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general services administration
Trump Admin Poised to Terminate Remaining Federal Contracts With Harvard
"This is all so wildly lawless," wrote one observer.
May 27, 2025
The Trump administration is moving to identify and terminate remaining federal contracts with Harvard University, a fresh blow in the White House's effort to undercut the Ivy League school.
The planned contract cuts, which tally an estimated $100 million, are outlined in a draft letter dated Tuesday from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which was obtained by The New York Times. The letter is being sent on Tuesday to federal agencies, per the Times, and states that the GSA is "assisting all federal agencies in a review for termination or transition of their federal government contracts with Harvard University and affiliates."
"Going forward, we also encourage your agency to seek alternative vendors for future services where you had previously considered Harvard," according to the letter, which is signed by Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum. Agencies must report back to Gruenbaum about the actions they plan to take with the contracts by June 6.
An administration official who spoke anonymously to the Times said that the move constitutes a total severing of the federal government's financial relationship with Harvard. An example of a contract that would be impacted is a U.S. National Institutes of Health grant worth $49,858 to study the effects of drinking coffee.
"This is all so wildly lawless," wrote Garrett M. Graff, a journalist and author, on Tuesday in response to the news.
Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law scholar and professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, wrote Tuesday: "Trump's latest retaliatory cancellation of all of Harvard's federal contracts (whatever the harm to national security!) erases any doubt that he is trying to punish Harvard with a Bill of Attainder that the Constitution would forbid as a usurpation of judicial power even if Congress went along."
A bill of attainder permits the government to punish a party for an alleged crime without first going through a judicial trial. In the U.S., they are unconstitutional.
The letter from the GSA follows the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's decision last week to bar the school from enrolling foreign students and forcing international students already enrolled at Harvard to transfer elsewhere. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs handed down a temporary restraining order, halting the ban on international students while litigation proceeds.
DHS rationalized the decision by alleging that Harvard's leaders have failed to create a safe environment and allowed "anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators" to harass people, including Jewish students. The assertion that Harvard is not doing enough to protect Jewish students also featured in the letter from GSA.
The letter states that The Harvard Law Review gave a $65,000 fellowship to a law student who was accused of assaulting a Jewish student during a 2023 action in support of Palestine. That student did not admit wrongdoing and avoided criminal prosecution, per the Times. The student agreed to perform community service.
Also, according to the letter, "GSA understands that Harvard continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admissions process and other areas of student life."
Since April, the federal government has frozen billions in funding to Harvard, per the Times. The university has sued in response.
Meanwhile, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday that he is mulling taking $3 billion from Harvard and giving it to trade schools.
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Trump Gutting of GSA Office Puts Dozens of Federal Childcare Centers at Risk
"It's an assault on people with small children being able to work," said one childcare facility board member.
Mar 31, 2025
The recent mass firing of employees at a federal childcare office and the elimination of its work accrediting dozens of facilities on federal property may ultimately further U.S. President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk's, goal of shrinking the government—with many public servants likely to be pushed out of their jobs due to a lack of childcare.
In a move that was not previously reported to the public, the General Services Administration (GSA)—which handles real estate and leasing for the federal government—fired nearly everyone on the 18-person staff of the agency's childcare office on March 7, soon after their supervisor advised them to take the "deferred resignation" offered by the Office of Personnel Management under the direction of Musk's advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
As The Washington Post reported Monday, the only remaining employee of the office, Jennifer Fee, told childcare centers run by the GSA on March 18 that the office would no longer be paying for accreditation or renewal for centers or requiring the facilities to be accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which has "long set the national standard for high-quality early learning programs."
The NAEYC told the Post the change is likely to result in "decreased quality and access."
"We're going to have less accreditation, less standards to follow, potentially lower quality, and higher tuition costs."
Ultimately, one member of the board of directors of a GSA childcare center told the Post, "it's an assault on people with small children being able to work."
"We're going to have less accreditation, less standards to follow, potentially lower quality, and higher tuition costs," said the member.
