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For Immediate Release
March, 03 2025, 11:28am EDT
Contact:
Brett Hartl, bhartl@biologicaldiversity.org
Lawsuit Seeks to Prevent DOGE, Musk From Gutting U.S. Environmental Agencies
The Center Biological Diversity sued five cabinet-level agencies today seeking to stop the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its DOGE teams from taking further actions against multiple environmental agencies until each team fully complies with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. This is the first lawsuit challenging DOGE’s efforts to eviscerate the agencies charged with protecting the environment, natural resources and wildlife.
Today’s lawsuit aims to protect the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service within the Department of the Interior; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the Department of Commerce; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Forest Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service within the Department of Agriculture; and the Federal Aviation Administration within the Department of Transportation.
“Elon Musk and his hacker minions are tearing apart the federal agencies that protect our public lands, keep our air and water clean, and conserve our most cherished wildlife. The public has every right to know why they’re waging this cruel war on our environment,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center. “Musk has shown that he can and will destroy a federal agency in a single weekend. If his deranged antics are allowed to continue, we might never be able to fix the damage to America’s environment.”
President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency requires each federal agency to implement so-called DOGE teams. Because these teams likely include a mix of full-time, part-time, volunteer and special government employees (the designation given to Musk) they must comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. To date, no agency has even announced its intention to comply with this important transparency law, which applies to advisory committees established by the president.
Since establishing DOGE, Musk and a small number of people have unlawfully dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, unilaterally terminated federal contracts to further the right-wing cultural agenda, attempted to obtain personal data on virtually every person in the country, and driven the mass firing of thousands of federal workers.
Staffing reductions already implemented by Musk and DOGE have cut approximately 2,300 federal probationary workers from the Interior Department, including 1,000 National Park Service employees, 800 Bureau of Land Management employees and 400 Fish and Wildlife Service employees, roughly 4% of the department’s entire staff. Another 3,400 employees were terminated from the Forest Service and at least 390 employees were laid off at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Today’s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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'It Was a Field Execution': IDF Shoots Driver Delivering Relief Supplies to Gaza in the Head
A Gaza trucker's association leader called it "a deliberate killing of a civilian driver who had complied with all instructions."
Jul 09, 2026
A soldier with the Israel Defense Forces reportedly shot and killed a Palestinian driver delivering aid to Gaza on Wednesday in what witnesses described as a "field execution."
Based on accounts from three witnesses, The Guardian reported that the driver, Ahmad Nasser Saleem, was shot in the head at close range shortly after his convoy entered Gaza to deliver food supplies from the World Central Kitchen.
They said the four-truck convoy had stopped along the Philadelphi Corridor on the edge of Gaza after one of the vehicles broke down. Israeli soldiers then ordered the drivers to dismount before one of them shot Saleem in the head when his hands were raised.
The other drivers in the convoy stressed that every movement made by the World Central Kitchen is coordinated with the Israeli government.
“After the truck broke down, we waited for authorization to get out and inspect it, because every movement we make has to be coordinated in advance,” said one of the other drivers, Diaa Mansour.
He said that while they were awaiting authorization, an Israeli military vehicle arrived and soldiers ordered him, Saleem, and another driver, Alaa Shaat, to get out of their trucks.
“They made us stand by the side of the road. They ordered me to take off my clothes and forced me to sit under the sun,” Mansour said. “Then they brought Ahmad out of his truck. One of the soldiers began talking to Ahmad while he stood with his hands raised. Ahmad did not speak Hebrew, and it seemed the soldiers did not understand his Arabic."
"Suddenly, they shot him. He was hit in the head and died at the scene," Mansour said. "It appeared they were trying to find out why we had stopped, but they did not understand the situation and opened fire immediately, without any discussion or attempt to communicate.”
Jihad Saleem, the deputy head of the Association of Transport Companies in Gaza, identified as a distant relative of the aid worker who was killed, said that the transportation of aid was "100%" coordinated with Israel through the UN World Food Program and WCK.
"The moment Ahmad raised his hands in surrender, one of the soldiers drew his M16 rifle and shot him directly in the head,” he said. “It was a field execution and a deliberate killing of a civilian driver who had complied with all instructions. He was wearing his orange safety vest and carried all the required permits, security clearances, and coordination that had been approved by the IDF."
The IDF confirmed the shooting, but disputed the series of events. A military spokesperson said the convoy "had stopped along the Philadelphi Corridor and exited their trucks contrary to established procedures" and that one of the drivers "ran toward the troops" who "initiated the suspect apprehension protocol and, after perceiving an immediate threat, opened fire toward him."
Jihad Saleem said that “drivers are subjected to daily violations, including beatings, abuse, humiliation, and being forced to stand for long hours under the sun."
“Even more disturbing," Saleem said, "the soldier who shot Ahmad talked to the three surviving drivers afterward and threatened them, saying they would meet the same fate as Ahmad. This clearly indicates that the attack was deliberate.”
Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, which began in October 2023, has included the systematic restriction of humanitarian aid entering the strip, which has caused widespread starvation, which humanitarian groups have said Israel is using as a "weapon of war" against the Palestinian population.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said as of April 29, 2026, that it had recorded the killing of 593 aid workers in the territory, including eight since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in October 2025.
The shooting of Ahmad Saleem follows the shooting of two other Palestinian aid drivers in May under similar circumstances. According to The Guardian, the two men had been detained by the IDF for days before being released near a roundabout in Rafah where they were each shot.
The month before, two drivers working for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) were killed by Israeli fire as they were filling their water trucks at an established distribution point.
Saleem is at least the 11th documented worker with WCK to have been killed by Israeli forces during the conflict. In April 2024, an Israeli strike hit a convoy clearly marked with the WCK logo and killed seven workers after the drivers had similarly coordinated their movements with the IDF.
That November, Israel bombed another vehicle, killing three WCK workers and two others, claiming that one of them had been involved in Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack against Israel, which was not independently confirmed and which the WCK said it had no knowledge of.
WCK said in a statement that it was "devastated" to learn of Saleem's killing on Wednesday.
"Ahmad Nasser Saleem was doing what so many of our partners do every day in Gaza—working to get food to hungry people," the group said. "We are in contact with his family, and our deepest grief is with them. WCK expects a full accounting of what happened. Humanitarian aid deliveries should never be a target."
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'Sign the Damn Bill!' Anger at Trump Grows as US Housing Prices Hit All-Time High
US Sen. Amy Klouchar said that the housing bill has "been sitting on President Trump’s desk long enough."
Jul 09, 2026
With President Donald Trump still refusing to sign bipartisan legislation aimed at lowering the cost of housing, fresh outrage erupted Thursday as new data shows buying a home in the US has never been more expensive.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Thursday released its monthly report on home sales showing that the median sales price of existing homes grew to $440,600, a record high.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR, said that housing supply remains a major barrier to making owning a home more affordable.
"Progress on long-term housing affordability could be hampered if inventory growth continues to stall," said Yun. "Without consistent gains in inventory, home prices can accelerate. It is critical to introduce more supply to the market to widen the opportunity for homeownership."
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the US Congress last month, was designed specifically to address the housing shortage in the US.
Among other things, the bill prohibits large Wall Street investors from buying up new single-family homes, streamlines environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and creates a $200 million annual competitive grant program to benefit communities that have demonstrated success in expanding their housing supplies.
Trump, however, refused to sign the legislation, insisting that it be paired with the SAVE America Act, a voter suppression bill that will curb ballot access but Republicans in Congress do not currently have enough power to pass.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who co-wrote the housing bill alongside Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), took to social media on Thursday and pointed to a poll showing that the legislation has overwhelming support throughout the country.
"The American people have a message for President Trump," Warren wrote. "Sign the damn bill."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also took a shot at the president for dragging his feet on the legislation.
"Over two weeks ago, Congress passed the ROAD to Housing Act with overwhelming bipartisan support," Klobuchar wrote. "It will pave the way for more housing, make it easier to build, and help more Americans find a place to call home. It’s been sitting on President Trump’s desk long enough. Sign the bill."
Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), currently a candidate for the US Senate running in New Hampshire, urged Trump to finally take action.
"It's never been more expensive to buy a home," wrote Pappas. "I helped pass a bipartisan housing bill to bring down home prices, and I'm calling on the President to get it over the finish line."
Trump's illegal war of choice with Iran has also not helped the housing affordability crisis, as it has led to an inflation spike that has left the Federal Reserve with little room to lower interest rates without risking further price acceleration.
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'Like Putting a Flat Earther in Charge of NASA': Trump Appoints Climate Denier to Key Climate Post
Putting an "utterly unqualified" person like Matthew Wielicki in charge of the National Climate Assessment, said one critic, “would jeopardize the integrity of one of the nation’s most important climate science resources.”
Jul 09, 2026
The Trump White House has quietly reconstituted the US Global Change Research Program—but that doesn't mean the administration has turned over a new leaf on combating the climate crisis.
According to a Thursday report from Politico, the administration decided to bring the USGCRP, which tracks the impact of manmade climate change and produces the country's National Climate Assessment report, back to life just a little more than a year after terminating its funding.
But there's a twist: A source has confirmed to Politico that the USGCRP is now being headed by Matthew Wielicki, a former University of Alabama geochemist and self-described "professor in exile" who frequently attacks climate science in social media posts.
In his role, Wielicki will be in charge of writing the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report outlining the impacts that climate change is having on US infrastructure and the economy.
In an interview with Politico, Wielicki revealed that he's been soliciting ideas for what to include in the next National Climate Assessment from X, the social media website owned by Elon Musk that is notorious for being awash in right-wing propaganda and scientific misinformation.
In the past, noted Politico, Wielicki dismissed climate research entirely, arguing that a "significant portion of the climate science literature is nothing more than stamp collecting," while suggesting that scientists are fabricating data to give a false impression of a warming planet.
Dr. Carlos Martinez, senior climate scientist for the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, wasted no time blasting Wielicki's appointment.
"Reconstituting the UCSGCRP only to place the National Climate Assessment under the auspices of an utterly unqualified climate science denier," Martinez said, "would jeopardize the integrity of one of the nation’s most important climate science resources."
Martinez emphasized that the National Climate Assessment "is not a political document" and is "supposed to be developed through a rigorous, transparent, multi-agency scientific process involving federal experts, external scientists, extensive review—including by the National Academies—and public input."
Ryan Katz-Rosene, professor at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, said Wielicki's appointment "sadly... is not a joke," and that it was "like putting a Flat Earther in charge of NASA."
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