In the 100 days since the second Trump Administration began, there has been a barrage of harmful Executive Orders, confirmation hearings for dangerous and unqualified political nominees, unprecedented firing of federal employees along with restructuring or near elimination of many federal agencies. Amidst a nonstop, chaotic whirlwind of daily breaking news, court decisions and more, the Administration is abusing its power to turn back the clock on rights and protections for hundreds of millions of people.
Below we highlight some ways this administration has been particularly harmful for women and their families.
Threats to Women in the Workplace
1. Undoing long-standing protections for federal contract workers from workplace discrimination by rescinding Executive Order 11246.
For sixty years – during Democratic and Republican presidential administrations alike – EO 11246 has been in place to ensure that federal contractors do not discriminate against their employees on the basis of race, religion, sex, age, and more. The order has been an important tool against rooting out historic gender discrimination, unearthing difficult to find pay disparities, and helping to increase the number of women in upper level, higher paying jobs in leadership when they’d been previously shut out due to their gender. Now that the Trump Administration has rescinded the Executive Order in its entirety, all workers – though women and women of color in particular are especially likely to face discrimination – are left without affirmative protections in the face of discrimination from employers receiving taxpayer dollars.
2. Effectively dismantling the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
The OFCCP is tasked with enforcement of anti-discrimination laws for federal contractors, including but not limited to EO 11246, and is meant to enforce key protections for veterans and disabled people. The Office oversees contracts with more than 25,000 firms – which employ 22 percent of the American workforce – and has recovered billions for workers and job seekers who suffered from discrimination. The National Partnership finds that between 2014 and 2024, the OFCCP obtained over $260 million for employees and job seekers who were discriminated against and provided financial relief to almost 260,000 employees and job seekers. Despite its obvious role in protecting at least 36 million workers, the Trump Administration is attempting to gut the office’s enforcement power. As directed by DOGE, President Trump, and Elon Musk, the Department of Labor has planned to cut OFFCP staff by 90 percent, placing approximately two hundred employees on administrative leave and impacting five of the agency’s six regional offices.
3. Weaponizing the EEOC.
The Trump Administration has taken actions to kneecap the EEOC’s true purpose of enforcing civil rights laws and anti-discrimination provisions and worked to weaponize the office to investigate employers that President Trump has a personal vendetta against. The weaponization of the EEOC’s remaining staff and resources includes its questioning of twenty law firms over their hiring practices, many of which the President has made clear he views as hostile to him; in a series of high-profile Executive Orders. The Trump Administration has taken aim at many of those same law firms to pressure them into offering concessions to the President and his false claims of systemic discrimination against white men.
4. Intimidating private sector companies to do-away with efforts to implement equitable hiring practices and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.
On day one of the Administration, President Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at dismantling “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” programs. President Trump and his conservative allies often use “DEI” as an all-encompassing phrase synonymous with perceived discrimination against white men, but that ignores the long history of racism and sexism that these programs and civil rights laws are designed to remedy. Instead, the Executive Order is a proxy for attacks on civil rights and discrimination protections overall. It targets equity measures in the federal government and threatens advances in the private sector in equitable hiring, equal pay, and anti-discrimination for women. In the weeks since the Order, many companies have used the “evolving legal landscape” to cut or change their diversity, equity and inclusion goals, including Accenture, Pepsi, and Citigroup.
5. Firing National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Board Member Gwynne Wilcox and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo.
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees from unfair labor practices, supports their ability to organize a union, and enforces the National Labor Relations Act. Research by the National Partnership finds that Black and Asian women and part-time workers had the largest gains in union membership growth in 2024 and women workers who are represented by a union see a multitude of benefits, including higher wages and more access to vital benefits such as paid leave, pensions, and health coverage. Despite the benefits of the NLRB’s work, President Trump illegally fired Board member Gwynne Wilcox just one week after his inauguration. She is both the first Black woman to ever sit on the NLRB Board and the first to be terminated from the position. And without Wilcox and a permanent general counsel, the NLRB Board is short of the required three-person quorum and cannot make major decisions. The decision has triggered a lengthy legal battle with profound consequences – there is a chance that the eventual Supreme Court case will set the stage to overturn or diminish a precedent that protects members of some independent agencies from being removed for political causes.
6. Firing Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Commissioners Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, as well as General Counsel Karla Gilbride.
The EEOC is an independent federal agency with a bipartisan slate of five commissioners; the agency is at the frontlines of civil rights enforcement, investigating and remedying employment discrimination charges. In FY 2023 alone, the Commission received more than 81,000 complaints of alleged discrimination, including discrimination by sex, race, religion, and age. The EEOC plays a vital role in ensuring that all workers – and women workers in particular – are treated fairly; from 2014-2024, the EEOC recovered $5.6 billion for workers who were discriminated against. Until these illegally fired commissioners are restored, the EEOC is without a quorum and cannot make significant policy changes. Former commissioner and Vice Chair Jocelyn Samuels has filed a lawsuit against the Administration in another case that is likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court.
7. Threatening the implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is a commonsense law that requires employers to offer reasonable accommodations to workers who have needs related to pregnancy, childbirth, and other related medical conditions. It protects workers who are pregnant at some point in the year and ensures they have access to basic accommodations such as bathroom breaks and leave for health care appointments. It is enforced by the EEOC, which has the authority to investigate and settle discrimination complaints including those that would be covered by the PWFA. While the previous administration defended the law and rules from attacks, pregnant workers are now threatened by the Trump administration’s approach to the rule and the EEOC. Research by the National Partnership finds that efforts to overturn or undercut the enforcement of the PWFA put 2.8 million pregnant workers at risk each year.
8. Nominating and confirming political appointees with anti-worker agendas.
President Trump has chosen multiple people as political appointees with anti-worker agendas that would harm millions of women workers. For example, Keith Sonderling, the Trump administration’s pick for Deputy Secretary of Labor, voted against the EEOC’s final rule on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act during his time as a commissioner. Notably, President Trump has tasked Russell Vought with running the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), an agency that plays a powerful role in dictating the experience of women and families across the country. OMB leads the creation of executive orders and legislative proposals from the Executive Branch, manages the Presidential Budget, and oversees the regulatory process happening across agencies. Vought was a major architect of Project 2025 and is now a key player in the chaotic, illegal expansion of presidential power that occurred in the first one-hundred days of the Trump Administration.
9. Threatening to eliminate the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor.
The Women’s Bureau was established by Congress in 1920 and is the only federal agency mandated to work on advancing economic opportunity for working women. For more than one hundred years, the office has conducted research, drafted policy and engaged in grantmaking and outreach to improve working conditions and wages for women across the workforce. For example, the Bureau has funded Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations grants, awarding more than $21 million dollars to organizations across the country to expand pathways for women in good-paying jobs, as well as providing research and grants that made passing state-level paid leave programs possible in about a dozen states. Instead of investing in programs and initiatives that address the barriers women face in the economy, the Trump Administration is committed to dismantling the very agency dedicated to that work.
10. Cutting the Social Security Administration and threatening access to benefits.
Despite President Trump’s assurances, Social Security has not been immune to the deliberate attack on federal agencies spearheaded by Elon Musk’s team at DOGE. In just over three months, the Social Security Administration – and the 73 million Americans who benefit from agency’s programs – have been besieged with issues as the agency phases out phone services for certain requests, pushes out staff at local offices or closes field offices altogether, spreads misinformation in order to attack Social Security programs, and puts people’s personal data at risk. Though the dismantling of the Social Security Agency is an issue for everyone, it will be especially detrimental to the economic security of older-age women, who tend to live longer than men and have fewer retirement savings.
11. Revoking the raised minimum wage for federal contractors.
On March 14, 2025, the Trump Administration revoked a Biden-era order that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors. While that order raised wages for hundreds of thousands of workers employed in the private sector at companies with government contracts, the Trump Administration’s actions open the door for some employees to experience up to a 25 percent cut to their pay. The workers helped by the Biden Executive Order – and thus, those most harmed by the Trump Administration’s decision to undo it – are disproportionately women, Black workers, and Hispanic workers.
12. Introducing dangerous uncertainty to the economy through the chaotic implementation of extreme tariffs, increasing the risk of an economic downturn.
