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For Immediate Release
April, 04 2024, 12:23pm EDT
Contact:
David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org
New Rule Protects Civil Servants, Keeps Federal Workforce Independent
Washington, D.C.
The Biden administration today issued a final rule that protects 2.2 million federal civil service employees from political hirings and firings. Bitsy Skerry, regulatory policy associate for Public Citizen, issued the following statement:
“An independent federal workforce ensures that our government works for all of us, not for one party or one person. Our nation’s civil servants, the workhorses of our democracy, deserve strong protections to ensure their jobs are based on a foundation of nonpartisan merit and expertise, not partisan bias and loyalty. Civil servants across the country, not just in Washington, D.C., serve the public interest every day by delivering our mail, ensuring the food and medicine we purchase is safe, and protecting our national security. Safeguarding their jobs protects us all, and the Biden administration’s new rule does just that.”
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
Troy Jackson Says He Would 'Never Vote’ for Military Aid to Israel if Elected to Senate
"Anybody with eyes and a heart knows the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza," the Maine Senate candidate said.
Jul 10, 2026
As he runs to take the place of Graham Platner as the Democratic US Senate nominee for Maine, former State Senate President Troy Jackson affirmed that he was in step with the majority of Democratic voters and would oppose sending military aid to Israel as it commits what he called a "genocide" in Gaza.
Jackson, a longtime labor activist who finished third in the Democratic gubernatorial primary last month, has been floated by many progressives as a fitting replacement for Platner, who suspended his campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins this week following sexual assault allegations.
In his campaign announcement, Jackson hit many similar themes to Platner, who won the Democratic primary last month.
Jackson billed himself as a "progressive fighter" seeking to build a "powerful movement of working-class people" and emphasizing his support for Medicare for All and "tak[ing] on corporate power."
But some observers noted the absence of any mention of Gaza, which Platner emphasized heavily and which has become a central moral issue for many Democratic voters, who overwhelmingly oppose continued support for Israel as it commits what the majority feel is a genocide against Palestinians.
A review of Jackson's social media history showed that he had no posts about Gaza when he announced his campaign on Wednesday.
But following reports that an Israeli missile strike had killed a Palestinian aid worker who'd organized World Cup watch parties in Gaza, Jackson took the opportunity to make his stance clear.
"This is unconscionable," Jackson wrote on X. "Anybody with eyes and a heart knows the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza. It has to end, and we as Americans have the power to end it."
"When I'm in the US Senate," he continued, "I’ll never vote in favor of US taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel."
Other leading candidates, most of whom ran for governor, have expressed a range of opinions about Israel's conduct.
Nirav Shah, a physician who led the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention from 2019 to 2023 and finished second in the gubernatorial primary, has expressed a similarly strong stance that Israel was committing genocide and that he would support a full arms embargo and would refuse any campaign funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Shenna Bellows, who came in fourth place in the governor's race and currently serves as Maine's secretary of state, has not publicly expressed a clear opinion on support for Israel, though in her 2014 Senate run against Collins, she advocated more generally for “deep cuts in defense spending” so public money could be directed toward domestic projects.
The progressive group Our Revolution, which has thrown its support behind Jackson, commended the candidate for taking a forthright stance.
"Troy Jackson doesn’t do word salad," the group said. "He calls a genocide a genocide and says he’ll never vote for taxpayer-funded military aid to fund it. That’s what Maine voters delivered a historic win for on June 9."
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Trump Admin Trying to Deport Witnesses Who Contradicted ICE Claims About Fatal Shooting
"ICE appears to have lied yet again about killing someone," said one immigration expert.
Jul 10, 2026
The controversy surrounding the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by federal immigration enforcement officials is growing amid new reports that the Trump administration is trying to deport three witnesses to the the fatal shooting.
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said in a Thursday interview with The New Republic that the witnesses, all undocumented immigrants who were detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials after the shooting, are "being pressured to sign self-deportation orders."
"They’re currently in detention," said Proaño, who is serving as a representative for Salgado Araujo's family. "These men hold the key to what actually happened."
Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who ran a small construction business and had been living in the US for more than three decades, was pulled over by ICE officers in unmarked vehicles on Tuesday morning.
ICE officers claimed that Salgado Araujo, who was driving to work along with three coworkers, tried to evade arrest by ramming his car into them.
Purportedly fearing for his life, one ICE agent opened fire on Salgado Araujo and killed him, the officers said.
However, The Washington Post reported on Friday that all three men who were in the car with Salgado Araujo are strongly disputing the ICE agents' account of the deadly incident.
