May 2025

EO 14290: Ending Taxpayer Subsidization Of Biased Media

Conor Fennessy detailed from Ed. to DOI

The D.C. Circuit appeals panel modifies its initial stay of the preliminary injunction that had allowed RIFs after a particularized assessment. In light of the recent attempted RIF, they decide to disallow any RIFs while the appeal of the injunction is being considered. CFPB staff remain at work, but lacking direction from leadership and still barred from many work actions.

Trump issues an executive order commanding that Corporation for Public Broadcasting should cease any financial support for PBS and NPR, despite CPB being an independent agency.

Appearing on an interview with DOGE by Fox host Jesse Watters in his capacity as USIP President, Nate Cavanaugh repeats the claim that USIP was directly funding the Taliban through its grant to Mohammad Halimi. He makes similar distorted claims about other USIP spending.

A glimpse of Luke Farritor’s visible calendar in a Fox News DOGE profile includes a “connect” with OMB about the National Science Foundation.

Jonathan Mendelson detailed from GSA to SEC

Carl Coe promoted to Chief of Staff at EPA

Stephanie Holmes, in her role as acting chief human capital officers, sends an email ordering DOI staff to stop by May 28 from doing any detail work they were doing to cover for DOGE staffing cuts at the agency.

Carl Coe, the leader of the DOGE team at the EPA, is named as the Chief of Staff at the EPA.

Hundreds of arts groups across the country receive emails informing them that their grants from the NEA have been terminated. These emails originate from a generic arts.gov email address and arrive late on Friday hours after Trump proposes eliminating the agency in his budget.

Radio Free Asia announces it is laying off 90% of its staff and stopping many of its language services due to the loss of funding after USAGM head Kari Lake terminated all grants in March.

Paul McInerny starts as Chief Information Officer at DOI.

USDA reports to Congress that 15,000 of its employees (15% of its workforce) have taken one of the two deferred resignation programs

DOI extends its freeze on issuing any new regulations out to June 4th.

Ashley Boizelle mails the Chief of Staff (and head of the DOGE team) at FCC to ask how the agency handles outside comments on high-profile rulemakings and if they contract with an outside service.

Frank Bisignano starts as Commissioner at SSA.

Sam Corcos promoted to Chief Information Officer at IRS

Leland Dudek demoted at SSA

The Department of Agriculture sends a letter to the state directors of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program citing EO 14243 which grants DOGE unfettered access to federal and state data and demanding they turn over data on recipients dating back to 2020-01-01 or face consequences.

DOGE staff are reportedly working within the Office of Biometric Management (OBIM) at DHS which oversees the biometric systems IDENT and HART, giving them access to the largest database of biometric identifiers in the world.

Frank Bisignano is confirmed by the Senate to be the new Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, replacing Leland Dudek who was serving as the acting commissioner.

A spreadsheet created by Conor Fennessy outlines a reported $26 million in grant reductions for programs in the National Parks, including those identified as “DEI” or studying climate change. It also axes a popular Scientists in Parks program, that provides educational opportunities for early-career scientists and students. A $400K project to make a park accessible for children with disabilities was also targeted because it was “DEI.”

DOGE staff at the Department of Labor terminate more than two dozen grants to increase the representation of women in trades like construction, manufacturing and IT, as well as to combat gender-based violence and discrimination. DOGE later brags about it on its X account.

Representatives from OpenAI are reported to have met with several DOGE associates at the FDA to discuss using AI for drug evaluation work.

After two months of DOGE-directed cuts, IRS has lost 3600 (31% of that workforce) of the workers who perform audits at the agency. This will drastically reduce the ability of the IRS to detect tax cheating and fraud.

Carter Farmer starts as Chief Information Officer at EPA.

Gavin Kliger ends detailed position at CFPB

Unnamed DOGE members are reportedly refused entry to the CPSC by its commissioners.

Trump abruptly fires three Democratic members of the board of the CPSC, eliminating quorum for the board and rendering the agency leadership inert.

IRS Input Correction Operation employees working at the Kansas City office receive notifications they must work on Saturdays for 2 weekends in May to handle the growing backlog of tax returns due to an overall reduction in IRS staff.

Fast Company runs an interview with Sahil Lavingia, who is promptly fired by DOGE the following day.

DOGE staff at NASA, GSA and the White House finalize a list of five NASA grants to be killed and discuss the language for the terminiation letters in a series of email discussions and meetings to 11pm that night. The agency sends a letter to Harvard the following day.

Jeremy Lichtman emails USDA officials to inform them that GSA (likely Josh Gruenbaum) had directed them to review several agency grants for termination. These terminations were reportedly “awaiting final greenlight from the White House.”

Luke Farritor detailed from GSA to DOL

Sahil Lavingia leaves role as Senior Advisor at VA

With the board now fired, DOGE staff are granted access to the Consumer Product Safety Commission headquarters and onboarded into the agency.

A glimpse of Luke Farritor’s visible calendar in a Fox News DOGE profile includes a Microsoft Teams meeting with Thomas Shedd (the acting CIO and fellow GSA employee) as well as another DOL staffer to discuss grants to the agency.

OPM is reportedly poised to launch a rebranded version of the formerly-named AutoRIF software for automating the process of designating staff for mass layoffs. It was modernized and given a web interface by DOGE engineer Riccardo Biasini.

OPM reports it will rolling out a Online Retirement Application (ORA) system which replaces the paper-based system for federal departments served by the National Finance Center and Interior Business Center. This was a program originally started in the Biden Administration that is being accelerated without pilot programs.

DOGE staff reportedly met with Peace Corps leadership to discuss staffing cuts and expected resignations.

CISA announces that it will cease posting many cybersecurity alerts on its website and instead only send them to email or X. After a public outcry, it reverses this decision.

The Department of Homeland Security issues a subpoena to the state of California and Los Angeles County to demand records from a cash assistance program for immigrants (CAPI).

In a retaliation against the university coordinated by GSA, grants for Harvard University from DOD, HUD, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education are all terminated. There were 200 grants from DOD alone. The stated reasons varied but included that they no longer effectuated the administration’s priorities or directly accusing Harvard of fostering antisemitism on campus.

The CFPB, still under the acting leadership of Russell Vought, withdraws a rule proposed in December that would limit the ability of data brokers to sell sensitive information by placing them under the oversight of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Justin Fox emails GAO (cc’ing Nate Cavanaugh) to schedule a call to get a DOGE team assigned to the GAO. This is despite the GAO being located in the legislative branch and thus not answerable to the President.

Ruling in Rhode Island v. Trump et al, Judge John McConnell Jr. ordered a preliminary injunction declaring that IMLS grants must be processed and staff brought back.

A new memo from the acting principal director for acquisitions at the VA declares that all new contracts for information technology and professional services or any other contract for more than $10 million must be approved first by either Christopher Roussos or Cary Volpert. In addition, they are now required to send weekly reports to both of the DOGE representatives.

Ruling in Rhode Island v. Trump, Judge McConnell grants a preliminary injunction preventing DOGE and the Trump Administration from dismantling the IMLS, MBDA and FMCS while the case is active.

Nate Cavanaugh and Donald Park detailed from GSA to EXIM

Edward Coristine ends detailed position as Senior Advisor at OPM

After rescinding 300 past layoffs, the head of human resources at CDC emails Rachel Riley to share that the plan going forward will be to fire one person for every singer person who returns to the agency.

An appeals court rules that DOGE must resume complying with FOIA requests filed by CREW about the organization’s internal operations. That work had been on hold since an administrative stay on April 18

Nate Cavanaugh and Donald Park reportedly are assigned email addresses and reserved office space at the Export-Import Bank of the US.

Testifying before a House committee, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. described DOGE’s role in their layoffs as “Elon Musk gave us help in figuring out where there was waste, fraud and abuse in the department, but it was up to me to make the decision.”

Due to DOGE imposing a government-wide restriction on expense cards, many of the Social Security offices are in disarray, unable to do common office tasks like buying paper for printers or shredding documents. There are a few shared purchase cards for the agency, but fewer than a dozen staff in SSA are able to authorize office expenses for all 1300 field offices.

