yorlatinawellnes

Inside efforts to capture federal data after ‘the big takedown’ America’s Data Index aims to serve as a “weather forecast” on the state of government data.

Source 👉🏻 www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

learn about public health, the environment, and more. If it’s lost or hidden, it could hurt research, policy making, and even how we make decisions as a country. That’s why saving and watching this data is so important .

It tracks how many files are intact, gone, or outside the portal, helping experts watch over changes and spot when important data might disappear. This matters because that data isn’t just numbers it helps doctors, teachers, scientists, and regular people….👇🏻

They built a special online data portal to keep all these files safe and easy to find. The project is also building what they call America’s Data Index, which acts like a weather forecast—but for how much public data the government is sharing.

A group of volunteers and researchers created something called the Data Rescue Project to quickly save over 1,100 public datasets from 80 federal offices after many government web pages and files started disappearing or being changed. 👇🏻

Federal agencies can resume mass layoffs, Supreme Court rules Many agencies across government are expected to swiftly implement workforce cuts.

www.govexec.com/management/2...

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned a lower court injunction, allowing the Trump administration to resume mass layoffs and reorganization plans across 19 federal agencies—including the CDC, Social Security Administration, Department of Agriculture, EPA, HHS, and FAA

VOA Rescinds RIF Notices Following Meeting with AFGE Voice of America (VOA) has rescinded layoff notices it had sent to employees after AFGE Local 1812 pointed out several violations of the law and negotiated labor-management contract.

www.afge.org/article/voa-...

But the government is now appealing that decision, so things are still up in the air. The RIF notices were canceled for now—but they might come back again if the agency doesn’t change course.

Even though this is a win for the union, it doesn’t mean workers are completely safe yet. A larger legal battle is still happening because back in March, VOA shut down operations without warning, and the union had to take them to court. A judge even ordered them to bring employees back.

The union argued that skipping this process was unfair and illegal. Thanks to their quick action and a meeting with leadership, VOA backed off and canceled the RIF notices—at least for the DC-area employees.

AFGE filed a complaint saying VOA didn’t bargain with them and used the wrong system to decide which employees would stay or go. That system is called the “RIF retention register,” and it’s supposed to fairly rank workers based on things like time served and veteran status.

By law, agencies have to talk to the union before cutting jobs, and VOA skipped that. They also messed up how they picked who would be let go. Because of these mistakes, VOA was forced to take back those layoff notices for now.

In June 2025, Voice of America (VOA) told some workers they were going to lose their jobs through something called a RIF (Reduction In Force). But the union that represents them—AFGE Local 1812—quickly pointed out that VOA didn’t follow the proper steps.

VA backs down on mass layoffs, will cut 30K through attrition only Following significant pushback, VA is reversing course on its plan for widespread RIFs while still promising some staffing reductions.

Source 👉🏻 www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

streamlining call centers, and cutting extra rules and layers of management. They say the goal is to make the agency run better while avoiding major harm to workers and veterans.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said that mass layoffs are off the table, but they might still do smaller cuts in certain programs if needed. Instead of letting go of lots of people, the VA will now focus on saving money by making changes like combining services..

they criticized the VA for not being open and for trying to cut too many jobs too fast. Because of all the backlash, the VA backed down from doing a big round of layoffs and decided to change course.

Behind the scenes, the VA had already hired a company to help with these layoffs and even created a secret planning team. They were spending over $700,000 on these plans. But once lawmakers, unions, and others found out..

After hearing concerns, the VA changed its plan. Instead of laying people off right away, they will now let about 30,000 workers leave slowly by the end of September if they retire, quit, or take other jobs.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said they needed to cut back on workers and originally planned to lay off around 80,000 employees to get back to 2019 staffing levels. This upset a lot of people, especially since many of these workers help take care of veterans.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

US environmental agency puts 139 employees on leave after they criticized Trump's policies The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed 139 employees on administrative leave after they signed a letter critical of President Donald Trump's policies, with the EPA saying it has "zero-tolerance" for those sabotaging the government's agenda.

Source 👉🏻 www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

EPA said it has a zero-tolerance policy for employees who “undermine” the administration's agenda. Now, it’s investigating whether the dissenters improperly used their official job titles when they signed the letter.

The dissent letter accused leadership of pushing harmful deregulation, ignoring scientific facts, cutting research offices, spending less on grants, and creating a “culture of fear.” The employees said agency choices were hurting public health.

On July 4, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed 139 employees on administrative leave. These workers had signed a “Declaration of Dissent” that criticized President Trump’s policies, saying the EPA was ignoring science and helping polluters 👇🏻

Trump’s 'big, beautiful bill' directs Treasury to find a replacement for Direct File The IRS debuted Direct File — which enabled taxpayers to file online with the agency for free — as a pilot in 2024 and it received largely positive reviews from those that used it.

If no replacement is ready, people might have to pay about $290 to file with private companies.

Source 👉🏻 www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

Some Republicans called the IRS program redundant or wasteful and want private sector help instead. The bill would officially end the IRS-run Direct File within 30 days of enactment—and create a task force to explore a public-private option covering up to 70% of taxpayers.

Expanding in 2025 to about 25 states. Users generally liked it, but only around 311,500 people actually used it this year. The idea was to simplify tax filing without needing third-party software.

Instead of the IRS running it, the new system would likely involve partnerships with private companies and come with a $15 million task force to study it. Direct File started as a 2024 pilot program letting people file simple returns for free directly with the IRS.