The List

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Initial moves by the Trump Administration are making prescription drug prices more expensive.

On January 20, 2025, President Trump rescinded the Biden administration’s Executive Order 14087: Lower Prescription Drug Prices for Americans.

In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) gave Medicare the right – for the first time in its history – to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over prices the federal government paid for drugs in Medicare Part D (the part of Medicare that provides insurance coverage for prescription drugs). This provision of the IRA was a huge step forward to lowering costs and easing stress on family budgets for working Americans, and it also helped lower government spending and reduce deficits.

executive order 14087 directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to consider additional actions that could reduce prescription drug costs. In response to the executive order, the HHS put forward several models of improved affordability and access to prescription drugs that policymakers could implement. It included proposals to institute a $2 co-payment for generic prescription drugs across Medicare Part D, and to help state governments in their own negotiations with drug companies over prices in Medicaid.

If the recommendations of the executive order were advanced by the Trump administration rather than rescinded, further progress in reducing working families’ cost-of-living could have been made.

https://www.epi.org/policywatch/rescind ... americans/

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‘America Last’

The Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food banks without explanation, according to food bank leaders in six states.

USDA had previously allocated $500 million in deliveries to food banks for fiscal year 2025 through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. Now, the food bank leaders say many of those orders have been canceled.

The halting of these deliveries, first reported by POLITICO, comes after the Agriculture Department separately axed two other food programs, ending more than $1 billion in planned federal spending for schools and food banks to purchase from local farmers.

USDA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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‘America Last’, again.

Continuing his efforts to reduce the federal government, President Donald Trump ordered the elimination of all nonstatutory functions of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH).

Part of the Treasury Department, the CDFI Fund seeks to expand economic opportunities for underserved people and communities.

Supporters say the move jeopardizes important investments in small businesses, affordable housing, and local communities.

The March 14 executive order comes as housing leaders are already bracing for mass layoffs and cuts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Among other roles, the CDFI Fund administers the Capital Magnet Fund, which awards grants to CDFIs and nonprofits to finance affordable housing. Over the years, it has helped create more than 63,000 affordable homes, including more than 55,600 rental units and 7,400 owner-occupied units. Officials note that it has generated $20 of additional investment for every $1 of award funding.

The CDFI Fund also oversees the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC), a program that spurs community development to revitalize distressed communities. Created by Congress in 2000, the tax credit has helped construct or rebuild more than 268.2 million square feet of commercial real estate.

The same day that Trump issued his order, the CDFI Fund reported that it received 216 applications from across the country for the latest round of NMTC awards. These applicants requested an aggregate total of $19.2 billion in NMTC allocation authority, almost double the $10 billion in authority available for the 2024-2025 round.

Affordable housing leaders and others are speaking out against the move to eliminate the CDFI Fund.

“We can’t have America First without putting our communities first,” added Harold Pettigrew, president and CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network, a leading network and intermediary focused on community development investment. “For decades, CDFIs have been a driving force in bringing capital to communities that traditional financial institutions have left behind. We are fighting to ensure that federal support continues for the vital work that community development financial institutions deliver to Main Street.”

https://www.housingfinance.com/policy-l ... mination_o

[Gunnar]

‘America Last’, again.

Affordable housing leaders and others are speaking out against the move to eliminate the CDFI Fund.

“We can’t have America First without putting our communities first,” added Harold Pettigrew, president and CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network, a leading network and intermediary focused on community development investment. “For decades, CDFIs have been a driving force in bringing capital to communities that traditional financial institutions have left behind. We are fighting to ensure that federal support continues for the vital work that community development financial institutions deliver to Main Street.”

https://www.housingfinance.com/policy-l ... mination_o

Wow! Yet another proof of Trump's cruelty and indifference towards the least advantaged and homeless in order to enable further enriching of the wealthiest of the wealthy and most powerful, who neither need nor deserve any government assistance. Who can fail to see how inherently cruel, corrupt and unfair this is? Bernie Sanders is so right when he says it is fundamentally unconscionable for the richest, most powerful nation in history to have such a high poverty and homelessness rate.

According to HUD:

Around 23 out of every 10,000 Americans — 771,480 people — experienced homelessness in January 2024 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) annual point-in-time report, which measures homelessness across the US on a single night each winter. That’s an 18% increase from the same report in 2023.