Conor Fennessy detailed from Ed. to USDA

The ranking Democratic member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sends a letter requesting that the IRS Inspector General investigate the circumstances of the “hackathon.”

The NLRB confirms that its Inspector General is looking into the allegations of improper network access and data theft by DOGE.

The US Agency for Global Media starts sending termination notices to contractors, some of whom are on J1 visas and would be forced to leave the country within 30 days.

Brian Bjelde leaves role as Expert at OPM (exits govt. service)

GOP proposals that would cut student loans and increase debt collection would require new technical capacity and policy that the Department of Education is unlikely to accomplish after many recent cuts and the elimination of technical staff by DOGE.

A GAO spokesman confirms that DOGE had attempted to assign a team to the agency but had been rebuffed by agency leadership.

Staff at the MSPB receive an email informing them that Nate Cavanaugh will be onboarded on May 21 as a detailee “from DOGE” and that he is expected to spend several weeks reviewing contracts and spending. He will be working remotely.

Because of DOGE-directed cuts, a National Weather Service office in Jackson, KY did not have an overnight forecaster who is able to track and forecast tornado watches for a storm sweeping across the state.

An internal report at Social Security analyzes new fraud detection mechanisms that were mandated by DOGE for all phone claims. According to analysis, only 2 out of 110,000 claims made were possibly but not certainly fraudultent, and adding the system has slowed claims processing by 25% and degraded service overall.

Samuel Berry converted to permanent paid position as Senior Advisor on Government Efficiency at USDA

Although IMLS staff are returned to their positions by court order, employees complain that the email “reinforced attempts to eliminate staff through trauma, force, and malicious compliance.”

The judge presiding over the USIP’s lawsuit against the Trump administration rules that the firing of the agency’s board was illegal, rendering all subsequent actions taken by Nate Cavanaugh as President null and void.

A glimpse of Luke Farritor’s visible calendar in a Fox News DOGE profile includes a quick sync with a finance department deputy at the agency and a DOGE liasion.

Justin Fox sends a message to the Acting Chair of NEH stating “Ringing to give you a heads-up that the DOGE team is planning to make an X post on NEH highlighting a few of the crazy DEI grants from Biden-era administration and reiterating that NEH grants going forward will be merit-based and awarded to nonDEI, pro-America causes”

A memo directed to NRC from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) declares that OIRA should have oversight over regulations made at the independent agency and that NRC staff “may not know or be privy to the bases for OMB decisions for why an action is significant.”

In a post on its X account, DOGE reports that it is working to review surveys conducted by the Census Bureau and claims to have already eliminated 5 surveys that include questions about alcohol consumption and internet usage.

Nate Cavanaugh detailed from GSA to MSPB

A spokesperson for the NTSB confirmed that a DOGE team had recently been assigned to the agency to review its operations.

The US Institute of Peace reatakes control of its headquarters and leadership re-enters the premises for the first time since being escorted out in DOGE’s takeover.

Staff cleaning the USIP HQ after it is reclaimed by its owners find discarded marijuana, presumably left by DOGE staffers. It is currently illegal for federal workers to smoke pot, and especially so within government facilities.

Appearing before Congress, the SBA Administrator Kelly Loefler claimed that DOGE had cancelled contracts worth more than $3 billion dollars in savings. DOGE’s own “wall of receipts” only listed $22 million in savings for the agency.

Brian Broderick of USCIS joins a call of the election committee of the National Association of Secretaries of State to expand the SAVE database to also include driver license and passport information.

Elon Musk joins a late-night meeting with senior members of the DOGE leadership team. Katie Miller delivered a blunt message that DOGE was on thin ice with the White House. She also reportedly advised that DOGE should strive to collaborate with Cabinet secretaries more instead of pushiing cuts or projects on them that they didn’t want to do.

EO 14300: Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

EO 14301: Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy

Brad Smith leaves role as Senior Advisor at HHS

The Supreme Court issues a stay on the shadow docket for an order from an appeals court that DOGE must start producing documents for CREW, meaning that DOGE is once again able to delay producing documents.

