US Institute of Peace says DOGE has broken into its building
Matthew Lee – March 17, 2025
The United State Institute of Peace building is seen, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)ASSOCIATED PRESSThe United State Institute of Peace building is seen, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have entered the U.S. Institute of Peace despite protests from the nonprofit that it is not part of the executive branch and is instead an independent agency.
The organization’s CEO, George Moose, said, “DOGE has broken into our building.”
The DOGE workers gained access to the building after several unsuccessful attempts Monday and after having been turned away on Friday, a senior U.S. Institute of Peace official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
It was not immediately clear what the DOGE staffers were doing or looking for in the nonprofit’s building, which is across the street from the State Department in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
DOGE has expressed interest in the nonprofit for weeks but has been rebuffed by lawyers who argued that the institute’s status protected it from the kind of reorganization that is occurring in other federal agencies.
The U.S. Institute of Peace says on its website that it’s a nonpartisan, independent organization “dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.”
The nonprofit says it was created by Congress in 1984 as an “independent nonprofit corporation,“ and it does not meet U.S. Code definitions of “government corporation,” “government-controlled corporation” or “independent establishment.”
Trump Memo Reveals Plan to Throw Social Security Into Chaos
Hafiz Rashid – March 17, 2025
The Trump administration plans to upend and cripple the Social Security claims process, according to a memo obtained by Popular Information.
An internal Social Security Administration memo, sent on March 13, outlines changes to the agency that would cause processing delays and prevent Americans from applying for as well as receiving benefits, ostensibly to reduce “fraud risks” according to its author, acting Deputy Commissioner Doris Diaz.
The changes include requiring that people seeking benefits provide proof of identity over the internet for benefit claims made over the phone. If someone is “unable to utilize the internet ID proofing, customers will be required to visit a field office to provide in-person identity documentation.”
Right now, Social Security claims and identity verification can be done over the phone thanks to staffers answering calls on its toll-free number. Actual fraud is rare, because people have to provide multiple pieces of personal information, checked against medical records, bank statements, pay stubs, and tax returns, depending on the type of claim.
Beyond that, if there are any discrepancies, an applicant might have to mail their birth certificate to the agency. This entire process allows people who are elderly or disabled, and thus have difficulty accessing the internet or visiting a physical office, to apply for and collect Social Security benefits.
Introducing internet verification would be a significant hardship to the 40 percent of Social Security beneficiaries who depend on the phone service. If they can’t use the internet system, they would also have to visit a physical location. Diaz’s own memo estimates that 75,000 to 85,000 people would have to visit Social Security offices under the new policy.
But even before the Department of Government Efficiency’s massive cuts to the agency, the SSA’s physical offices had an average wait time of more than a month. They don’t accept walk-ins and would not be able to accommodate such a large increase in foot traffic.
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, recently announced further cuts of 7,000 employees, or about 12 percent of the agency. Physical offices around the country are being closed, and some people are more than 100 miles away from the nearest location. On top of that, one day before the memo was issued, the agency was reportedly considering ending its phone service altogether due to misguided concerns from DOGE over widespread fraud.
After an outcry over ending the phone service, the SSA denied that it was being eliminated, with this memo appearing to be a workaround. Even still, if these changes go through, many disabled and elderly people will have major difficulties in getting their benefits and may end up losing them altogether. The memo foresees this, stating there will be “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls.” All of that is a euphemism for causing irreparable damage to Social Security.
For So Many Children, This Is What Reading Feels Like
By James Robinson – March 16, 2025
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Mr. Robinson is a video producer for Times Opinion and the author of the forthcoming memoir “Whale Eyes,” from which this article is adapted.
When you’re a struggling reader, there’s no amount of motivation that can power you through the sludge of an opening paragraph. Because no matter how intrigued you may be by the topic, when you get to around here, the words begin to fa l t e r.
T h e s e n t e n c e s s l o w d o w n.
Y o u ha ve t o co n cen trat e s o h a r d t o e n s u r e t h a tyo u ca n r em em ber th e b eg inn i n g o f th e sen t e n ce b y t h et i m e
y o um a k e i t t o t h e en d.
And you wonder: What would it be like to make it to the bottom of an article?
Your mind twists around a question: How is it possible that some people can do this so easily? Yet you can’t.
It’s a visceral experience. Of frustration. And raw insecurity.
It feels like the words have given up on you.
It’s tempting to skip to a short paragraph. You should be able to make your way through that. But without context, even a short paragraph doesn’t make sense; you’re confused.
How is it that so many people use these forms to gain a grasp of the world? When you can hardly grasp each word.
I know this experience of reading because for much of my childhood it was my own. For me, the cause was alternating exotropia. I see out of one eye at a time, and every few seconds the words jump back and forth on the page. For others it is dyslexia or ADHD, or simply a lack of resources.
Since the onset of the Covid pandemic, America’s reading scores have plummeted. Students at the top are still succeeding. But a record percentage of eighth graders failed to meet even the lowest “basic” benchmark.
These students are soon to be victims of America’s great reading absurdity: Precisely at the moment when reading scores have reached an all-time low, the Trump administration and the Republican Party are stripping away the protections and resources that help children who struggle to read.
On the federal level, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has already taken an ax to critical research initiatives. This includes canceling Education Department contracts with organizations such as the Regional Educational Laboratories, one of which played a major role in the “Mississippi Miracle,” helping the state jump from 49th to 29th in fourth-grade reading scores between 2013 and 2019. (The department has said it will enter into new contracts.) On Tuesday, more than 1,300 Education Department workers were fired, including almost half of the office responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination protections for students with disabilities.
At the state level, school voucher programs are siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars away from public school systems into private schools, which are not required to offer the same level of support to disabled students.
Meanwhile, 17 states sued the Department of Health and Human Services last year in response to updated Biden administration regulations, asking the courts to declare Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act — the bedrock of disability rights legislation in the United States — unconstitutional. The suit poses a threat to the roughly 1.6 million children in America who depend on the law for accommodations like assistive technology and modifications to testing procedures. (While many of the attorneys general on the lawsuit have since said they are not seeking to overturn Section 504 entirely, some legal experts are skeptical.)
Collectively, these measures amount to an attack on those struggling to read — those who, at this point, would not be able to identify the position of this article, its core argument, or what is at stake.
F o r ast r u ggli ng r e ade r, r ea c hin g t h e b ot tom o f the pa ge ca n fe el like a dre am.
You wonder if there will ever be a time when your eyes reach this point on the page and you’ll carry with you an understanding of all the words stacked above.
For decades, Republicans and Democrats have agreed that no matter where you grew up or how your brain sees and processes these shapes, our public school system should help you to understand the words on this page. Reading is a basic right.
But as long as our answer to low scores is to slash support for struggling readers, we risk turning this right into a privilege.
DOGE representatives visit US Institute of Peace, are turned away
Ashleigh Fields – March 15, 2025
U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials said several members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived unannounced with FBI agents on Saturday but were denied access to the building after being approached by their counsel.
“They were met at the door by the Institute’s outside counsel who informed them of USIP’s private and independent status as a non-executive branch agency. Following that discussion, the DOGE representatives departed,” Gonzalo Gallegos, USIP’s director of communications, said in a statement to The Hill.
The USIP is a national nonpartisan organization created by Congress and dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad, according to their website.
It uses federal funding to perform its mission and works closely with the Department of Defense.
A Senate-confirmed board of directors made up of the secretary of State, secretary of Defense and president of the National Defense University governs the USIP in an effort to align with each presidential administration and its national security efforts.
“As an independent, non-profit organization established by Congress, USIP remains committed to the cooperation and comity with the Trump Administration it has exhibited in its work with seven administrations since its founding under President Ronald Reagan,” Gallegos said after the DOGE visit.