The implementation of President Trump’s signature economic policy proposal of broad and un-strategic tariffs is stoking fears of a global trade war. While the specifics of the tariffs continue to shift, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners will lead to a “significant slowdown” in global growth – the IMF expects U.S. economic growth to be 1.8 percent this year, a decrease from their January estimate of 2.7 percent. The Yale Budget Lab estimates that the tariffs as of April 15 will result in a loss of almost $5,000 for the average household. And economists across parties have raised the alarm that President Trump’s rash economic decisions are increasing the possibility of an economic slowdown or recession; if a slowdown or recession becomes reality, there could be serious consequences for women’s wealth and long-term financial well-being.
Threats to Women’s Health
13. Limiting enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
The FACE Act makes it a federal crime to use force, threats of force, or physical obstruction to prevent people from receiving or providing reproductive health care such as abortions. This legislation was passed in 1994 in response to violence by anti-abortion protestors against abortion providers, such as through blockades, sit-ins at clinics, and bombings. The National Abortion Federation finds that between 1977 and 2022, there were 11 murders, 42 bombings, 531 assaults, and 492 clinic invasions amongst thousands of other criminal activities directed at abortion providers, patients, and volunteers. Death threats and other threats of harm against providers have only increased in the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, yet President Trump’s Department of Justice announced in its first days that it would no longer enforce the law except under severe and “extraordinary circumstances.” The Department of Justice has dismissed three civil cases of obstructions at clinics.
14. Preventing the use of federal money to fund or support abortion and revoking Biden-era Executive Orders that protected and expanded access to reproductive healthcare.
In his first week, President Trump revoked multiple Executive Orders signed by President Biden that sought to protect access to reproductive health care. Those included an EO that directed the Department of Health and Human Services to protect access to medication abortion, ensure emergency abortion care, protect access to contraception and more; and another that created a whole-of-government approach to access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare, including an inter-agency task force. The Trump Administration also signed an EO re-affirming the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funding from being used to fund abortions, and opening the door to end funding for programs that are seen to “promote” abortion in any way, including family planning services. The Trump administration has also signaled its plans to rescind a rule that allows veterans to access abortion care in cases of rape, incest or life or health endangerment of the pregnant person. These changes put tens of millions of women, particularly in states with restricted abortion access, at risk.
15. Nominating and confirming political appointees who will harm women’s health.
The new administration’s cabinet secretaries and other nominees will have significant influence over policies and regulations regarding reproductive rights, including access to contraception and abortion, as well as other women’s health issues. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. poses a direct and dire threat to women’s health, from promoting dangerous and unfounded mistrust in vaccines, like the HPV vaccine, to having a disturbing lack of understanding of Medicaid and Medicare which tens of millions of women and families rely on, to his dangerous false statements about mental health treatment. He also insisted during his nomination that he would follow President Trump’s lead on reproductive health care, including by opposing and fearmongering around abortions that occur later in pregnancy, investigating the medication used in medication abortions despite clear evidence of its safety, and allowing states to control abortion access even though it puts millions of women in states with limited abortion access in harm’s way. Additionally, as Attorney General at the Department of Justice, Pam Bondi is responsible for enforcing federal protections related to abortion access and civil rights. She used her role as Florida’s AG to lead the state’s efforts to restrict abortion access, including by defending mandatory waiting periods. The Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, is another “lawyer for the pro-life movement” with serious influence on abortion policy through her role with the DOJ.
16. Threatening funding for crucial research on women’s health.
The Administration attempted a blanket freeze on all government grants and loans, which immediately caused chaos and paused funding for services that support women and families such as domestic violence nonprofits. Though a judge ultimately blocked the order from going into effect, President Trump’s attack on vital funding continues – important research institutions such as the National Institutes of Health have had their funding and staff cut, resulting in uncertainty of future research funding, canceled study panels, and the serious possibility of researchers and scientists closing their labs. Even small delays put millions of dollars for vital women’s health research on the line. And in a serious loss for women’s health research, the Department of Health and Human Services attempted to cancel funding for its first and largest study focused on the health needs of women. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) has been conducting studies to understand the effects of medications and more on women for more than thirty years, producing essential results to prevent heart disease, osteoporosis, and certain cancers. In one of its most significant studies, the WHI’s findings are estimated to have prevented 126,000 breast cancer cases and 76,000 cases of cardiovascular disease in women. After backlash, officials promised to restore funding but uncertainty persists – and it’s clear that without serious attention from experts and the public, similarly important research could slip through the cracks as the Administration pursues ill-advised cuts.