Reuters reports that DOGE staffers Kyle Schutt and Edward Coristine have attempted to gain access to DHS employee emails in recent months and ordered staff to train AI to identify communications suggesting an employee is not “loyal” to Trump’s political agenda. Given earlier reports, the AI in question is like xAi’s “Grok” AI system.

Ethan Shaotran sends a Survey of Surveys email to federal agencies asking them to report information on data-collection surveys. This is redundant to the existing survey oversight already conducted by OMB, and there are concerns about what the data will be used for.

President Trump issues EO 14300, which orders the NRC to relax its regulatory oversight over the nuclear industry. It also demands that the agency must plan for a Reduction-in-Force (RIF) and realign its organizational priorities. Following the model used by the Trump Administration for other independent agencies, this is probably the prelude for DOGE to arrive at the agency.

In a podcast appearance, Antonio Gracias reported that the Department of Justice had requested for DOGE to find “10-20 cases” of alleged noncitizen voting in every state.

Over 200 loan recipients have their birth date voided and their accounts closed in the National Payment Service (NPS) system. This action was likely taken by Jordan Wick in response to discovering that some number of loan recipients had “1900” as their birth years (DOGE presumed similar circumstances at SSA indicated fraud when it was really issues with data entry). It is possible that this action was a pretext for closing other accounts.

After Politico published a report that included an email from a 30-year veteran of the Bureau of Land Management which told staff to ignore instructions from Stephanie Holmes that they weren’t allow to sub in for empty roles, he is escorted out of the building by security.

Judge Vargas, ruling in New York v. Donald Trump lifted restrictions on DOGE staff accessing Treasury systems, saying that the government had demonstrated it was following proper procedures.

Pentagon staff are told they now no longer have to submit the Five Things email, but they are now tasked with a mandatory exercise to submit one thing that improves efficiency or reduces waste.

A glimpse of Luke Farritor’s visible calendar in a Fox News DOGE profile includes a meeting with a representative from the Department of Justice and another from the FBI.

Jennifer Balajadia leaves role as Senior Advisor at DOGE (exits govt. service)

Steve Davis leaves role as Senior Advisor at DOGE (exits govt. service)

Elon Musk leaves role at DOGE (exits govt. service)

Former 18F employees file a class-action appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board stating that GSA did not provide a valid reason for eliminating the agency and the firings were acts of retaliation because of their perceived political affiliations.

Nicole Hollander leaves role at GSA (exits govt. service)

Katie Miller leaves role at DOGE (exits govt. service)

During a briefing to the Ways and Means Committee representatives and staff, DOGE members say they are very excited about the possibility of using AI to interface with and modernize legacy COBOL systems at the IRS.

The judge in AFL-CIO vs. OPM examines Greg Hogan on the stand and asks if he had followed the principle of least privilege in providing system access to DOGE. The judge’s questions indicated that she seemed to be leaning towards a issuing a preliminary injunction against DOGE’s “chaotic” access to systems at OPM.

Edward Coristine converted to permanent paid position as Senior Advisor at GSA

Luke Farritor converted to permanent paid position as Senior Advisor at GSA

Edward Coristine and Luke Farritor’s roles are both converted into regular positions at the GSA at the GS-15 level, which would mean an annual salary of $167,603 - $195,200 in Washington, DC. This is the maximum level possible for a general government worker, and it often takes years or decades to reach. It would not normally be granted to staff with such limited work experience.

Micaela Lopez Ballefin, Nicholas Gallagher, and Ryan Shea start at GSA.

Seth Cohen starts as Special Counsel at DOE.

Ryan Shea detailed from GSA to HHS

An internal survey reveals that over a fifth of Census Bureau leadership roles are vacant in the wake of DOGE’s efforts to reduce federal staffing.

In May, Clark Milner, a senior advisor for policy in the White House, organized a meeting between USPS staff, the DOGE representatives at the agency, other DOGE staffers and members of the Domestic Policy Council.