Week 24 saw Trump shutting down a government website with research on global warming, axing all NOAA’s tornado and hurricane research, and placing on leave 144 EPA employees who signed a letter of dissent against his policies.
President Trump is accelerating his war on science as he took down the U.S, Global Change Research Program’s website that has congressionally mandated reports and research on climate change and its impact on the country’s public health, communities, and economy.
At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he placed employees who signed a letter of dissent on administrative leave in an act of retaliation. These are researchers and scientists who are concerned about Trump’s harmful actions on the American people.
At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), he’s planning to zero out weather research programs and shut down weather and climate laboratories around the country.
At the National Science Foundation (NSF), Trump’s chaotic staffing cuts and unprecedented political interference are having a devastating effect on its mission with scientists warning that the U.S. will lose a generation of scientific talent to foreign countries. The first group of eight American scientists, for example, has just arrived in France to join Aix-Marseille University’s Safe Place for Science program after being tarted by the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly claimed that his Big Retaliation Bill will eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, but that’s not the case.
He also repeatedly claimed during the campaign trail he would never touch Medicaid and Medicare, but under his Big Retaliation Bill that passed the House July 3 and the Senate July 1, nearly 12 million Americans would lose their health insurance and seniors will have to pay more for their life-saving medications as drug companies are now allowed to exempt more drugs from Medicare’s price negotiation program.
Here’s a quick recap of Trump’s attacks on America in his 24th week in office, how these actions hurt federal workers and the American people they serve, and how We the People fight back:
July 3: The Trump administration is retaliating against144 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees who signed a letter of dissent against its harmful policies by placing these staffers on administrative leave. AFGE Council 238 2nd Vice President Justin Chen said the union would “protect our members to the full extent of the law.” Council 238 represents more than 8,000 EPA employees.
July 3: AFGE successfully defeated anti-federal worker provisions in Trump’s Big Retaliation Bill, which passed the House and Senate July 3 and July 1 respectively. AFGE thanks our allies from both sides of the aisles who worked hard to convince their colleagues to drop those provisions.
July 3: The Trump administration appears to be retreating from its illegal hiring practice of requiring a loyalty test from federal job applicants. After facing a legal challenge over essay questions asking job applicants which Trump policy priorities they like best and how they want to help advance them, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is now walking back on the requirement telling agencies the essay questions “must not be used as a mean of determining whether the candidate fulfills the qualifications of a position.”
Even though agencies are encouraged to use the essay questions, it’s not a requirement. And if job candidates choose not to answer the questions, they must not be disqualified.
July 2: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is slashing 75% of its Office of Intelligence and Analysis workforce. Of the 1,000 employees, the agency is planning to cut 725. I&A was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to help address intelligence failures and keep the country safe.
July 1: A federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from proceeding with its mass layoffs and reorganization of its healthcare workforce, saying the administration has no authority to implement such massive changes to agencies created by Congress and that the states, which brought the lawsuit, had shown “irreparable harm” from the cuts that would have “devastating consequences” on the American people if enacted.
July 1: A new study shows that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) saved 92 million lives from 2011 to 2021, and shutting down the agency could result in 14 million deaths in the next five years. USAID was one of the first agencies targeted for closure by the Trump administration. AFGE has filed a lawsuit challenging the closing of USAID without congressional approval.
June 30: The Trump administration shut down the U.S, Global Change Research Program’s website that has congressionally mandated reports and research on climate change and its impact on the country’s public health, communities, and economy. Scientists called the move “scientific censorship” and “the modern version of book burning.”
June 30: NOAA is planning to further slash its workforce from 12,000 employees to 10,000 on top of hundreds of probationary employees who have been fired. The Trump administration also wants to cut $1.8 billion from the agency’s budget. The cuts will hurt all Americans as states and local communities across the country rely on NOAA’s research and weather forecasts.
Since taking office in January 2025, President Trump has issued a series of unlawful executive orders, and taken several unlawful actions, seeking to shut down congressionally mandated agencies, fire and displace federal workers, outlaw their unions, and gut merit systems protections.
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A federal judge has ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate the union contract covering 320,000 VA employees represented by AFGE in a major victory over the implementation of President Trump’s union-busting executive orders.
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As the Department of Homeland Security shutdown reaches the one-month mark with no end in sight, AFGE leaders are calling on Congress to ensure all DHS workers are paid.
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