This week at Unbreaking, July 24
We’re continuing to track the consequences of the administration’s megabill, as well as renewed layoffs across the federal government in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this month. More below on what we’re noticing this week.
Medical Research Funding
Approximately 900 medical research grants have been reinstated following rulings in two court cases, but the total impact on research funding remains grim, with nearly $4.5 billion lost. Meanwhile, the NIH has capped the number of proposals individual researchers can submit, citing concerns about AI slop, making future funding even more difficult to obtain. Researchers are increasingly turning to philanthropic foundations for funding, but philanthropic funding cannot possibly compensate for the massive loss of federal funds. In at least one case, a cancer research lab has resorted to crowdfunding.
We have more on the devastating cuts to medical research in our explainer.
Equality at Work
With the Supreme Court clearing the way for large-scale layoffs to continue across the federal government, we’re seeing reports of renewed job losses at the State Department, US Institute of Peace, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and Office of Personnel Management, with more likely in the works. Meanwhile, the case is ongoing: a federal union is pressing agencies to release their agency RIF and reorganization plans and a judge has ordered the government to comply. We’re watching to see what happens next.
It’s worth noting that the purported reasoning for these “reductions in force” was to save money. But the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model reports that federal spending is up 6.7%, or $284 billion, in 2025.
We have the full story of the administration’s ongoing attack on the federal workforce in our explainer.
Data Security
We continue to follow news of the administration disclosing civilian data to law enforcement. This week, we have news that ICE has signed an information sharing agreement with the IRS that allows “unprecedented” and “on-demand” access to taxpayer information. This kind of information is highly confidential, and was previously available only for specific named people regarding criminal inquiries. Separately, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has signed an agreement giving ICE access to the personal information of 79 million Medicaid enrollees. The agreement explicitly states it will be used “to receive identity and location information on aliens identified by ICE.”
ICE also launched a new facial recognition app that allows officers to instantly look up DHS, State Department, and state law enforcement databases by just pointing a phone at someone’s face.
We’re continuing to track the ways the administration is undermining data security in our timeline.
Medicaid
The healthcare cuts in the budget reconciliation bill that passed earlier this month included $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. In addition to directly threatening disabled kids and adults, the elderly, and low-income adults and families, these cuts are likely to make care worse for everyone who uses healthcare in the US because of hospital closures and healthcare layoffs.
According to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, the budget bill will cause about 10 million people to lose their healthcare coverage. Another 5 million will lose coverage because of Trump administration rule changes and Congress allowing Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire.
Up next
Next week, look for a blog post with more of what we’ve learned about who stands to lose their health insurance coverage in the wake of the massive cuts to Medicaid. And if you’ve got research, writing, and editing skills you want to put to good use, please join us.
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