Trump's actions are only likely to help make that situation even worse. Why is it so hard to resolve that problem when there are something like 28.1 times more vacant homes in the U.S. than there are unhoused people? In California alone there are 1.2 million vacant homes -- approximately 1.6 times the number needed to house all the unhoused people in the entire U.S.! So, why is there such a huge homelessness problem?

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The Administration is dismantling the Department of Education. Here’s what is known at the moment:

Low-income, rural and disabled students could be impacted

The Department of Education provides tens of billions of dollars in funding to support millions of students in low-income and rural areas and those with disabilities – and advocates are concerned about what the agency’s shuttering could mean for them.

The agency funnels more than $18 billion in supplemental funding annually to local school districts to provide extra academic support to schools with high rates of poverty. Title I grants serve about 26 million low-income students.

The dismantling of the department, along with the loss of many of its staffers, raises concerns about ensuring that states and districts will use the federal funds in the best ways to lead to positive outcomes for students, said Weade James, senior director for K-12 education policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. For instance, she questioned whether states will track students’ progress.

Also, rural and smaller school districts rely on the Department of Education for technical assistance and for the implementation of the Title I grants and other programs, she noted.

“It’s very important that we continue to question how these cuts are going to impact students because indeed they are,” James said. “There’s going to be a loss of expertise and a loss of data collection, oversight and accountability.”

The Department of Education also sets the parameters around accommodations for disabled students, ensuring that they have the right to a free and appropriate public education. The agency helps fund schools for the deaf and blind in the US and oversees the Rehabilitation Services Administration, which provides services that aim to help Americans with disabilities live more independently and land jobs. The department provides more than $15 billion annually to help serve 7.4 million students through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA.

What happens to these functions remains to be seen, but Project 2025, a sweeping plan to overhaul the federal government written by several people in Trump’s orbit, called for the functions to be shifted to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is not as knowledgeable about the programs, said Mia Ives-Rublee, senior director for the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. That could make it much more difficult for students with disabilities to get the services they need, she said.

“What we do know is we’re going to see a radical change in the way we provide or don’t provide services to disabled students,” she said.

Questions remain around management of federal student loans

The Department of Education has struggled to find a viable alternative agency to manage its massive student debt portfolio, according to two sources involved in the discussions. The loan portfolio totals a staggering $1.8 trillion in debt, with an estimated 40% of loans past due, the sources said, up from what CNN has previously reported based on publicly available information.

Dismantling of Education Department puts future of trillions of dollars in student loans in question

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced ahead of the executive order’s signing on Thursday that certain “critical functions” like student loans and administering grants to at-risk students would remain with the Department of Education, but Trump later said those functions would be redistributed to other agencies.

The discrepancy could set up a challenge for Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who is required by law to carry out some of the department’s congressionally mandated functions, including administering loans and providing grants for schools in high-poverty areas.

The president had previously suggested that the portfolio – which is larger than all but three US banks – would be transferred to the Treasury Department or Small Business Administration, though those plans have not taken shape.

“Treasury doesn’t want it,” according to one of the sources involved in the discussions, who also told CNN no conversations about moving it to the Small Business Administration had advanced.

Local school curriculum won’t be directly impacted by Trump’s order

The Department of Education does not have control over the curriculum in schools.

In creating the Department of Education, Congress said:

“No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, over any accrediting agency or association, or over the selection or content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, except to the extent authorized by law.”

Responsibility for curriculum falls on states and localities, so the executive order would not affect students’ curriculum directly.

The Department of Education has announced cuts of nearly 50% to its workforce

Through a combination of layoffs and voluntary “buyouts,” the Department of Education has announced plans to nearly halve its workforce since Trump took office.

One of the offices hit hardest by the job cuts, the Office for Civil Rights, works to protect students by holding schools and colleges that receive federal funds accountable for combating antisemitism, islamophobia, racism and discrimination against students with disabilities.

The Trump administration is shuttering seven of the office’s 12 regional offices and laying off nearly half of its staff.

What happens to the office is still uncertain. But employees within the office have told CNN they are extremely concerned about their ability to process the claims effectively with half of the staff.

“This will completely halt the vast majority of cases that we can take in, evaluate and investigate,” said one employee at OCR, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/20/poli ... tion-Trump

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America Last … and America Ignorant.