17. Erasing vital health information from public websites.
In early February, thousands of government websites were suddenly changed or offline. This included webpages for agencies such as the Center for Disease Control, USAID, and the Food and Drug Administration; pages that included information vital to the public and medical professionals, such as information on vaccines and reproductive health, were pulled down in order to comply with the onslaught of Executive Orders, including those that called on federal agencies to reverse course on diversity measures and gender. Though a judge ordered the Administration to restore online access, some links are still down and the Administration’s attempts to hide and change information necessary to the public – particularly information about how to provide care and support to women and families – continues.
18. Threatening efforts to reduce Black maternal deaths and improve maternal health care.
As the National Partnership has previously outlined, President Trump’s Executive Order banning diversity, equity and inclusion practices significantly weakens the federal government’s ability to hold hospitals accountable for their treatment of Black birthing people and their role in improving Black maternal health. Threats to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs could also contribute to a sharp drop in the diversity of the maternal health workforce which would have negative consequences on patient experience and health outcomes. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy than white women and are also disproportionately affected by unexpected outcomes in labor and delivery with consequences to their health and well-being.
19. Implementing widespread staffing cuts to vital HHS offices, including those that improve access to health care for vulnerable populations and track maternal and infant health data.
The United States is facing a maternal health crisis. However, on March 27, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a rushed and ill-conceived Reduction in Force (RIF) as part of DOGE’s attack on the federal government under the guise of efficiency. Those cuts included an unprecedented mass firing of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) employees who serve vulnerable populations such as children, seniors, uninsured, and rural communities. The cuts have resulted in the decimation of the Bureau of Primary Health Care and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, contradicting the administration’s Making America Healthy Again focus on preventative care and reducing the prevalence of chronic disease. They have also impacted staff who lead the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, which provides pregnant people and new parents with mental health and postpartum depression. And the future of critical annual state-level surveys that track childbearing experiences through the CDC, known as the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), remains uncertain. HHS has also begun shuttering the Administration for Community Living, which is central in helping ensure disabled people can live in their communities with the supports they need.
20. Freezing funds for Title X grantees that provide essential reproductive health care services.
The Title X Family Planning Program was established in 1970 to fund and support organizations that provide a broad range of reproductive health care and preventative health services to people with low incomes. Some of the services provided through Title X funding include cancer screenings, affordable birth control, STI testing and more. On March 31, the Trump Administration withheld millions of dollars intended to support critical services for women at sixteen Title X grantees – including nine Planned Parenthood affiliates, an organization that President Trump and Republican lawmakers have targeted before. Experts estimate that 874 clinics are impacted. Seven states – Utah, California, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, and Montana – have lost all Title X funding, leading to clinic closures, increased fees, and staff reductions. The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association estimates that approximately 846,000 patients could be harmed by the funding freeze. The administration blamed the sudden denial of funds on potential violations of recent executive orders, including prohibitions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
21. Ending Medicaid funding for state services that support people’s health and well-being.
In April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will end a federal funding match to states for certain “non-medical” needs. These cuts to necessary programs will harm Medicaid recipients and care providers across the country, cutting programs that attract doctors to serve in rural areas, ensure that healthcare providers serving rural communities have access to necessary high-speed internet, and help many maintain independent living with personal care assistance and meal preparation.
22. Undermining the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) which could impact protections for pregnant patients.
Under President Trump, the Department of Justice withdrew from a crucial case centered on whether Idaho’s total abortion ban unlawfully conflicts with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)’s requirement to provide emergency abortion care. The consequences of not allowing providers to administer abortion care in a medical emergency are dire – in some circumstances providers are forced to delay treatment until a patient’s health crisis is deadly or they may have to send a woman who’s having a medical emergency to a neighboring state with more protective abortion laws. In the three months where Idaho’s strict abortion ban was in effect even in emergency situations, emergency helicopter flights to other states for pregnant patients increased sharply. Just last year, the Supreme Court refused to settle the issue in this same Idaho case (Idaho v. United States), creating chaos and confusion around when and whether providers can perform life- and health-saving emergency abortions in states where abortions are banned with no exceptions for preserving the health of a pregnant patient. The Trump Administration’s refusal to defend EMTALA is part of a continued attack against women and healthcare providers.
Additional Threats to the Federal Workforce
23. Massive layoffs in the federal government, in part through overreach by Elon Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) impact local economies and communities, as well as federal women workers.
As the Trump Administration continues its attacks on federal workers – through mass firings, unprecedented “buyouts,” executive orders and intimidation – the impacts of losing the hard work of civil servants are becoming clearer. Federal workers perform essential jobs in communities across the country to protect consumers, workers and our health, including processing Social Security benefits, supporting survivors of domestic violence, rooting out discrimination, and maintaining our national parks. Federal workers not only support the work that millions of women rely on across the country, they are also important cornerstones to local economies. Research by the National Partnership finds that women make up 45 percent of federal workers and that Black and Native women and women veteran workers are especially likely to be federal employees.
24. Targeting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and offices in the federal government impacts women workers, workers of color, disabled workers and more.
The Trump Administration’s combined efforts to scrap Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and decimate the federal government targets women workers and workers of color. The DOGE team has been focused on plans to purge the federal government of diversity initiatives and government employees who they believe are tied to “DEI”, targeting anyone whose work might include words such as “gender,” “justice,” and “equity.” Already, the orders have attempted to eliminate programs aimed at women in wildland firefighting, domestic violence non-profits, and women in underrepresented fields such as the trades; agencies have also scrubbed their websites of many mentions to diversity and inclusion.
25. Revoking collective bargaining and union rights from workers across the federal government.
In what has been called “the biggest attack on the labor movement in history,” the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order to eliminate collective bargaining rights for tens of thousands of federal employees working across agencies under the guise of “national security concerns.” In reality, the order attempts to strip unionized employees of protections that both support the workforce and help the federal government be more productive and efficient. The order makes it clear that the Trump Administration’s main intention was to retaliate against unions such as the American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE) and National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) that are taking actions to protect federal employees from the Administration’s constant, legally dubious attacks; in the Court battle to block the harmful order, a federal judge signaled he would take action to prevent further harm from eliminating collective bargaining rights.
Additional Threats to Civil Rights Protections
26. Eliminating the Gender Policy Council.
The White House Gender Policy Council was established by the Biden Administration to promote gender equity and coordinate federal efforts to combat systemic discrimination, increase economic security, increase access to comprehensive health care, address caregiving needs, and more. The Trump Administration eliminated the Gender Policy Council in his first week on office.
27. Regulating gender and gender identity and threatening gender affirming care.
One of the Trump Administration’s most egregious policies have been his constant attacks on transgender, intersex, and nonbinary individuals. On his first day in office, he signed an Executive Order claiming to “defend women.” What the order truly does is allow the federal government to control and regulate gender, encouraging discrimination by the government itself against transgender people. The order also threatens the safety of all women and girls, subjecting all individuals to suspicion and surveillance of their gender and inviting violence against those who do not conform with a narrow understanding of gender and gender roles.
28. Undercutting civil rights enforcement across federal agencies.
The Trump Administration is undermining civil rights enforcement across every federal agency, including the Department of Labor, Department of Education, and the Social Security Administration. Eliminating the offices tasked with investigating claims of discrimination puts everyone at risk. For example, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights investigates thousands of claims of racial harassment, sexual harassment and sexual violence, and discrimination against students with disabilities each year. Undercutting agencies’ oversight and enforcement abilities is dangerous for the millions who rely on the government to enforce the laws passed to protect them.
29. Rejecting the “disparate impact” liability used by advocates and federal agencies to prove discriminatory impact.
Disparate impact is a foundational concept of civil rights law – it maintains that that certain practices can violate federal civil rights law because they affect certain groups differently, even when the action appears neutral and doesn’t explicitly state that it will discriminate against a protected group. Because of the disparate impact standard, for example, courts have been able to address job requirements that have the impact of discrimination and ensure that workplaces are held to a standard that does not disproportionately exclude women and people of color. The legal theory of disparate impact has been an important tool for civil rights advocates, helping to fight back against discrimination in housing, schools, workplaces, and more. But as part of their continued attacks against civil rights, the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order eliminating the use of the disparate impact standard by federal agencies and certain entities receiving federal funding, leaving many without an additional avenue to prove they’ve been discriminated against.
Additional Threats to Crucial Funding, Safety Net Programs, and the U.S. Federal Election System
30. Setting the stage for cuts to Medicaid in Republican Budget Plan.
To pay for President Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy and powerful, House Republicans are planning to find “savings” by cutting $880 billion from federal Medicaid spending over the next decade. Medicaid is crucial for the 72 million people who rely on the program for health care. National Partnership research shows that twenty-four million women are enrolled in the program, over half of whom are women of color. Medicaid is the largest payer for maternal health and family planning in the country and provides access to preventative services such as cancer and chronic disease screenings, and long-term supports and services for aging women and women with disabilities. Women are the majority of seniors receiving Medicaid in every state. National Partnership research finds that the proposed cut to Medicaid is the equivalent of cutting off benefits for nearly 4.8 million Medicaid recipients age 65 and older annually, including 2.8 million older women.
31. Setting the stage for cuts to SNAP and crucial food assistance programs in Republican Budget Plan.
House Republicans are also considering a massive cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low-income families afford groceries; the program is the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, serving roughly 40 million people each month with demonstrated positive impact on food insecurity, health outcomes, medical costs, and performance in school for children. Women are disproportionately likely to experience food insecurity and also made up more than half of non-elderly adult SNAP recipients in 2022. SNAP lifted 3.4 million people above the poverty line in 2023 while providing only $6.20 to recipients on average each day, yet House Republicans are intent on cutting the program to pay for President Trump’s tax cuts for his wealthy allies.
32. Proposing to eliminate funding for the Head Start program, along with cutting staff and funding for vital children’s programs across federal agencies.
Head Start is a 60-year-old federally funded program to provide preschool and child care for low-income families; it currently serves around 800,000 children and pregnant women. Head Start has been proven to support children’s school readiness and their health, as well as increase their likelihood of graduating high school and attending college. The Trump Administration has proposed eliminating the entire program, leaving hundreds of thousands of low-income families with no options for affordable, high-quality child care. Those cuts would be in addition to staff and funding reductions already put in place by the Trump Administration that harm children’s wellbeing, including cuts to programs that investigate child sexual abuse, prevent youth violence, and enforce child support payments.
33. Rescinding state pilot programs aimed at improving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a social safety net program.
TANF is the primary source of cash assistance to families with children, but the crucial anti-poverty program has been plagued by racial disparities, ineffective work requirement and time limits, a burdensome application processes, and inadequate benefit levels. To address the problems, the Biden Administration awarded five pilot projects to California, Maine, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Ohio to allow states to experiment with new ways to measure successful outcomes rather than relying on punitive work participation rates; the pilot programs would have measured the impact of TANF on recipients by evaluating employment, earnings, and family well-being. President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services cancelled the pilot programs, delaying progress and possibly blocking an avenue for improvements to the program completely.
34. Eliminating the staff required to calculate the annual federal poverty guidelines, which are used to determine eligibility for Medicaid, SNAP, and other safety net programs.
Approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population – 99.1 million people – participates in America’s safety net programs. That includes programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and housing assistance. Technical experts at the HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation have been charged with calculating the federal poverty line for decades, a critical task that helps determine eligibility guidelines for the millions of people who use anti-poverty programs to support their families’ basic needs. Despite the staff’s vital role, the Trump Administration fired the staff responsible for the calculations, putting necessary aid to Americans at risk and making the accuracy of future data uncertain.
35. Attempting to disenfranchise voters.
In late March, President Trump issued an Executive Order that, if implemented, would allow Trump’s federal government to commandeer the election system to preserve his own political power. The order instructs the Election Assistance Commission, an independent agency, to change the national mail voter registration form to require proof of citizenship to vote. The order also attempts to restrict state’s abilities to accept mail-in ballots received after Election Day, among other dramatic changes to the federal voting systems. The Executive Order has been challenged as an unconstitutional overreach in the courts, including in a lawsuit filed by nineteen state Attorneys General. This order has the potential to disenfranchise nearly 21 million otherwise eligible voters, who research shows may not have proof of citizenship readily available – those are voters across party lines, but they are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. As many as 69 million American women have a birth certificate that doesn’t match their legal name because they changed or hyphenated their last names upon marriage.
