New, from me: The self-proclaimed "Most Transparent Administration in History" wants to compel all federal employees to sign Non Disclosure Agreements. The purpose is to vastly expand the culture of secrecy in government, undermining accountability. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/trump-want...

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

The settlement, @donmoyn.bsky.social told me, provides “financial reward for those who attacked American democracy. The consequence of not punishing Trump for January 6th is that now he rewards his supporters.”

Today is the feast day of Frances Perkins in the Episcopal church. She is a founding mother of Social Security, unemployment insurance, workplace & fire safety standards & much more. She's an inspiration to me both professionally & personally. 🧵 francesperkinscenter.org/2018/01/17/f...

Happy Frances Perkins feast day (Episcopal Church calendar, May 13)! Witness to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, later FDR’s Labor Secretary; she wrote the Social Security Act in her church’s rectory kitchen. She pushed to admit Jewish refugees. Known as FDR’s conscience and author of the New Deal. ⚓️

"Here's the dirty little secret: Trump accounts are Social Security personal accounts," said Ted Cruz, describing them as the first step in a plan to privatize Social Security, which "conservatives in America have been trying to do for 50 years." www.axios.com/2026/05/08/c...

Social Security field offices are not OK after the loss of thousands of frontline employees last year. Terrific new reporting on the human costs of the Trump Administration's deep cuts on older, disabled, and bereaved families. www.newyorker.com/news/deep-st...

You know what else costs $1 billion? 1 year of raising the extraordinarily punitive $2,000 savings limit for poor elderly & disabled people who receive SSI. It traps people in poverty, not allowing them enough on hand for expenses, let alone investments in the future. www.vox.com/2024/4/3/241...

They tried this last year also. GAO is one of the few government actors still doing serious accountability of the executive branch, and they have a particular legal role in calling out impoundments. So Russ Vought and Trump have gone to war against them. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/congress-f...

Not enough people are talking about this.     The Trump Administration is moving to cut benefits for up to 400,000 disabled Americans — people with Down syndrome, severe autism, dementia — for no other reason than that they live at home with their families instead of in an institution.

Q: How will the new SSI rules impact your family? A: I have no clue Q: But you're something of an expert? A: I know, now imagine how everyone else must feel. Q: Why is it like this? A: Because Republicans love administrative burdens and do it on purpose. from @ms.now

Scoop — Trump admin's new Medicare portal accidentally exposed health workers’ social security numbers. It’s latest setback with DOGE-backed initiative. We flagged the problem to officials two days ago to fix it. with @ence.bsky.social

The Trump regime is pushing for a new rule that could strip as many as 400,000 low-income adults with disabilities of hundreds of dollars per month in assistance. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress just introduced a plan to use taxpayer money to fund Trump's vanity ballroom. Do I have this right?

UPDATE: We obtained new details in our work to hold DOGE and the Social Security Administration accountable, revealing a clear paper trail confirming SSA’s plan to exchange Americans’ personal, private data with an external entity. 🧵Here’s what you need to know:

Wow. The Trump Administration Aims to Penalize Disabled Adults Who Live With Their Families

Meanwhile they've doubled the military budget request to $1.5 trillion.

A rule change pushed by White House officials would slash benefits or end support for as many as 400,000 Supplemental Security Income recipients with Down syndrome, dementia and other disabilities whose parents or relatives receive SNAP benefits.

You should read every word of this powerful piece. For now, I'll pull some highlights about the Trump Administration's proposal to cut or even eliminate SSI benefits for up to 400K families caring for disabled loved ones while struggling to get by themselves. www.propublica.org/article/trum...

“People who are not struggling with their weight can be very judgmental,” Dr. Daniel Drucker said. “They never had their brains driving their behavior.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/h...

In July, Trump enacted the largest cuts to food assistance in US history. Then he indefinitely cancelled the survey that measures hunger in America. Meanwhile, official data show the number of people who receive food assistance in America plummeting. Reminder: OBBBA took food from hungry children

🚨SNAP tracker update: We just added March data for the 16 states reporting so far. The # of low-income people receiving SNAP continues to fall. Largest drops since H.R. 1 was enacted in July: AZ: -51% TN: -15% VA: -13% SC & TX: -11% CT, IN, KS, PA: -10%

After Republicans passed the biggest food stamps cut in history, enrollment has declined by 2.5 million people www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

I'm a DC resident--and the mom of teens--and I approve this message.

Frank Bisignano is set to testify before the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday. He is simultaneously the “CEO” of IRS and Commissioner of Social Security. During his tenure, some troubling patterns have emerged at SSA and IRS, which impact the millions of people who rely on their services. 🧵

I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win

This reality check by Rebecca Solnit grabs you right from the killer first sentence. Do yourself a favor & give it a read.

“The government’s recent acknowledgments are alarming and raise serious questions about its earlier conduct before the district court,” a federal appeals court said today in a decision vacating limits on DOGE’s access to sensitive data at the SSA. More 👇

I'm very glad Claire Cain Miller was able to include my figures in this NYT story: "Women in Their 20s May Not Be Having Babies, but by 45 Most Probably Will," including @karenguzzo.bsky.social, @alisongemmill.bsky.social, and @marthajbailey.bsky.social. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/u...

We warned that H.R. 1's SNAP cost shift could drive states to make it as difficult as possible to access SNAP, leaving eligible low-income families without the food assistance they need. In Arizona, that prediction appears to be coming true — with a heartbreaking human cost:

I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity to talk with @mariannedhe.bsky.social about some recent research I worked on. The article also includes powerful quotes from a lawyer who supports people with SSI & SSDI applications, and from someone struggling to access SSDI. Please check it out.

Happy Easter!

Trump's voting EO is likely illegal & also "isn’t feasible, as the federal government does not have the reliable data needed to construct accurate tallies of citizens & [their] states." The stakes are high: implementing the EO could disenfranchise eligible voters. www.nextgov.com/policy/2026/...

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

Just a week after voting by mail himself, the president thinks he can override the law and crack down on mail-in voting. The irony of this unlawful act is not lost on the American people. The EO is without legal authority and should be blocked by the courts.

Very clear conflict between the constitution and the actions the President is taking.

Trump is reportedly signing an EO requiring states to use SSA data to verify voter eligibility. But SSA doesn't have complete or up-to-date citizenship information, so this will almost inevitably lead to errors—potentially disenfranchising voters ahead of the midterms. www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-a...

Happy birthday to the Washington Metro, which opened 50 years ago today with service on 4.6 mi of Red Line between Rhode Is. Ave & Farragut N. System now serves 130 mi. The DC Metro shows that, with good planning & enough investment, the public sector can succeed & build something extraordinary.

Only 23% of government workers believe they “can report a suspected violation of a law, rule, or regulation without experiencing retaliation.” That's way down form the share the prior year (72%) who said they could report suspected illegal activity without fear www.thebulwark.com/p/two-more-g...

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Kathleen Romig of @centeronbudget.bsky.social continues her stellar analysis of the Trump administration's reckless management of Social Security. READ HERE::: www.cbpp.org/research/soc... @kathleenromig.bsky.social #socialsecurity #trump #ssa

This has been a consistent pattern with where federal contracts are cut, infrastructure cuts during the shutdown, cuts to blue states accused of fraud: Trump systematically discriminates against populations that do not support him.

At the same time the Trump administration is gutting the number of civil servants, we have never had more political appointees. Some of this violates the law (e.g. not more than 10% of the Senior Executive Service are supposed to be appointees). ourpublicservice.org/publications...

New from me: by the end of the week, the war in Iran will likely have cost $25 billion, with Trump poised to ask for $200 billion more Below is a writeup, but the meat of it is this table, which shows what an equal amount of funding could cover domestically www.americanprogress.org/article/by-t...

New OPM data reveal more about the long-term impact of the Admin’s policies at SSA, incl. how short-staffing is degrading service for the largely older, bereaved, & severely disabled ppl who most rely on SSA & creating challenges that will be hard to fix. www.cbpp.org/research/soc...

🚨The number of disability hearings awaiting resolution rose by more than 73,000 from January 2025 to February 2026, to nearly 344,000. After years of progress in reducing record backlogs (including during the first Trump Administration). The loss of judges makes it even more challenging to address.🚨

Hot off the presses! The Trump Administration continues to harm Social Security customer service, and the damage it's caused will have lasting effects on seniors, people with disabilities, and bereaved families. www.cbpp.org/research/soc...

"The average voter has heard Rs talking about fiscal discipline for decades, so they assume Rs must be the responsible ones. To conclude accurately that this is opposite of the truth, they'd have to understand what sometimes becomes fully clear only in retrospect, something beyond the ken of most."

In December, SSA IG released a phone audit showing the agency’s reported metric was accurate. But we reviewed a draft that was going to share that total wait times went over two hours. After the agency saw the draft, the total wait time metric was cut. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

I thought it was odd last year that SSA’s watchdog didn’t directly get at total phone wait times at SSA. Turns out a draft had that info, but it was taken out, per @merylkornfield.bsky.social, who writes that the OIG is trying to maintain a good relationship with the head of SSA.