Briefing: Data Security + more
This week, we have a briefing from our Data Security team plus short updates in Archives & History and Infectious Disease Control.
Data Security
The Data Security team added 25 new events to our timeline. Federal courts have handed wins to the Trump administration, greenlighting DOGE access to sensitive Social Security Administration data and compelling the University of Pennsylvania to deliver the personal information of employees who participate in campus Jewish life. The government has been less successful in its attempts to restrict voting; no unwilling state has yet been compelled to hand over unredacted voter rolls, and federal efforts to create a database of “eligible” voters (as defined in a new executive order) are facing legislative and legal pushback.
We’ve also learned more about what the administration is doing with our data: The DOJ has already consolidated the voter information it has been able to collect — and lied about it in court. The Department of Homeland Security has indicated that it is creating a “domestic terrorists” database. And ICE is using data shared by the TSA and purchased from private brokers, installing spyware to access confiscated devices, and recruiting local law enforcement to search Flock license plate cameras nationwide. The administration’s plans for the future are also chilling: The Treasury intends to create a database of aid recipients with an unprecedented level of detail, and DHS is seeking a vendor to build a biometric “matching engine” that will allow it to search consolidated data from all its agencies.
Archives & History
The Archives & History team added 9 new events to our timeline. The Department of Justice declared that the 1978 Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional, despite lacking the authority to make that determination. This triggered an immediate legal challenge from the American Historical Association. Some lawsuits to restore historical markers are succeeding: Pending a judge’s approval on the settlement, the rainbow Pride flag will fly again at Stonewall. However, success is hard-won and often only partial: A plaque honoring police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was finally installed…but in a non-public area, despite a law requiring it to be displayed on the exterior of the Capitol. And after only partially reinstalling the interpretive signage removed from the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, the administration has published digital exhibit text that minimizes and sanitizes George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people.
Infectious Disease Control & Prevention
The Infectious Disease Control team added 11 new items to our timeline. Disruptions continue at the CDC, which has “temporarily” paused its diagnostic testing for 31 infectious diseases, including rabies. The administration is also muddying COVID vaccine guidance: Internal memos reveal that hundreds of studies on the safety and benefit of COVID vaccines were not included in the decision to end recommendations for children and pregnant people. More recently, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya personally intervened to delay publication of a key report finding that COVID vaccines for healthy adults reduced their likelihood of needing emergency care or hospitalization by nearly half. The CDC continues to operate without a permanent director, though Dr. Erica Schwartz has just been officially nominated and is headed to Senate confirmation hearings. Staffing shakeups persist at the FDA and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Transgender Healthcare
The Trans Healthcare team added 3 new entries to our timeline.
Use our stuff
We invite everyone to use and adapt our content for sharing with your readers and communities: everything on our site is available under a CC BY 4.0 license. We welcome translations, adaptations to other formats, and especially encourage organizers and journalists to make use of what we’ve developed. And if you make something with our content, please let us know — we’d love to hear from you.
You can have these briefings sent to your inbox by subscribing right over here.