The latest hackings, stabbings, and loppings of the waste, fraud, and abuse that plagues the sprawling federal bureaucracy.
USDA bird flu employees out the door
Via Reuters, “USDA to lose bird flu response employees” (emphasis added):
Several U.S. Department of Agriculture employees who worked on the agency's bird flu response will leave at the end of April, straining the federal capacity to monitor the spread of the virus, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The USDA on April 1 gave employees seven days to decide whether to take financial incentives to quit, part of the effort by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink the federal workforce.
Three out of 13 employees in the USDA's National Animal Health Laboratory Network took the offer and will leave on April 30, said the source familiar with the situation.
The USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NAHLN coordinates a network of 60 laboratories that test animal samples for disease, including bird flu.
An alternative Reuters headline, modestly proposed: DOGE Hobbles USDA’s Capacity to Gin Up Bird Flu Terror by Harassing Farmers With Fake PCR Tests in Order to Sabotage the Food Supply and Peddle mRNA Wares.”
But that’s a little clunky, admittedly, and far too on-the-nose for the crack team at Reuters.
Related: Grocery Chains Ration Eggs After Mass Chicken Slaughter For Bird Flu
$250K worth of federal grants for Ohio ‘LGBTQ+ historical markers’ slashed
Picture this: you’ve got a state in which, in one of its major cities, 66% of the residents are functionally illiterate as of 2019, and your federal government’s funding priorities are for constructing “LGBTQ+ historical markers.”
Via WKBN27 (emphasis added):
An Ohio grant worth nearly $250,000 to install LGBTQ+ historical markers has been canceled by DOGE.
Ohio History Connection received the $249,810 federal grant in 2022 to fund the Marking Diverse Ohio project, aimed at commemorating stories and places reflecting the impact of LGBTQ+ Ohioans in shaping the state’s history. The project was led by the organization’s Gay Ohio History Initiative and included supporting the placement of 10 LGBTQ+ historical markers.
The Elon Musk-led DOGE announced on April 3 it canceled the grant, among $25 million worth of funds awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services that have been cut. Ohio History Connection confirmed to NBC4 it was contacted by the institute regarding the cancellation and that the organization is working to understand the impact.
Among the projects was a memorial for ”Ohio’s first and longest-running lesbian bar.”
Related: Bill Gates Lobbying White House to Reverse USAID Cuts: Report
DOGE unearths massive alleged fraud in federal unemployment claims
Via Newsweek (emphasis added):
On Wednesday, DOGE posted figures on X, formerly Twitter, that it said were for incorrect unemployment insurance payments.
Unemployment insurance pays benefits to eligible applicants who lose their job through no fault of their own. It is administered by state governments and is funded by state and federal payroll taxes levied on employers and workers. Most states offer 26 weeks' worth of unemployment benefits.
According to DOGE, since 2020, 24,500 individuals over the age of 115 have claimed a total of $59 million in benefits; 28,000 claimants between the ages of 1 and 5 received $254 million; and 9,700 people with birth dates more than 15 years in the future were paid $69 million in benefits.
In one case, a claimant recorded as being born in the year 2154 received $41,000, DOGE said.
The counterclaim offered by apologists of federal bureaucracy is that these are all merely accounting errors — which is, perhaps, plausible. In any case, either fraud or error, we’d never know about any of it under a Kamala Harris regime.
The operative questions are:
- Are these unemployment claims, whether they’re fraud or accounting errors, going out the door?
- Who receives them?
- Why would anybody in favor of responsible governance conceivably be opposed to finding out?
