- Trump and McMahon further dismantle Department of Education, moving programs to Department of Labor, Interior, and HHS. The relocated programs include Title 1, teacher training grants, English learner programs, TRIO, adult education, Native education, foreign language programs, foreign med-school accreditation, and student-parent grants.
The move of programs along with DoEd’s press release touting an increased focus on vocational training and workplace preparedness, suggests a dangerous shift for pubic education. Students deserve a robust education no matter their income bracket, geographic locations, etc. Disabled students at Title 1 or Native education programs will likely be intersectionally harmed without DoED oversight.
The increased focus on workplace and vocational language and placement is particularly concerning with respect to the Trump administration’s rollback of many child labor laws earlier in the year.
Special education will stay within DoED for now, though it is unclear what work or oversight is happening due to the firing of OSERS employees during the shutdown, who have not been reinstated. Project 2025 also proposes eventually carving up special education to be moved to Department of Labor and HHS. - Many students in health and education professionals will face issues securing federal loans due to graduate degree reclassification. The government proposed a cap on Graduate Plus loans for all but a very small number of “professional degrees” this week. Previously, graduate degrees in fields like Education, Nursing, Social Work, Public Health, Occupational Physical and Speech Therapy, Audiology, Counseling, Engineering and others were eligible for an extended $200,000 cap on federal loans.
Without access to funding, only the wealthy will be able to access graduate level degrees in a variety of fields, many of which are already experiencing staffing shortages. Healthcare and education fields also tend to be women and/or BIPOC-dominated; the goal of lessening of women’s employment outside the home was outlined in Project 2025. - RFK Jr. orders CDC to include false information about vaccines and autism on official website, despite previous walk-backs of his claims. The changes came to the website late this week, and mark another dangerous shift in ableist and eugenic rhetoric by the department, further hampering the public’s access to quality, evidence-based scientific health information.
The US is already on the precipice of losing its measles-free designation within the next several months due to antivax rhetoric and fearmongering. - Despite government reopening and multiple court orders, many SNAP/EBT recipients still have not received November benefits, as USDA threatens to “completely deconstruct” the program and/or force everyone to reapply.
Many of the Democratic politicians who voted in favor of ending the government shutdown cited concern about the illegal withholding of SNAP benefits, but that has continued in the days since. Some states blame a software glitch, while other delays are unspecified. Governors also reported LIHEAP (subsidies for heating and cooling homes) and Head Start delays.
The Secretary of the USDA also released a frightening proposal about how to revamp the program to decrease expenses and prevent “fraud.” However, most SNAP fraud is related to identity theft, card cloning, or retailer-application fraud, not recipients receiving aid who don’t need it. - Local: Abortion is now illegal in North Dakota, carrying a five year prison sentence. The state’s Supreme Court reversed another judge’s decision Friday, upholding the ban.
12 other states also currently have abortion bans at all stages of pregnancy.
Reproductive rights are a healthcare and disability justice issue, just as forcible sterilization, remains a concern for disabled people across the US. (It’s still legal to forcibly sterilize a disabled person in 31 states and DC, and the US Supreme Court case allowing it has never been overturned.) Fair reproductive healthcare is for everybody. - Trump revives first-term policy penalizing legal residents’ use of Medicaid or other assistant programs. The proposal suggests legally present, documented immigrants should not be penalized and not allowed to continue their path to permanent residency or citizenship if they have used Medicaid or other assistance programs.
This was a first-term policy that was ignored and then officially rescinded by Biden in 2022. The policy will give more power to immigration officers to make judgement calls on who might “burden” the US.
In actuality, healthcare professionals say it will burden the hospital system for all, as people will not be able to access preventative care and will have to turn to emergency rooms instead in order to see a doctor or get medication. DHS is accepting public comment on the change for the next 30 days.
Category: Department of Labor
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Week 26 Update
- SCOTUS rules on Dept of Ed. case, approving mass layoffs and paving the way for the dismantling of the department. SCOTUS ruled that DoEd’s mass layoffs (or RIFs)–attempted in March but temporarily stopped by a lower court–are allowed to move forward.
This includes many positions that are required to be filled by law, ex: IDEA, The Education of the Deaf Act. However, SCOTUS has allowed the administration to ignore the law, and opened the door for further layoffs. Only Congress can legally dismantle a department, but the administration is already ignoring the law, and if no one works there, DoEd will not function.
