Wendy Mink

The latest GOP push to cut waste and spending: Work requirements Plans for a range of welfare programs including food stamps, Medicaid and rental assistance reflect a shifting view of who should receive federal benefits.

For historical background on 50+ years of flogging the poor with work requirements and related measures to punish economic vulnerability, see Kornbluh & Mink, Ensuring Poverty @PennPress (2018)

For the current iteration of a reactionary hobby horse, see:
wapo.st/4krkrD4

Advancing cynical distortions to enforce exclusion and inequality, DOE casts Title IX as “protective legislation” (a concept historically premised on women’s presumed frailty and inferiority) thehill.com/homenews/edu...

Trump, not trans athletes, is the greatest threat to girls sports | Opinion Opinion by Marek Warszawski: “Trump’s use of Title IX is darkly ironic and deeply hypocritical.”

Calling out the hypocrisy of deploying Title IX to discriminate on the basis of sex

www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-...

Sexual exploitation and domestic violence soared after Lahaina wildfire, report finds Exclusive: One in six female survivors surveyed felt forced to engage in ‘survival sex’ for necessities after 2023 catastrophic Hawaii fire

Equality in Flames report:

the Lahaina fire & response increased vulnerability to sex trafficking/exploitation by exacerbating known risk factors including domestic violence, substance abuse disorders, financial precarity and unstable living situations.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Fulbright Applicants Rejected Over “DEI” Research Proposals The Trump administration staged an unprecedented intervention in this year’s Fulbright selection process, rejecting finalists whose research deals with race, gender or climate change.

www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...

Assessing What Reconciliation Means for Higher Ed House committees put the finishing touches on their sections of the reconciliation megabill early this week. Now, all the pieces of the puzzle are laid out, and higher ed experts say the picture is gr...

Call your rep 202 224 3121. Tell them to kill this bill. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Monday's lesson: Don't mess with librarians. Ultimately, though, the question with Trump's effort to take over the Library of Congress could come down to whether Congress says, "Don't mess with Congress."

Monday's lesson: Don't mess with librarians.
open.substack.com/pub/chrisgei...

How Congress Could Make Paying for College More Complicated House Republicans proposed sweeping changes to financial aid, federal loans and program cost estimates that could make paying for college more challenging and expensive.

The legislation would create a national college cost estimate by degree program, put individualized caps on federal loans and limit Pell eligibility for part-time students (which could eliminate Pell grants for 61% of recipients)
www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

President Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden President Donald Trump has abruptly fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden as the White House continues to purge the federal government of those perceived to oppose the president and his agenda.

*Enraging*
apnews.com/article/dona... Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden

Can you spare a minute to help this campaign? Justice for DES Families: Pass House Resolution 342 (IH)

Also, restore & fully fund the Women’s Health Initiative!

NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women The Women’s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings

Devastating and Enraging.

I remember the arduous work of women in Congress during the 1990s (including my mom) to secure for the first time federal $ for women’s health research

NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Harvard sues Trump Admin to enjoin/vacate the recent funds-freeze order and attendant unconstitutional conditions www.harvard.edu/research-fun...

Trump policy targeting immigrants shuts California students out of federal programs California colleges support low-income students — including non-citizens — using federal funds. Trump policy now excludes non-citizens.

calmatters.org/education/hi...

At Least 10 Florida Universities Have Signed ICE Agreements Amid a state crackdown on undocumented migrants, at least 10 public universities are giving campus police immigration enforcement powers. More are considering doing so.

Florida campus police to assume ICE authority to detain and question students, prepare charges

Harvard has a weapon in the fight against Trump. Here’s why the university isn’t using it. Why Harvard and other rich universities aren’t tapping their fortunes to push back against the administration.

“the real reason is that endowments have become the single biggest signifier of excellence in higher education leadership, and college leaders can’t imagine making them smaller, even in the face of existential threat.”

www.vox.com/education/40...

Pressuring Migrants to ‘Self-Deport,’ White House Moves to Cancel Social Security Numbers (Gift Article) By placing migrants in Social Security’s “death master file,” the Trump administration is seeking to cut off their access to credit cards, bank accounts and other financial services.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...
The plan is to repurpose the SocSec “death master file.” “The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits.”

Protecting American Energy From State Overreach By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose.

This new White House executive order says that the US Attorney General is going to prevent states from implementing democratically passed laws regarding climate change and clean energy. It scarcely needs stating at this point that this is wildly, unambiguously unconstitutional. Dictator shit.

📚The application period is underway for Patsy Mink Foundation Education Support Awards! Awards will be offered to 5 low-income mothers who are working toward post-secondary degrees. Visit our applications web page for awards criteria & a link to the online application form.📚

Agency for older adults, people with disabilities to be shuttered under HHS cuts In 2022, the Administration for Community Living provided more than 261 million meals to older adults, assistance such as respite care to more than 1.5 million family caregivers, and independent-livin...

www.marketwatch.com/story/agency...

Join me on April 5th

Trump, Musk and Republicans in Congress are gutting services, raising prices, and racing towards slashing Medicaid, Social Security, and other life-saving programs. It’s time to fight back. app.sosha.ai/s/YkzItoaF

Stupeur dans les entreprises françaises après une lettre anti-diversité de l’ambassade américaine à Paris La représentation des Etats-Unis a envoyé un courrier à des nombreux groupes tricolores exigeant qu’ils respectent la politique « anti-DEI » de l’administration Trump pour tout contrat avec l’Etat fédéral.

Stupeur dans les entreprises françaises après une lettre anti-diversité de l’ambassade américaine à Paris

Colleges Flag Words Like “Women” to Comply With DEI Bans Following the example of federal agencies, some campuses are coming up with lists of keywords to purge their webpages and courses of DEI content.

www.insidehighered.com/news/diversi...

Denby Fawcett: Army Wipes 442nd Combat Unit Off The Web Amid DEI Purge The military removes a web page honoring the Hawaiʻi unit's World War II exploits and its thousands of Japanese-American soldiers.

❗️despicable
www.civilbeat.org/2025/03/denb...

Over 50 universities are under investigation as part of Trump's anti-DEI crackdown The schools under scrutiny include dozens of state schools and two Ivy Leagues. A number of private schools are also being targeted, including Georgetown, Rice, Vanderbilt, and New York University.

Over 50 universities are under investigation as part of Trump's anti-DEI crackdown
www.npr.org/2025/03/14/g...

“TOMORROW from 8-10 a.m.: Education Advocates and Recently Fired Employees to Rally Against Mass Firings and Plans to Dismantle the U.S. Department of Education” - PoPville photo by Fritz Myer From a press release: "On Friday, March 14, U.S. Education Department civil servants, education advocates, members of Congress, and supporters will rally to demand accountability a...

www.popville.com/2025/03/fede...

E.P.A. Plans to Close All Environmental Justice Offices An internal memo directs the closure of offices designed to ease the heavy pollution faced by poor and minority communities.

The Trump administration intends to eliminate EPA offices responsible for addressing pollution in poor communities, an internal memo said.

probably so, altho in the early 1990s reactionaries and neo-libs revealed awareness that people are entitled to entitlements, which is why one prong of “welfare reform” was to “end the entitlement” to AFDC.

Two Transgender Girls, Six Federal Agencies. How Trump Is Trying to Pressure Maine Into Obedience. Maine said it wouldn’t break state law to follow President Donald Trump’s order barring transgender girls from playing girls’ sports. Then came a barrage of investigations and threats targeting the st...

There are two transgender girls in the state of Maine competing in girls’ sports.

There are now SIX federal agencies investigating the state.

Here is our latest @propublica.org story with @bangordailynews.bsky.social

www.propublica.org/article/main...