Mumu
It's going to be a frenzied few weeks.
Tech billionaires are getting their chance to shape Washington. Here’s what they’ll do with it.
The stories are now coming out about what the Biden administration tried to do in the tech space. Administration officials deny them. Maybe they’re true. Maybe they’re not.
But if they are true, well, hoo boy.
The administration apparently wanted to concentrate AI development with several Big Tech companies who would be partners to government.
No real startups. God only knows what kind of influence over training.
Imagine if America had something like China’s politically correct AI-for-bureaucrats with envy.
‘“When we endorsed Trump, we only did so on the basis of tech policy,” Andreessen said. “The crypto war, we were on the receiving end for four years and it was incredibly brutal, incredibly destructive; AI, we had meetings in D.C. in May where we talked to them about this and the meetings were absolutely horrifying and we came out basically deciding that we had to endorse Trump.”
‘Andreessen claimed that representatives of the Biden administration said that they would work to close off AI development and research to smaller actors, citing safety concerns — a life-or-death scenario for Andreessen, whose entire career and fortune are built on investing in startups. (White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson denied that assertion, telling POLITICO “President Biden’s landmark executive order on A.I. explicitly calls for increasing competition in the sector” and that the administration “worked with companies of all sizes to deepen U.S. leadership in AI.”)’
The Coming Fight to Abolish DEI
Rufo writes here with advice on how to extinguish the DEI ethos from government.
He advocates a policy that can be summarized as, “Seize and maintain the initiative.”
That’s easier said than done. DEI is part of the organizational DNA. Getting rid of the people and unwinding executive orders may not be sufficient to reverse sustainably the changes to the federal government’s culture, especially given their political predispositions.
DEI may be the Sleeping Beauty of doctrines, to be awakened in a few years by a kiss from the right politician. Perhaps it will reincarnate under some other acronym. Perhaps it already has.
‘The first step is to understand how DEI bureaucracies became embedded in the federal government. That is the result of actions by two presidents: Barack Obama, who issued Executive Order 13583, which laid the groundwork for many national “diversity” initiatives; and Joseph Biden, who signed Executive Orders 13985 and 14035, which entrenched DEI principles into every federal department and routed billions of dollars toward advancing this ideology throughout American society.
‘Having understood this history, Cabinet officials must work with President Trump to rescind President Obama and President Biden’s executive orders. In their place, the 47th president should sign an order advancing the principle of colorblind equality, stating that the government shall treat all individuals equally according to their merit, rather than unequally according to their ancestry.
‘The second task is the work of administration. It’s one thing to issue an executive order, and another to make it a reality across the sprawling federal bureaucracy.’
What’s Next For The Woke Bureaucrats In The Administrative State?
Trump-proofing the federal government is in full force.
‘As Trump staffs up for a second term, the bureaucrats have hatched at least three strategies to oppose him: returning to the left-wing nonprofit sphere to act as a government-in-waiting; passing new regulations to cement their ideology into the rules before Trump can reverse them; and burrowing into the bureaucracy to oppose him from within, the same way they did during his first term.’
White House Chief of Staff Outlines Biden’s Priorities for Final 42 Days in Office
It’s a race in DC. Get as much money out the door. Take another crack at loan forgiveness for public employees. Sign sweetheart deals with civil service unions.
This is the administrative state in action.
‘In his message, Zients outlined four key priorities for the administration’s final stretch: advancing Biden’s Investing in America agenda, working with Congress on key legislation and judicial confirmations, making progress on foreign policy initiatives, and canceling more student debt for public service workers and other borrowers.
‘Zients said that in the final 42 days left in the Biden administration, there are plans to continue accelerating funding distributions for projects like high-speed internet expansion and clean energy initiatives. He noted that around 98 percent of the funding legally available through legislation enacted under Biden—including the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the $800 billion or so Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—have already been allocated.’
§ 30.91(a) Standard for Waiver Due to Hardship
Here we go again with student loan forgiveness.
Hardship seems like an ill-defined term.
‘Proposed Regulations: Under proposed § 30.91(a), the Secretary may waive up to the outstanding balance of a Federal student loan owed to the Department when the Secretary determines that the borrower has experienced or is experiencing hardship related to that Federal student loan such that the hardship is likely to impair the borrower's ability to fully repay the Federal government, or the Secretary has determined that the costs of enforcing the full amount of the debt are not justified by the expected benefits of continued collection of the entire debt.’
I wonder if people with student debt are more likely to take public service jobs.
They seem to get a decent set of benefits.
‘The Biden-Harris Administration announced today the approval of approximately $4.5 billion in additional student loan relief for over 60,000 borrowers across the country who work in public service. This relief, which is the result of significant fixes that the Administration has made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, brings the total loan forgiveness approved by the Administration to over $175 billion for more than 4.8 million Americans, which includes $74 billion for over one million borrowers through PSLF. Today’s announcement includes information on how many borrowers will receive this relief, as well as the total amount of relief per state. This unprecedented milestone builds on the Administration’s efforts to provide relief to as many borrowers as possible across the country. Before President Biden took office, only 7,000 public servants had ever received debt relief through PSLF. ‘
If the government makes it sufficiently uneconomic to provide Medicare Advantage plans, then the private providers will withdraw. Maybe that’s the point.
‘Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing actions in the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D prescription drug programs to continue to strengthen protections and access to care for people with Medicare. The Contract Year (CY) 2026 MA and Part D proposed rule aims to hold MA and Part D plans more accountable for delivering high-quality coverage so that people with Medicare are connected to the care they need when they need it. In recognition of the prevailing medical consensus that obesity is a disease, CMS is proposing to reinterpret the statute to no longer exclude anti-obesity medications for the treatment of obesity from coverage under Medicare Part D and to require Medicaid programs to cover these medications when used to treat obesity. This proposal would provide more Americans access to these transformative medications, improving the health and quality of life for millions of people who have obesity.’
As Trump’s DOGE plans crackdown, Social Security union secures telework deal
Last one out, turn out the lights.
‘Tens of thousands of Social Security Administration staffers can continue teleworking into 2029 under a recent deal signed between their union and the agency. The agreement comes as the incoming Trump administration and its newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, vow to require federal workers to return to the office full time in an effort to cull their numbers.
‘The updated contract deal locks in the current levels of telework for American Federation of Government Employees members at the agency until late October 2029, according to a letter written by Rich Couture, AFGE general committee spokesperson and head of the union’s Council 215, and viewed by CNN. The agreement was signed by SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley just before he stepped down to run for Democratic National Committee chair.’
Ernst’s report documenting telework ‘abuse’ obscures more than it reveals
To paraphrase Queen Elizabeth, “recollections may vary.”
Controversy over Senator Ernst’s remote work allegations.
‘According to OMB, the 1.1 million telework-eligible workers who used telework still spent 61.2% of their work hours in person. And just 10% of the civilian federal workforce, or 228,000 employees, are approved for remote work, in which an employee may work entirely from their home or an agency-approved alternative work site, well below the 1/3 figure Ernst cited.’