Department of Education (ED/DoEd)
President Trump signed an executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education on 20 March 2025; however, this cannot be accomplished legally without congressional approval. The American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education, which can be viewed here.
The database ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) is a searchable index of scholarly education literature, which is sponsored by the U.S Department of Education. A discussion post in the ACRL Evidence Synthesis Methods Interest Group states that some journals are being deselected from ERIC, with a reduction of 45% to the collection from 24th April 2025. This appears to come as a result of funding cuts engineered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). On April 22nd, it was reported on the website Governing that no new material at all would be added to the database from 23rd April onwards; however, this decision now appears to have been reversed.
A document tracking journals which will no longer be indexed by ERIC, together with emails sent to journal editors explaining their deselection, is available here.
On 16th June 2025, the company Clarivate released a statement announcing that they will be releasing a new free tool called the ProQuest Education Research Index, which would contain all of ERIC's current data, and which would aim to continue to source new material from the titles previously indexed in ERIC. Read about this here.
Below are a selection of university library guides and posts on the issue:
References
'8:25-cv-01230-SAG' (2025). Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief. Available at: https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/1-Complaint-IES.pdf (Accessed: 1 July 2025)
Barshay, J. (2025). "Major Education Resource Set to Shut Down This Week". Governing, 22 April. Available at: https://www.governing.com/policy/major-education-resource-set-to-shut-down-this-week (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Barshay, J. (2025). "Education Department restarts online library ERIC". The Hechinger Report, 28 April. Available at: https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-restart-eric-ed-library/ (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Evidence Synthesis Methods Interest Group (2025). Upcoming changes to ERIC from an evidence synthesis perspective. 25 March. Available at: https://connect.ala.org/acrl/discussion/upcoming-changes-to-eric-from-an-evidence-synthesis-perspective#bm1bc89934-aa13-4a2f-a65c-0e112454f753 (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Research Information (2025). "Clarivate reaffirms support for ERIC, launches free index". Research Information, 16 June. Available at: https://www.researchinformation.info/news/clarivate-reaffirms-support-for-eric-launches-free-index/ (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Webster, E. Journals No Longer Being Indexed By ERIC. Available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H5qSJQE2N-wh6FxnWxBHE9r5Oq9mW-kI5Q_LDf4pKs4/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.amc5r0s78jxx (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE)
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency is an independent U.S government agency, with responsibility over issues of environmental protection. The Department of Energy is a federal government executive department covering energy policy and production.
In late July 2025, the EPA drafted a proposal which aims to reverse "the endangerment finding", which is a 2009 declaration that fossil fuels endanger human health, and which is used as a basis for regulating greenhouse gas production from vehicles and industry.
This proposal comes at the same time that the U.S Department of Energy released a report questioning the scientific consensus on climate change. Many of the scientists cited in this report have claimed that their work was severely misrepresented.
A commentary and explainer on the report and proposal has been published in the Guardian here.
On 7 August, it was announced by the Energy Secretary Chris Wright that past national climate reports (the National Climate Assessment) were being reviewed and will be republished with alterations, stating that the previous assessments "weren't fair".
On the 29th August, a number of EPA employees who had signed a letter which criticized the agency's leadership under Trump were fired. The document in question had been published on June 30th, and was described as a "declaration of dissent".
References
Associated Press (2025). "EPA fires employees who publicly criticized agency policies under Trump". CNN, 30 August. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/30/politics/epa-fires-employees-who-publicly-criticized-agency-policies-under-trump (Accessed 3 September 2025).
Noor, D. and Milman, O. (2025). "Trump bids to scrap almost all pollution regulations - can anything stop this?". The Guardian, 31 July. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/31/trump-epa-endangerment-finding (Accessed 2 August 2025).
Oliver, M. (2025). "Scientists decry Trump energy chief's plan to 'update' climate reports: 'Exactly what Stalin did'. The Guardian, 7 August. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/climate-assessments-chris-wright-trump (Accessed 8 August 2025).
Taft, H. (2025). "Scientists Say New Government Climate Report Twists Their Work". Wired, 30 July. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-say-new-government-climate-report-twists-their-work/ (Accessed 2 August 2025).
U.S Department of Energy. (2025). A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate. Available at: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE_Critical_Review_of_Impacts_of_GHG_Emissions_on_the_US_Climate_July_2025.pdf (Accessed 2 August 2025)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2025). "EPA Releases Proposal to Rescind Obama-Era Endangerment Finding, Regulations that Paved the Way for Electric Vehicle Mandates". EPA, 29 July. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-releases-proposal-rescind-obama-era-endangerment-finding-regulations-paved-way (Accessed 2 August 2025).
Various (2025). "Declaration of Dissent". Stand Up For Science, 30 June. Available at: https://www.standupforscience.net/epa-declaration (Accessed 3 September 2025).
Wikipedia. (2025). National Climate Assessment. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Climate_Assessment#cite_note-4 (Accessed 8 August 2025).
Wikipedia. (2025). Regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_greenhouse_gases_under_the_Clean_Air_Act (Accessed 2 August 2025).
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
IMLS is an independent agency of the U.S federal government. On March 31st 2025, all staff at the Institute of Museum and Library Services were placed on administrative leave. On 20th May, after a preliminary injunction from a federal judge, previously terminated IMLS staff are returning, and grants are being reinstated. However, on 6th June, a further ruling was made which allows the administration's cuts to continue. The situation continues to be unstable. This google document provides a detailed, ongoing timeline of IMLS cuts, lawsuits, and the impact to libraries.
