- The Department of Health and Human Services laid off 10,000 employees. HHS underwent sweeping layoffs this week, with whole sub-agencies and departments shuttered and grants cut.
This comes as the administration continues to say that special education oversight and services will be moved to HHS. Now the department not only has no educational expertise, but is also stretched thin.
Programs for HIV and infectious disease prevention were abruptly eliminated on Thursday. More clarity on the fallout from layoffs and specific departments lost is expected through the weekend. - RFK Jr. begins shutdown of the Administration for Community Living (ACL). On Thursday, HHS began restructuring in the wake of the layoffs, including a move to close the ACL. The ACL supports disabled and elderly people’s right to live and work in-community. It helps ensure programming access is efficient so disabled people can be more independent and financially stable.
Without the ACL, advocates are concerned about economic impacts, an increase in homelessness, and a move back toward forced institutionalization. - RFK Jr. taps antivaxxer to lead study about link between autism and vaccines, forces FDA’s Peter Mark’s resignation. RFK Jr. announced a large-scale federal study into the already-debunked theory linking vaccines and autism. He forced the resignation of top FDA vaccine scientist Peter Mark, and has selected noted antivaxxer David Geier to lead the project.
Geier has published numerous false papers on vaccines and autism with his father, Mark Geier, based on research they conduct in their basement.
RFK Jr. himself frequently profits from antivax rhetoric, and has spoken disparagingly of autistic people a “threat” to the American way of life. Geier is not a doctor. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland. - Deaf community sees tough losses in technology and educational funding. Gallaudet University lost a multi-million dollar grant for deaf technology under the HHS reorganization, while an NIH cut axed an undergraduate STEM program for deaf students out of NTID. (Per internal sources; specific numbers and grant titles pending secondary confirmation.)
Minnesota’s Deaf Community Support Center was also forced to close its doors after a federal COVID-19 related grant was cut.
The Liaison who oversees and advocates for funding for NTID, Gallaudet, and other special institutions, was fired in the DoED layoffs, despite that position being mandated by the 1986 law The Education of the Deaf Act. These remain a small sample of what is likely to come from HHS and DoED layoff fallout. - DOGE plans to rewrite Social Security database, threatening delayed payments. In an ongoing effort to prove as yet nonexistent fraud, DOGE has decided to re-program the SSA’s database into an updated programming language.
COBOL, the current language of the database, is legitimately old. However, safely recoding a project of this scale would take years, and DOGE has set a 9-month timeline. Experts are concerned this will put the integrity of the database at risk, and could cause delayed or lost payments, or total collapse.
Simultaneously DOGE cuts have closed 47 field offices, as well as phone verification options, forcing the elderly and disabled to travel long distances to acquire benefits. - Texas vs. Becerra lawsuit continues. Attorneys General continue to use transphobic rhetoric to attack Final Rule and Section 504. Participants continue to say they do not want to dismantle disabled people’s rights, but have not revoked the original filing, which explicitly asks for 504 to be declared unconstitutional (p 37-42).
504 protects disabled people’s rights in all spaces that receive federal funding, but could have major implications in conjunction with rescinding of ADA guidance, and the uncertain future of DoEd. The next update is due in April. - Executive Order, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” On Tuesday Trump issued an illegal executive order aimed at sweeping election reform, including: mail-in voting restrictions, requiring a REAL ID or passport to prove citizenship to vote, and the Homeland Security and DOGE creation and “review” of a list of registered voters.
The law clearly says that states have the power to oversee and regulate their own elections, so this executive order will be difficult to enforce. However, we may see conservative states comply in advance. Limiting mail-in access or requiring in-person registration would infringe on disabled and elderly people’s ability to vote. - Illegally fired DoED employees pack up; Senate sees new bill to abolish department. DoED employees laid off in a massive gutting of the department two weeks ago returned to pack their things on Friday. Many of those firings were illegal, as certain positions within DoED are mandated by educational law. People lined the sidewalks to cheer the former employees in a “clap-out” event as they left.
21 States are currently suing to have DoEd employees return to work. A timeline of the suit is unclear, as is whether the current administration will follow a judge’s orders.
Rand Paul (KY) introduced a new bill, S 1148, to eliminate the department on Wednesday. - Reminder: Our liberation is intertwined. It’s difficult to keep up with the pace of the news, but important to keep sight of the fact that all marginalized people’s rights are intertwined.
Just as the Section 504 lawsuit sets precedent for the destruction of other civil rights clauses, so too does the arrest and deportation of immigrants without due process affect disabled people’s, and everyone’s, rights to a functioning judicial system with the power to roll back illegal overreaches, and an overall government that adheres to the Constitution. Solidarity is our only way through.
Action:
Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.
Call your Representative and tell them to intervene on behalf of the Dept of Education, the ADA, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) and other HHS programs.
Make sure your vaccines are up to date, especially if you may have received an inactive virus version of the MMR vaccine from 1963-67.
If your state is involved, contact your Attorney General and ask them to withdraw from Texas v. Beccera. Tell them you stand in solidarity with disabled people, and trans folks.
Deaf folks and allies–contact the Gallaudet and NTID Boards of Trustees and urge them to be proactive about the futures of these universities.
Consider how to move toward creative acts of growing awareness, including offline materials, local protest and mutual aid.