The GSA has overseen 82 childcare centers in federal buildings across the country for years, with the centers required to ensure that at least half the children they serve are the dependents of federal employees.
The centers have for years been able to provide care while charging families considerably less money than the average private childcare facility because the GSA covers facility costs and accreditation fees, with the childcare center board member telling the Post her center was able to charge $2,000 per month for tuition—less than many accredited centers in the Washington, D.C. area.
At least 12 of the GSA's childcare centers are located in places identified by the Center for American Progress as "childcare deserts," where there are more children in need of childcare than there are spots at licensed centers.
Half of the centers—41—are in government buildings that were included on a list of federal properties that DOGE targeted for ending their leases, and eight have been named as ones that could be eliminated more quickly through "accelerated disposition," according to new list posted by the GSA last week.
"This harms children, families, and childcare providers who care for them," said the Empire State Campaign for Child Care.
Chris Adams, a software developer, said it was "characteristically cruel" of the Trump administration to likely force both public and private sector workers "to quit by going after their childcare."
Longtime early childhood educator and advocate Cindy Jurie said the gutting of the childcare office suggests "tax breaks for the wealthy supersede all else."
While demanding cuts to government investments in foreign aid, health research, Social Security, healthcare, and education, Trump and the Republican Party have pushed for a permanent extension to 2017 tax cuts that primarily benefited corporations and the richest Americans.
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Democrats Demand Hearing on 'Backroom Agreement' Between DOGE and DeJoy
"Any potential deal that would give Elon Musk and his DOGE associates unilateral authority to manipulate the most critical, expansive national mail network on the planet is deeply troubling," wrote a group of House Democrats.
Mar 17, 2025
A group of House Democrats is demanding that the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform conduct a public hearing on the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency's plans for the U.S. Postal Service, in light of recent reporting that U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says he signed an agreement with DOGE to assist the nation's mail service "in identifying and achieving further efficiencies."
The news follows Washington Post coverage from February, when the outlet reported that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering putting the Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department. In December, the Post also reported that Trump was eyeing privatizing the Postal Service. Elon Musk, a GOP megadonor who is playing a core role in Trump's efforts to slash federal spending and personnel, has also said the Postal Service should be privatized.
Postal workers unions are fiercely opposed to any effort to privatize the Postal Service.
"The Trump administration... is now subjecting the USPS, America's most trusted federal institution, to the chainsaw approach of Elon Musk and DOGE. This broad assault on the independence of the USPS demands congressional oversight, especially from the committee with jurisdiction over the USPS," according to the letter, which was signed by 20 House Democrats.
In a March 13 letter to congressional leaders, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Congress he signed an agreement with representatives from Elon Musk's DOGE and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) so that DOGE could help the U.S. Postal Service, which has experienced billions in financial losses in recent years, work to address "big problems."
The Postal Service plans to cut 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program, according to DeJoy's letter.
DeJoy cited challenges facing the Postal Service, such as "mismanagement of our self-funded retirement assets," "burdensome regulatory requirements restricting normal business practice," and "unfunded mandates imposed on us by legislation."
The letter demanding a public hearing, which was addressed to House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), was spearheaded by Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), and Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.)
"This backroom agreement between the billionaire-led DOGE and Postmaster DeJoy sets off alarm bells about this administration's plans for the Postal Service's role as a cornerstone public institution," according to the letter. "The Postal Service facilitates the delivery of more than 115 billion pieces of mail each year, a significant portion of which is delivered to rural, low-income, and hard-to-reach areas that would not otherwise receive service if not for the universal service obligation, which has received bipartisan support in Congress and is integral to the mission of Postal Service."
"We agree that there are steps Congress could take to strengthen the financial sustainability of the Postal Service, but any potential deal that would give Elon Musk and his DOGE associates unilateral authority to manipulate the most critical, expansive national mail network on the planet is deeply troubling," they continued.
The group is urging that the committee hold a hearing and wrote that they have prepared a letter to send to DeJoy asking that he furnish any signed agreements he made with the GSA and DOGE. The group is urging that Comer also sign on to that letter.
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