Unbreaking

Canceled contracts, a failed polygraph and personal disputes: Inside the turbulent tenure of Noem’s former cyber czar A dozen current and former officials said that former acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala’s leadership was troublesome for the agency long before his reassignment late Thursday.

And chaos continued at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as an interim chief with no federal government experience was reassigned following reports of staff alienation and sudden contract changes.
www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Court says the IRS can continue to share immigrants' taxpayer data with ICE A federal appeals court is allowing the IRS to keep sharing some taxpayer data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Tuesday, the D.C.

A federal court in Washington, DC, allowed the IRS to share data with ICE: apnews.com/article/trea...

The Department of Defense’s Conflict With Anthropic and Deal With OpenAI Are a Call for Congress To Act Both Anthropic and OpenAI are calling on elected leaders to provide new AI protections.

The Center for American Progress @americanprogress.bsky.social has an overview of AI companies’ negotiations around use of AI in domestic surveillance and is advocating for Congress to pass legislation protecting Americans’ privacy.
www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...

Anthropic officially told by DOD that it's a supply chain risk even as Claude used in Iran The formal declaration will require defense vendors and contractors to certify that they don’t use Anthropic’s models in their work with the Pentagon.

The DOD designated Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” and barred them from federal contracts after Anthropic refused to reverse prohibitions on use of its products in domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.
www.cnbc.com/2026/03/05/a...

Democratic legislators sent investigative letters to 10 tech companies and mobile carriers asking what account data they have shared in response to DHS’s “administrative subpoenas” and also demanded an investigation into DHS’s use of online advertising data.
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...

Data Security — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

We added 12 entries to our Data Security timeline; several relate to the administration’s demands for unreserved cooperation from tech companies.
unbreaking.org/issues/data-...

Under GOP Pressure, Federal Agency Pulls Climate Change Chapter From Official Manual for U.S. Judges The “Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence” — updated for the first time in 15 years — eliminates some 90 pages about climate science and comes just as numerous climate cases make their way through…

The Federal Judicial Center excised the chapter on climate science from its reference manual in response to a request from more than 20 state attorneys general who claim that including climate science information “advances an ideological agenda.”
www.propublica.org/article/fede...

In February, the State Department announced that it would delete all posts made before January 20, 2025, on its X accounts. The old posts will be archived, but a Freedom of Information request will be required to view them.
www.newsweek.com/state-depart...

The slavery exhibits at the President’s House are starting to be restored by the National Park Service The restoration is the latest development in the city and community stakeholders’ fight to preserve the President’s House after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered the removal of exhibits.

In Archives & History news, a successful lawsuit by the City of Philadelphia has restored some panels depicting the history of slavery to the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park.
www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...

How to help — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

We’re always on the lookout for researchers, writers, and editors to pitch in and help us make and maintain these pages. Here’s how to join us: unbreaking.org/how-to-help/

Legal cases against the Trump administration’s public health actions continued, with 15 states now suing HHS over the CDC’s changes in vaccine recommendations.
www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regula...

The US was widely expected to lose its measles elimination status at the Pan American Health Organization meeting in April. But at the request of HHS, the decision has now been postponed until after the 2026 midterm elections. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/w...

Upcoming meeting of federal vaccine panel postponed after HHS missed deadlines Federal officials have missed the legal deadline to notify the public of an upcoming ACIP meeting, raising questions about whether the meeting will be postponed.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations on vaccine use and schedule, continued to show signs of disrupted activity and weakened influence.
www.statnews.com/2026/02/18/c...

The CDC Has a Leadership Crisis A 2023 law championed by Republicans requires the CDC have a director confirmed by the Senate. For months, though, it’s had only acting directors—and the White House won’t say when that will change.

Leadership instability persists at the CDC. The agency lost its principal deputy director after three months and saw the appointment of its fourth acting head in a year—NIH Director and close RFK Jr. ally Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
www.wired.com/story/the-cd...

Infectious Disease Control & Prevention — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

The Infectious Disease Control & Prevention page added 12 new items to our timeline. Amid worrying increases in measles, TB, and whooping cough outbreaks, we are seeing further erosion and politicization of public health organizations and networks.
unbreaking.org/issues/infec...