DOGE is seizing the Institute of Museum and Library Service …

“Department of Government Efficiency operatives have found their new target: your local library.

Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE infiltrated the Institute of Museum and Library Services on Thursday, according to multiple sources.

This comes just a week after Trump signed an executive order that called for the closing of the IMLS. Now, employees of one of the most critical arts and cultural .support systems in the country are under attack.

“The Institute of Museum and Library Services is being raided by DOGE and the new Acting Director (also somehow DepSec of Labor) Keith Sonderling with the express intent to shut it down, a worker wrote in the federal employee subreddit.

“Sonderling was sworn-in in the lobby of the office building (955 L’Enfant Plaza) and they are proceeding with quickly and quietly dismantling the agency. There is no major reporting on the death of IMLS. There are [Department] of Homeland Security personnel present - to bully a bunch of civil servants who administer grants to museums and libraries.”

The IMLS has a $313 million annual budget and about 70 employees. Its stated goal is to “advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.

Local libraries are mostly funded by local tax dollars, but the funding they do get from the federal government goes towards things like employee training and technology updates. This is especially critical in more remote areas.

IMLS also supports museums of all kinds—aquariums, arboretums, art museums, botanical gardens, and more—by “awarding grants that help them educate students, preserve and digitize collections, and connect with their communities.”

“There is no efficiency argument when IMLS represents just 0.0046% of the federal budget, while museums generate $50 billion in economic impact,” the American Alliance of Museums wrote in a statement.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/do ... y-services

https://newrepublic.com/post/193015/elo ... musem-imls

[Xenophon]

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‘America Last’

The Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food banks without explanation, according to food bank leaders in six states.

USDA had previously allocated $500 million in deliveries to food banks for fiscal year 2025 through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. Now, the food bank leaders say many of those orders have been canceled.

The halting of these deliveries, first reported by POLITICO, comes after the Agriculture Department separately axed two other food programs, ending more than $1 billion in planned federal spending for schools and food banks to purchase from local farmers.

USDA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Piggy-backing on this, I'd give every last one of your local area foodbanks a huge shout out, they need your support if you can manage it both in terms of dollars and work-hours. Here in my neck of the woods we're seeing significant rises in demand (we've gone from 1 in 7 facing food insecurity to 1 in 6... 1 in 4 for children) across the 26 counties we serve. Recent cuts translate to nearly 400k pounds of dry goods and roughly 760k pounds of produce being removed from the pipeline.

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No conflict of interest to see here …

The Social Security Administration will no longer be communicating with the media and the public through press releases and “dear colleague” letters, as it shifts its public communication exclusively to X, sources tell WIRED. The news comes amid major staffing cuts at the agency.

“We are no longer planning to issue press releases or those dear colleague letters to inform the media and public about programmatic and service changes,” said SSA regional commissioner Linda Kerr-Davis in a meeting with managers earlier this week. “Instead, the agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public…so this will become our communication mechanism.”

Previously, the agency used dear colleague letters to engage with advocacy groups and third-party organizations that help people access social security benefits. Recent letters covered everything from the agency’s new identity verification procedures to updates on the accuracy of SSA death records (“less than one-third of 1 percent are erroneously reported deaths that need to be corrected,” the agency wrote, in contrast to what Elon Musk claims).

The letters and press releases were also a crucial communications tool for SSA employees, who used them to stay up on agency news. Since SSA staff cannot sign up for social media on government computers without submitting a special security request, the change could have negative consequences on the ability for employees to do their jobs.

It could also impact people receiving social security benefits who rely on the letters for information about access benefits. “Do they really expect senior citizens will join this platform?” asked one current employee. “Most managers aren’t even on it. How isn’t this a conflict of interest?” Another staffer added: “This will ensure that the public does not get the information they need to stay up to date.”

The Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment by WIRED. Linda Kerr-Davis also did not immediately respond to a request for comment by WIRED.

https://www.wired.com/story/social-secu ... on-musk-x/

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Tariffs!

They weren’t necessarily promised by Trump on the campaign trail, but Trump has decided to apply tariffs to any number of countries, for any number of reasons. And so he has, applying an entirely haphazard ‘strategy’ that has seen nearly two weeks of ‘on again, off again, on again, off again’ proclamations against dozens of countries and locations (some without human inhabitants) at rates ranging from 10% to well over 100%, depending upon what hour of whatever day it might be.

After a memorable week of yo-yo tariff applications, financial markets lost up to 20% of their value, and when the major players in the bond market paid Trump a call to let him know that he appeared to be cray-cray, Trump backed off somewhat, but has still left behind a near-unintelligible mess of messaging about who, what and when any tariff applies to whomever.

In any case, the last week has seen White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt manufacturing hopelessly ludicrous spin in an attempt to cover the confusion, pitted major market players and even Musk against the tactic, and left several members of Team Trump looking like fools as they’ve tried to explain the Administration’s next steps, only to have Trump capriciously change his plans and targets within hours.

Meanwhile, as Trump has repeatedly retreated from his chaotic and haphazard positions, China has decided that it has had enough of the madness, and will match whatever odd thing Trump does next with their own countermeasures. China’s stance may be what caused Trump to back down and suddenly decide to allow a large list of electronics items to be ‘exempt’ from punitive tariffs, conceding the high position to China while gaining nothing in return.

Trump’s tariff buffer: Phones, PCs, chips spared from 'reciprocal' tariffs

To shield consumers from price shocks, the Trump administration has excluded smartphones, computers, and other electronics from its proposed reciprocal tariffs — a decision that stands to significantly benefit tech giants like Apple and Samsung.

It also appears to be a strategic move to calm business nerves and voter concerns over inflation and supply chain turmoil.

The exclusions, published late Friday by US Customs and Border Protection, narrow the scope of the levies by excluding the products from Trump’s 125% China tariff and his baseline 10% global tariff on nearly all other countries, reported Bloomberg.

The tariff exclusions cover a wide range of popular consumer electronics, including smartphones, laptops, hard drives, processors, and memory chips — most of which are not manufactured in the US. Establishing domestic production for these items would take years.

Also exempted are machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, a crucial win for companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which has committed to major investments in the US, along with other chipmakers.

However, this relief may be short-lived. The exclusions stem from the initial directive, which aimed to prevent cumulative tariffs from stacking on top of nationwide duties. While these exemptions provide temporary relief, they hint that new, potentially lower, China-specific tariffs on these products may be in the pipeline.

Semiconductors, in particular, have been singled out by Trump for targeted tariffs, though no specific rate has yet been imposed. Thus far, his sector-specific tariffs have been set at 25%, but the exact figure for chips and related technologies remains uncertain.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, reported Bloomberg.

According to updated guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, smartphones, laptops, and essential tech components will be excluded from President Donald Trump’s newly announced 125% reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports.

The exemptions now extend beyond mobile devices and computers to include vital hardware such as semiconductors, solar cells, flat-panel displays, flash drives, memory cards, and solid-state drives.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released detailed guidelines on tariff exemptions for select products — including semiconductors, electronic devices, and AI servers

*As long as the exported product to U.S. aligned with the HS code below, the tariffs will be exempted.

Here's the complete list:

• Automatic data processing machines and units thereof; magnetic or optical readers, etc.
• Parts and accessories of the machines of heading
• Machines/apparatus for manufacture of semiconductor devices/electronic integrated circuits
• Smartphones
• Communication equipment (e.g., routers, switches, etc.)
• Solid-state non-volatile storage devices (e.g., NAND Flash Memory or SSD)
• Records, tapes and other recorded media for sound/data
• Monitors for use with ADP machines
• Diodes (excluding photosensitive and light-emitting diodes)
• Transistors with power dissipation >1W
• Other transistors
• Thyristors, diacs, and triacs (excluding photosensitive devices)
• Mounted piezoelectric crystals
• Transistors (classified under other semiconductor devices)
• Optical coupled isolators
• Other semiconductor devices
• Semiconductor-based transducers
• Other semiconductor devices
• Parts of semiconductor devices
• Electronic integrated circuits

https://m.economictimes.com/news/intern ... 234755.cms

As if to demonstrate its own confusion over what it’s doing, the Trump Administration on Sunday evening rescinded - sort of - this guidance issued just two evenings prior, replacing it with another ill-defined approach.

Trump Admin Walks Back Tariff Exemption On Electronics

President Donald Trump and White House officials walked back a Friday announcement that there would be tariff exemptions on imported electronics.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump directly denied the tariff exemption announcement.

“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst! There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday,” he said, adding that Americans can look forward to “more and better paying Jobs, making products in our Nation, and treating other Countries, in particular China, the same way they have treated us” as a result of his agenda.

Trump also said that the National Security Tariff Investigations will be reviewing “the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN.”

Correspondingly, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer indicated that semiconductor tariffs were “not really an exception,” in an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.

“We certainly need to have semiconductors, and the downstream electronics supply chain move to the United States. What happened is- it’s not really an exception. That’s not even the right word for it,” Greer said. “So, it’s not that they won’t be subject to tariffs geared at reshoring. They’ll just be under a different regime. It’s shifting from one bucket of tariffs to a different bucket of potential tariffs.”

On the other hand, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump’s tariff exemption on imported electronics is only temporary.

According to Lutnick in a Sunday interview on “This Week” with Jonathan Karl, electronics will be included in semiconductor tariffs, which will likely be enforced within a month or two.

Trump, Greer and Lutnick’s remarks on Sunday come in direct contrast with communication from U.S. Customs and Border Protection late on Friday that claimed imported electronics, such as smartphones, laptops and more, would be exempt from Trump’s tariffs.

“We can’t be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need,” Lutnick added. “So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. [Trump is] just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These are things that are national security that we need to be made in America.”
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The news is the latest in Trump’s tariff back and forth with dozens of other countries. Trump announced a bulk of his so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on April 2, a day which he dubbed “Liberation Day.” Days later, however, he then implemented a 90-day pause on the Liberation Day tariffs, leaving behind a basic 10% tariff on most countries. But Trump has put 145% tariffs on China.

People in the business world took to social media in response to Lutnick’s interview and Trump’s ever-evolving tariff policies, according to Mediaite.

Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino said on X that CEOs and investors he has talked to have called Trump’s tariff policies “a sad, scary and at times, silly spectacle.”

“Plus they will say Howard Lutnick is a horrible spokesman for whatever trade regime the White House comes up with,” Gasparino added.

“So Lutnick says we are zigging and zagging on the electronic and technology tariffs,” Anthony Scaramucci, entrepreneur and former White House Director of Communications, wrote on X. “It’s ok to admit at this point that they have no idea what they are doing.”

“This is really mind-boggling. If this was serious industrial policy, the main thing you want is certainty: ‘Here’s the tariff, it will be in place for the indefinite future, and you should plan accordingly,’” Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank, said, according to The Washington Post. “Here, it’s basically: ‘Come back next week and see what we’ve got.’ That’s no way to run an economy.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/Trump-ad ... 46ea60b482

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Trump administration cutting nearly 90% of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
April 17, 2025 / 8:56 PM EDT / CBS/AP

President Trump's administration is drastically shrinking the size and mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, part of a months-long gambit to scale back the financial regulator.

Roughly 1,500 employees — or almost 90% of the agency's staff — will be cut from the CFPB, leaving around 200 people, according to an administration official who wasn't authorized to disclose the figure publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Fox Business first reported the number of layoffs.

Employees started receiving layoff notices on Thursday. Their access to agency systems, including emails, ends on Friday evening.

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau identified your position being eliminated and your employment is subject to termination in accordance with reduction-in-force (RIF) procedures," the emails said.

Mark Paoletta, the chief legal officer for the agency, sent a message to employees on Wednesday describing a reduced mission, with plans to "shift resources away from enforcement and supervision that can be done by the States," he wrote.

Problems with mortgages will be the top priority, while issues involving medical debt, student loans and digital payments will receive less attention, according to Paoletta.

The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis, with a mandate to enforce consumer protection laws and oversee banks and other financial institutions — in some cases seeking relief or refunds for consumers.

The agency has drawn Republican criticism for years, with some lawmakers viewing it as overzealous or unnecessary since other federal agencies already regulate the financial sector. More recently, the CFPB has been a top target of Mr. Trump's government cost-cutting efforts, led by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which has sought sweeping cuts to the federal workforce.
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Former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, a Biden-era appointee fired by Mr. Trump, sharply criticized cuts to the agency in a February interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes." He argued the agency has been targeted because major financial institutions "want a situation where the agency is a lapdog rather than a watchdog."

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/Trump- ... on-bureau/