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday welcomed recently laid-off federal workers to apply for state jobs using an online portal.
“The federal government might say, ‘You’re fired,’ but here in New York, we say, ‘You’re hired.’ In fact, we love federal workers,†Hochul said in a videotaped statement.
Job cuts in the federal government have been coordinated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency under the stated goal of slashing government bureaucracy. There’s no official tally of the total number of firings.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is heading to the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
He’s making the trip Tuesday to get a first-hand look at the new migrant center.
The base is being used as a temporary detention facility for immigrants who’ve illegally entered the U.S. and are waiting to return to their home country or other destination.
Hegseth, who was assigned to Guantanamo Bay when he was on active duty, has called it a “perfect place†to house them.
He’s expected to meet with U.S. troops deployed to the base to help with preparations and security at the center. And he also plans to see sailors on the USS Thomas Hudner, a Navy destroyer that’s docked there.
The Navy base is known for holding a number of suspects captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The U.S. has been flying immigrants to Guantanamo since early February, where they’re kept in low-security tent facilities.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan defends the company’s efforts to diversity its workforce
Though he avoided the “DEI†label Tuesday that’s come under attack from President Trump and many of his appointees.
“We have a very diverse company in terms of representation from all economic stratas, all races, all ethnicities,†Moynihan said during an interview at the Economic Club of Washington with David Rubenstein, a co-founder of the private equity firm Carlyle Group. “Once they get in, the opportunity is there of a lifetime.â€
Bank of America has hired 30,000 people from low- and moderate-income communities in the past decade, Moynihan said.
Many large companies have come under pressure to dismantle their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, with Apple being the as a conservative think tank has pressured it to drop its DEI efforts. Apple shareholders are expected, however, on Tuesday to vote in favor of keeping the programs.
Trump’s pick for budget office deputy director has anti-abortion history
, Trump’s pick for deputy director of the office of management and budget and whose confirmation hearing is Tuesday, would help the office’s director make funding decisions related to federal reproductive health programs.
This includes funding for the family planning program Title X, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, the United Nations’ sexual and reproductive health agency and for typically religiously affiliated anti-abortion centers often referred to as .
Bishop has long been a vocal opponent of abortion rights and, as a member of the North Carolina General Assembly, has supported legislation banning nearly all abortions with no exceptions in the case of rape or incest. During his time as a U.S. representative from North Carolina from 2019 to 2025, he consistently voted in favor of abortion restrictions, including cosponsoring a bill that would have granted constitutional protection to embryos nationwide.
UK to raise defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, Starmer says two days before Trump meeting
In making the pledge Tuesday, said Europe is in a new era of insecurity that requires a “generational response.â€
The announcement comes two days before Starmer is due at the White House to try to persuade to maintain American and the .
“We must stand by Ukraine, because if we do not achieve a lasting peace, then the economic instability and threats to our security, they will only grow,†Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons.
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The FBI’s new deputy director is a popular podcaster — who has had plenty to say about the agency
The popular right-wing podcaster has built a career of unleashing sometimes inflammatory rants against the media, Democrats and the federal government.
Now, the 50-year-old former New York police officer and U.S. Secret Service agent he has so often criticized as Trump’s selection for deputy FBI director. He said Monday he’ll soon leave his daily show to take on the new role.
Bongino, who will serve under , does not have any experience at the premier federal law enforcement agency. Nonetheless, he has strong opinions about how it should be run.
A sampling of Bongino’s podcast commentary from the past year reveals he’s a loyalist to Patel and wants to see sweeping changes, from clearing the bureau of anyone he views as inappropriately political to redirecting investigations away from domestic extremism.
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Nearly 40% of contracts canceled by Musk’s DOGE are expected to produce no savings
That’s according to the Trump administration’s own data.
The , run by Trump adviser Elon Musk, last week of 1,125 contracts it terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts†shows more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 417 in all, are expected to yield no savings.
That’s usually because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, which means the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so.
“It’s like confiscating used ammunition after it’s been shot when there’s nothing left in it. It doesn’t accomplish any policy objective,†said Charles Tiefer, a retired University of Baltimore law professor and expert on government contracting law. “Their terminating so many contracts pointlessly obviously doesn’t accomplish anything for saving money.â€
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FDA moves to rehire medical device, food safety and other staffers fired days earlier
Barely a week after , some probationary staffers received unexpected news over the weekend: The government wants them back.
The reversal is the latest example of Trump and Musk’s to cost-cutting, which has resulted in several agencies firing, and then , employees responsible for , and other government services.
The FDA reinstatements followed pushback by lobbyists for the medical device industry, which pays the agency hundreds of millions of dollars annually to hire extra scientists to review products. The industry’s leading trade group said Monday “a sizable number†of device reviewers appear to be returning to FDA.
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Federal workers return to offices
Federal employees across the country, many of whom have worked from home since the COVID-19 pandemic, were back at agency offices Monday under .
Musk, meanwhile, who is scouring government agencies for suspected waste, delivered a warning Monday to workers on his platform X.
“Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave,†Musk wrote.
However, it appears at least some federal agencies are not prepared for all remote workers to return to the office.
In an email to U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid employees on Friday obtained by The Associated Press, agency officials noted that some regional offices in Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco were not ready for workers to return. The message also noted that employees who live more than 50 miles from regional offices in some major cities would not be required to return to the office Monday.
The email also noted that while some workers would begin reporting to offices Monday, others would begin relocating back to offices in phases through April and beyond.
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Trump backs Musk as he roils the federal workforce with demands and threats
Trump is backing demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments by the end of Monday or risk getting fired, even as government agency officials were told that compliance with Musk’s edict was voluntary.
The Republican president said has found “hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud†as he suggested that federal paychecks are going to nonexistent employees. He did not present evidence for his claims.
Even as Trump and Musk pressed their case, the Office of Personnel Management informed agency leaders that their workers were not required to respond by the deadline of 11:59 p.m. EST Monday, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters.
The conflicting directives led to varying advice for federal employees, depending on where they work. Some were told to answer the request for a list of five things that they did last week, others were informed it was optional, and others were directed not to answer at all.
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