In fact, all three witnesses said that the ICE officer involved in the shooting opened fire immediately after exiting his vehicle, and that Salgado Araujo did not try to drive into him.
Detainee Jose Trinidad Rojas, 51, in a hand-written statement obtained by the Post through attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, bluntly contradicted the ICE officers' claims.
"That is a lie,” Trinidad Rojas wrote. “It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over … there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides."
Balderas-Ibarra told the Post that he interviewed the other two men in the car, who both gave the same account.
“All of them reiterated that there were never any ICE agents in front of the van,” Balderas-Ibarra said. “They came in and started shooting from the sides.”
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said in a Friday social media post that the Post's reporting seems to show "ICE appears to have lied yet again about killing someone."
"Unbelievable," he added, "but actually totally believable given that they lie about events fully captured on video."
In a separate post, Bier examined a video of the shooting scene and noted that there appeared to be no damage to the front of Salgado Araujo's van, even as ICE claimed Salgado Araujo had tried to use it as a weapon against them.
Video appears to show no damage to the vehicle of the man ICE killed in Houston, who had lived in America peacefully for 35 years, despite ICE's claim that he "rammed" an ICE vehicle and "tried to run over" an agent. These people are not credible. https://t.co/3d3cBJBMUg pic.twitter.com/N7GqoW7ycq
— David J. Bier (@David_J_Bier) July 9, 2026
"These people are not credible," Bier remarked.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, pointed out that all three witnesses to the shooting were telling the same stories even though they were being detained separately, which he said bolsters their credibility.
"When you add the videos showing a lack of evidence of damage to the front despite ICE's ramming claim," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick added, "ICE's story is falling apart."
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'A Pathetic Power Grab': Trump Purges Bipartisan Election Assistance Commission
"This move undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration," said Arizona's secretary of state.
Jul 10, 2026
US President Donald Trump late Thursday forced out the remaining three members of an independent, bipartisan commission that assists state election officials across the country, a move that critics condemned as a "pathetic power grab" ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, were fired, and Republican Commissioner Christy McCormick resigned at the White House's request, according to ProPublica. The agency, established by Congress more than two decades ago, now lacks leadership and any ability to make decisions, just months before the 2026 elections.
The EAC, as its website states, is "an independent, bipartisan commission whose mission is to help election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process." In an executive order last year, Trump ordered the EAC to implement proof-of-citizenship requirements in the federal voter registration process, along with other changes. The president's effort to impose his policy demands on the EAC was mostly blocked in federal court.
Trump, who has said he wants his administration to "take over" voting nationwide ahead of the 2026 midterms, has since taken other steps that watchdogs and Democratic lawmakers say amount to an attempt to preemptively subvert the coming elections, including a sweeping assault on mail-in voting—which is also facing legal challenges. Legislatively, Trump is pushing Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that experts say would prevent millions of Americans from voting.
Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, said Thursday's EAC firings "are deeply concerning in light of President Trump’s relentless efforts to try to interfere in elections."
"These removals leave the agency without leadership and unable to carry out its major responsibilities," said Waldman. "The guardrails Congress placed on this agency are clear and must be followed: The Election Assistance Commission was designed to be bipartisan with four members, no more than two of which can be from the same political party. The agency cannot make any significant decisions or take any significant actions unless three confirmed commissioners agree. Until bipartisan replacements are confirmed, the agency cannot lawfully make any decisions that affect how Americans vote."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said Trump's termination of EAC commissioners underscores that "he’s scared of the voting power of the American people."
"This move is another pathetic attempt to sow doubt in our elections, which are safely and expertly run by states and localities," said Gilbert. "This agency deserves a steady hand and expert leadership. That said, it is important for voters to know that states and localities, not the EAC, run our elections. Even more importantly, it is the voters who decide who takes office."
The EAC firings came less than two weeks after the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court handed Trump the power to purge independent agencies at will with its Trump v. Slaughter ruling, erasing around 90 years of precedent.
Election law expert Rick Hasen warned in a blog post on Thursday that Trump "could try to direct the commissioner-less EAC to do his bidding, for example by stating that the EAC must amend the federal voter registration form that states must accept for federal elections to include documentary proof of citizenship."
"Trump’s first voting-related EO tried to do this, and he was stymied. But that was acting through the commissioners and before the Slaughter case," Hasen noted. "If he tries anything like this, it will be high-profile and very important litigation that will end up at the Supreme Court on the emergency docket over the summer."
Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, said in a statement late Thursday that the EAC purge was "irresponsible and dangerous," accusing the administration of remaining "dead set on causing chaos for our election officials across this country."
"This move undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration," Fontes added.
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