This is in conjunction with the illegal withholding of previously approved funds from July 1, and the trashing of several thousand civil rights complaints. DoEd employees are now scheduled to leave Aug 1. - George Retes found and released; deaf Mongolian man remains in ICE detention. Retes, a 25 year old disabled US Army veteran was working as a security guard on a farm in Camarillo, CA. Though he is a US citizen, he was kidnapped from his car by ICE, and held for several days.
A deaf Mongolian man who was attempting to seek asylum following legal protocol continues to be detained for over four months, without due process or a sign language interpreter. ICE agents reportedly attempted to use Google Translate with him, resulting in severe miscommunications on basic facts.
These disabled men are just two of many kidnapped by ICE and held in squalid conditions without accommodations or information. - Department of Labor to allow subminimum wage to continue. A Department of Labor statute giving businesses “sheltered workshop certifications” has long been a loophole for employers of severely disabled people to pay them less than minimum wage. Half the people employed under this statute are paid less than $3.50 an hour.
Biden’s Department of Labor had started to repeal the rule, but the Trump administration has rolled back that request.
The fight for wage equality must include disabled people, who face massive inequities with respect to sheltered workshops, general employment discrimination, disproportionate benefits compared to cost of living and inflation, and loss of benefits when getting married. - Department of Labor to end hiring goal for disabled federal contractors. In 2013, the Obama DoL implemented a rule with a goal of at least employing disabled federal contractors at a rate of at least 7%.
This was to comply with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, and help combat high rates of unemployment discrimination for disabled people. The program long been considered a successful step in improving wage and employment gaps for disabled workers. About 25% of people in the US have some type of disability, so even 7% is far below population representation.
The Trump DoL will now repeal the rule, and stop tracking any data on disability within federal contracting. - Insurance costs spike under new GOP budget. The GOP budget passed on July 4th, teeing up Medicaid and Medicare cuts that will harm the quality of life for many disabled people, and are expected to kill over 51,000 people annually from otherwise preventable deaths.
Those who buy private insurance on the ACA marketplace will also be affected. Biden had previously provided subsidies to help with high payments, but they are now expiring. More than a quarter of providers are planning a rate hike of 20% or more.
The new law also makes it harder to enroll in health insurance on the marketplace by shortening enrollment window and denying enrollment for those with outstanding balances. - Dept. of Justice makes concerning move toward English-only services and materials. The memo says the department will “lead a coordinated effort to minimize non-essential multilingual services, redirect resources toward English-language education and assimilation, and ensure compliance with legal obligations through targeted measures where necessary.”
This is a concern for all English language learners. Disabled people and/or signed languages are neither explicitly mentioned or excluded, (except citing case law that said offering disability/ss applications in English only is not a legal violation). It is unclear but concerning how this will impact deaf and hard-of-hearing people and others who use signed languages to communicate. - They’re messing with the elections. The Department of Justice is making an unprecedented demand for sensitive election data. The request include access to voter rolls and in some cases “all records.” This is an abnormal request and it is unclear what the DOJ wants that data for. The requests went mainly to swing states, but others were included, too.
Meanwhile, Texas is seeking to illegally redistrict to add five congressional seats in projected “red” areas. This is illegal, as new maps are not due to be drawn until 2031.
Contact your local officials and demand they protect election integrity in your state. Folks both in and outside of Texas can also contact congress to stop the illegal redistricting. Templates are available for residents of any state to use. - Action items: Share this info! Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.
Hit the streets if you are able. It’s past due.
Protect your neighbors. Warn and record in the presence of ICE. Push your local officials not to collaborate.
Boycott businesses supporting these policies. Donate to your local food pantry, library, clinics, cash bail funds, or other mutual aid if you can. Or volunteer your time.
Contact your local officials and congresspeople and ask them to protect election integrity. (See above templates).
Make sure you’re up to date on your vaccines. Ditch the wearable tech.
Consider running for local office or getting involved to support a local candidate through organizing or phone banking–especially progressive primary challengers.
Think about ways to spread information offline. Make flyers and stickers. Make art.
- SCOTUS rules on Dept of Ed. case, approving mass layoffs and paving the way for the dismantling of the department. SCOTUS ruled that DoEd’s mass layoffs (or RIFs)–attempted in March but temporarily stopped by a lower court–are allowed to move forward.