Read the American Alliance of Museum's press release on this, as well as the ALA's later statements, below:
Library of Congress (LOC)
The Library of Congress is the national library of the U.S, and the library and research service for the U.S Congress. The United States Copyright Office is a part of the Library of Congress. The library has a huge influence worldwide in the library sector; it produces the Library of Congress Subject Headings, a thesaurus used to describe bibliographic records. It is responsible for Library of Congress classification, which many libraries use to organise and shelve their resources. It also produces MARC standards, used for making records machine readable and thus shareable between libraries.
Early in the Trump administration, the Library of Congress came under fire for capitulating to demands to change two subject headings. These were the "Gulf of Mexico", which was changed to "Gulf of America", and "Mount Denali", which was changed to "Mount McKinley".
On 8 May, 2025, Carla D. Hayden, the first woman and first African American to hold the position of Librarian of Congress, was fired without cause or due process by Donald Trump. The justification provided was Hayden's advocacy for DEI programmes. Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general who represented Trump in his 2024 criminal trial, has been appointed acting librarian.
Days later (the weekend of the 10/11th May), Shira Perlmutter, the head of the U.S Copyright Office, was also fired. Perlmutter had just published a report on copyright concerns around the use of AI.
References
Associated Press (2025). "US deputy attorney general Todd Blanche tipped as librarian of Congress". The Guardian, 13 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/13/us-deputy-attorney-general-todd-blanche-tipped-as-librarian-of-congress (Accessed: 1 July 2025)
Associated Press (2025). "Trump abruptly fires librarian of Congress in latest purge of government". The Guardian, 9 May. Available at: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/09/trump-congress-librarian-fired (Accessed: 1 July 2025)
Olivares, J. (2025). "Trump reportedly fires head of US copyright office after release of AI report". The Guardian, May 12. Available at: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/12/trump-fires-copyright-office-shira-perlmutter (Accessed: 1 July 2025)
Roach, S. (2025). "Library of Congress Changes “Gulf of Mexico” and “Mount Denali” subject headings–What you need to know". CCLC, 1 April. Available at: ccclibraries.com/blogs/deiaa_workgroup/blog/library-of-congress-changes-gulf-of-mexico-and-mount-denali-subject-headings (Accessed: 1 July 2025)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an agency responsible for weather forecasts, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, fishing, and protection of endangered species.
NOAA have undergone significant changes since January 2025, including staff cuts, contract terminations, loss of databases and websites, and the pause of some operations. Significant budget cuts are proposed in the 2026 budget.
In June, it was reported in Politico and other sources that NOAA's site climate.gov, a key source of information about climate science for the future, will no longer be updated.
The Wikipedia page "NOAA under the second presidency of Donald Trump" has a detailed overview of ongoing changes to the agency.
References
Cusick, D. "NOAA's climate information portal to go silent". Politico, 18 June. Available at: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/06/18/noaas-climate-information-portal-to-go-silent-00412157 (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Wikipedia (2025). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Oceanic_and_Atmospheric_Administration (Accessed: 1 July 2025)
Wikipedia (2025). NOAA under the second presidency of Donald Trump. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA_under_the_second_presidency_of_Donald_Trump (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
National Science Foundation (NSF)
The National Science Foundation is NIH's counterpart for non-medical science and engineering. After staff reductions similar to those seen in other agencies, and with proposed drastic budget cuts for the 2026 fiscal year threatened, on the 8th May it was reported that "According to sources who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight NSF directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced. The current directors and deputy directors will lose their titles and might be reassigned to other positions at the agency or elsewhere in the federal government." (Mervis, 2025).
A Scientific American article reported on June 25th that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will be moving into the NSF headquarters - NSF staff had not been informed of this, and have not been told where they would be moved to once the building has been taken over.
References
Bravender, R., E&E News (2025). "Trump administration ousts National Science Foundation from headquarters building". Scientific American, 25 June. Available at: www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-administration-ousts-national-science-foundation-from-headquarters/ (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Mervis, J. (2025). "Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions". Science Insider, 8 May. Available at: www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-nsf-faces-radical-shake-officials-abolish-its-37-divisions (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
An agency responsible for foreign aid and development assistance, USAID has historically been one of the world's largest aid agencies, and it has a vast impact on global health. For example, the World Food Programme relies on U.S funding for half of its budget. The Trump administration have frozen almost all foreign aid and placed nearly all USAID employees on administrative leave. Programmes distributing food, medical supplies and clean water in various countries were abruptly halted. As of 09 April 2025, some of the World Food Programme humanitarian aid contracts which had been cancelled were restored, but not all. Court cases are ongoing which consider the legality of the administration's actions.
On Tuesday 10th June 2025, it was reported in the Guardian that the Trump administration will be eliminating all USAID overseas positions by 30th September.
On 1st July, U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of USAID on a substack post entitled "Making Foreign Aid Great Again".
References
Better World Campaign (2025). The Impact of Foreign Assistance Cuts. Available at: https://betterworldcampaign.org/impact-of-foreign-assistance-cuts (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Gedeon, J. and Tait, R. (2025). "Trump administration to cut all USAID overseas roles in dramatic restructuring". The Guardian, 11 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/10/trump-fires-usaid-overseas-employees (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Hansler, J. (2025). "USAID reverses course and restores some humanitarian aid contracts after WFP warning of possible deadly consequences". CNN Politics, 9 April. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/08/politics/trump-admin-aid-yemen-afghanistan/index.html (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
Rubio, M. "Making Foreign Aid Great Again". Substack, 1 July. Available at: https://statedept.substack.com/p/making-foreign-aid-great-again (Accessed: 22 July)
Seddon, S. (2025). "What is USAID and why is Trump poised to 'close it down'?". BBC, 3 Feb. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyezjwnx5ko (Accessed: 1 July 2025).
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