Since inmates have fewer advocates and lower oversight requirements, regressive policies are often tested on them first. We should consider the DOJ’s “Management Policy for Inmates with Gender Dysphoria” a roadmap for future violence.

Trump admin issues new policy aimed at ending transgender-related care in federal prisons "It's a really dangerous policy,” an ACLU lawyer representing trans people in federal prison suing the Trump administration tells Law Dork of the new Bureau of Prisons policy.

Here’s an explainer from Law Dork’s @Chris Geidner if you’d like to learn more about the specifics of the DOJ’s new policy—which, fun fact: the administration has previously denied the policy’s existence when pressed in court.
www.lawdork.com/p/trump-admi...

Federal prisons bar gender-affirming care for trans people "People will die," an advocate warns, as standard treatments for gender dysphoria are replaced with therapy and antidepressants after Trump’s order.

Disturbingly, it also mandates the “tapering” of existing hormone replacement therapy prescriptions in order to help inmates “recover” from being transgender.
19thnews.org/2026/02/gend...

This month the Department of Justice released a written policy for “managing” transgender people who have been incarcerated in federal prisons. It forbids both medical and social transition—an escalation from behavior courts have previously blocked.

How to help — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

The volume is honestly overwhelming. We’re always looking for help researching, writing, and editing, so if this topic is important to you, too, then you should reach out!
unbreaking.org/how-to-help/

STAT estimates that at least 42 hospitals have cancelled care for transgender people since the beginning of Trump’s term. Unbreaking has counted at least six since the new year. It’s only *March*.

University of Utah suddenly ends all remaining health care for transgender youth, pointing to expected bans University of Utah doctors have also been instructed they are not allowed to help coordinate hormonal care for patients elsewhere in the state, where it might still be an option.

Hospitals continue voluntarily complying with demands to cancel gender-affirming care for minors. The University of Utah has done something we’ve never seen before at Unbreaking: They’ve prohibited their doctors from even transferring patients to new providers.
www.sltrib.com/news/educati...

Transgender Healthcare: Timeline — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

On the bright side, we’re also tracking new acts of resistance—both from the public and from elected officials.

You can find our updated timeline here: unbreaking.org/issues/trans...

Transgender Healthcare: Timeline — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

This week, the Transgender Healthcare page added 7 new items to the timeline. These include multiple cancellations of gender-affirming care and new policies from the DOJ mandating the forced detransition of inmates. Grim stuff.

Briefing: Transgender Healthcare + more — Unbreaking This week, we have a focused briefing on Transgender Healthcare and quick updates from our Archives & History, Data Security, and Infectious Disease Control & Prevention teams.

This week, our big briefing is focused on trans healthcare, and we have quick updates from the Archives & History, Data Security, and Infectious Disease Control & Prevention teams.
unbreaking.org/blog/briefin...

Congress nixes Trump research funding cuts, easing fears among Mass. scientists and lawmakers - The Boston Globe US Representative Jake Auchincloss said the stark reversal demonstrates "how to beat back Trump."

The Congress-approved appropriations bill increases the NIH budget by $415 million and includes protections for indirect-cost budgets and guardrails for forward funding rules.
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/04/m...

US Cancer Institute Studying Ivermectin’s ‘Ability To Kill Cancer Cells’ - KFF Health News At a January event organized by allies of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., National Cancer Institute Director Anthony Letai said results may be released “in a few months.” Ivermectin, used to d...

The National Cancer Institute announced that it will investigate the anticancer effects of ivermectin, a horse deworming drug that gained traction among the far right for medical uses unproven in humans.
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

N.I.H. Director Will Temporarily Run C.D.C. in Leadership Shake-Up

NIH director Jay Bhattacharya has been announced as acting director of the CDC, consolidating his power within the Department of Health and Human Services.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...

Federal judge rules Trump admin may not remove people to third countries without due process The judge wrote that people must receive meaningful notice and the chance to challenge their deportations.

…and another from District Judge Brian Murphy, who ruled that third-country deportations (sending people to countries they’re not from or connected to) are unlawful. The ruling is paused to allow for appeal.

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Judge Condemns ‘Terror Against Noncitizens’ and Orders Hearings for Detainees

We saw potentially high-impact rulings in several cases we’ve been watching, including one from District Judge Sunshine Sykes requiring bond hearings for thousands of detained immigrants…

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/u...