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It's been six months since President Trump first announced the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, which has dramatically shrunk parts of the federal government. And with so many individual stories about federal workers losing their jobs around the country, the big picture can sometimes look blurry.
A team of NPR reporters has been looking at agencies — from food inspectors to nuclear scientists to firefighters and more — and today, we'll connect some of the dots on how DOGE cuts have impacted workers, and hear how Americans far beyond Washington may feel the effects of these cuts.
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(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)
An attempt by DOGE to assign a team to the independent Government Accountability Office was rejected Friday. The GAO is part of the legislative branch and not subject to DOGE's request.
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President Trump was greeted like royalty during his four-day trip to the Middle East, his first major foreign trip of this second term, where it was all about business deals and not moral leadership.
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The former FBI director posted — then deleted — a picture of seashells forming "8647." Trump and his allies view it as a call for his assassination, but Comey says he was unaware of that meaning.
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DOGE employees demanded the highest level of access to the labor agency's systems, according to a whistleblower and reporting from NPR. The whistleblower said sensitive data then left the agency.
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Criticism of "activist" judges predates the term and has come from both ends of the political spectrum. Democratic and Republican presidents alike have accused the courts of exceeding their constitutional role.
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Cathy Harris and Gwynne Wilcox, Democratic board members of independent agencies, argue that President Trump lacked the authority to fire them, citing federal law and Supreme Court precedent.
The health care giant's shares are down more than 50% in the last month. That's hurting the powerful U.S. stock-market index.
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Georgia's law that restricts abortion once cardiac activity is detected doesn't allow relatives to have a say in whether a pregnant woman is kept on life support.
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President Trump's order that would end automatic citizenship for the children of many categories of immigrants has been blocked from going into effect by three separate federal judges. Those injunctions have been upheld by three separate appeals courts.
So Thursday's case at the Supreme Court was really about two questions: Whether the constitution guarantees birthright citizenship and whether judges can issue nationwide injunctions against federal policies.
University of Virginia law professor Amanda Frost, author of the book You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers, followed the arguments and breaks down clues that point to the Justices' thinking.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer)