Government Information: NEWS ALERT! (January, 2025 on) SIGNIFICANT CHANGES to United States government institutions & their information

As the PEGI (Preservation of Electronic Government Information) group noted in a February 14, 2025 post, a political tone appears to have been applied to many of the Trump / Musk decisions:

"Rapid political events have led to an upheaval in access to data and other information resources produced by the U.S. government, particularly content associated with Executive Orders (EOs) seeking to upend prior federal government activity associated with diversity and inclusion, gender identity, immigration, the climate crisis, public health, consumer safety, and a host of related topics. Within just the past four weeks, federal agencies that are impacted by these EOs have removed access to content or substituted modified content."

And, as Kelly L. Smith, Government Information Librarian at the UC San Diego Library notes in her website ("Federal Government Information After the 2025 Transition" and listed further in this guide):

"...although there has always been a problem of certain federal information/websites being taken down when a new administration begins. The difference this time around is the scale and speed of change. Entire offices, such as USAID and the Department of Education, are being closed or threatened with closure. Large numbers of websites, datasets, articles, and other types of content have been deleted or altered. Research grants have been terminated. Massive dismissals of staff mean fewer people to research, create, publish, and maintain information resources such as websites and databases. Resources we have relied on for years may no longer be available, and access to certain federal webpages may change from day-to-day or even hour-to-hour."

• Presidential Actions (including "Executive Orders") / President Donald J. Trump, The White House
  • some examples of those ending the previous administration's "diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)" programs &/or the recognition of transgendered peoples:
    • Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing The White House (January 20, 2025)
    • DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (January 20, 2025)

Examples are coming to light of government organizations, programs and/or the information they have produced, that have been changed, have had sections removed or have been completely suppressed under the new Trump / Musk administration.  Although, particularly in the Internet-age, something like this has always occurred during times of transition between presidential administrations (or during times of high security concerns, such as September 11th, 2001), decisions being made in such as exceedingly short time frame and the speed in which information is disappearing (i.e. less than a month after Donald Trump became President), raises huge concerns for open access and transparent government information, from all presidential administration eras.  

Here are a few examples of changes or lost information, in particular, where contentious or erroneous decisions were made on what had "to go":

(1)  Government websites:

Many websites are being noted as having content "scrubbed", or simply, being terminated.  Here are a few examples:

• "Military to Remove 'Enola Gay' Photos for Violating DEI Rules", By Shane Croucher / Newsweek.com (March 7, 2025)

"The executive order mandating the removal of DEI-related content required all military branches to review years of archived material, including website postings, photos, news articles and videos. If the materials could not be reviewed by the deadline, they were to be "temporarily removed from public display" until further assessment. … The removal effort has sparked confusion, as some images appear to have been marked for deletion because their filenames contain the word "gay," including those of service members with that last name and the Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 aircraft that dropped the first atomic bomb in combat during World War II. …The vast majority of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities and it also removes a large number of posts that mention various commemorative months—such as those for Black and Hispanic people and women." 

N.B  This article (scroll down close to its end) from The Associated Press provides access to an "obtained database of tens of thousands of Department of Defense website images that have been flagged for removal, or already removed due to having content that highlighted diversity, equity or inclusion. Images highlighting female service members' contributions have been removed as have images highlighting Black, Hispanic and Pacific Islander contributions to the military, among many others. The database AP obtained contains 26,000 images that were flagged — and they may only be a fraction of all the content that is being removed."  

E.g., one example: "Honoring History, Achievements of African American Marines"

(2)  Government documents:

Some government documents have been ordered to "disappear" overnight:

• Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government / The White House (January 20, 2025)

"...  Each agency head shall promptly rescind all guidance documents inconsistent with the requirements of this order or the Attorney General’s guidance issued pursuant to this order, or rescind such parts of such documents that are inconsistent in such manner.  Such documents include, but are not limited to:

(i)    “The White House Toolkit on Transgender Equality”;

(ii)   the Department of Education’s guidance documents including:

(A)  “2024 Title IX Regulations: Pointers for Implementation” (July 2024);

(B)  “U.S. Department of Education Toolkit: Creating Inclusive and Nondiscriminatory School Environments for LGBTQI+ Students”;

(C)  “U.S. Department of Education Supporting LGBTQI+ Youth and Families in School” (June 21, 2023);

(D) “Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. Apoyar a los jóvenes y familias LGBTQI+ en la escuela” (June 21, 2023);

(E)  “Supporting Intersex Students: A Resource for Students, Families, and Educators” (October 2021);

(F)  “Supporting Transgender Youth in School” (June 2021);

(G)  “Letter to Educators on Title IX’s 49th Anniversary” (June 23, 2021);

(H) “Confronting Anti-LGBTQI+ Harassment in Schools: A Resource for Students and Families” (June 2021);

(I) “Enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 With Respect to Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Light of Bostock v. Clayton County” (June 22, 2021);

(J)  “Education in a Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of COVID-19 on America’s Students” (June 9, 2021); and

(K) “Back-to-School Message for Transgender Students from the U.S. Depts of Justice, Education, and HHS” (Aug. 17, 2021);

(iii)  the Attorney General’s Memorandum of March 26, 2021 entitled “Application of Bostock v. Clayton County to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972″; and

(iv)  the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace” (April 29, 2024)…"

Access to some government documents that were previously easily available, has been fettered:

People are now experiencing restrictions to accessing previously easily available government information.  For example, a Librarian at the University of South Alabama Library found that “…when trying to access what should be readily available information, we have encountered several published government publications (NOT CLASSIFIED OR INTERNAL INFORMATION-ONLY) that require sign-in or other restrictions…(and) I am not talking about actual removed information or 404 errors…"  She cites these examples of publications that are part of a series called "Literature Review, a product of the model programs guide", from the Office of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention:

[] Bullying and Cyberbullying Literature Review: A product of the Model Programs Guide / Office of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) J 32.33:B 87/2.  (February 2023)

< https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/model-programs-guide/literature-reviews/bullying-and-cyberbullying >

*** TAKES YOU TO: 

"Access denied. You must log in to view this page…

You are accessing a U.S. Government information system, which

includes: (1) this computer, (2) this computer network, (3) all computers connected to this network, and (4) all devices and storage media attached to this network or to a computer on this network. This information system is provided for U.S. Government-authorized use only.

Unauthorized or improper use of this system may result in disciplinary action, and civil and criminal penalties."

You can login via SSO -- but who the heck has this kind of access?

I don't know if it is because of subject content of the restricted titles or if there are other reasons.

It is the note that says that the information "is provided for U.S. Government-authorized use only" that concerns me.

Not every title within the series have the restriction. Some of the titles did go through to content, e.g.:  

• J 32.33:AG 3 [Age Boundaries of the Juvenile Justice System] and 
• J 32.33:P 75/2 [Community-oriented Policing and Problem-oriented Policing),

…while others did NOT, e.g.:

• J 32.33:C 76/2/2024 [Alternatives to Detention and Confinement] and 
• J 32.33:G 44 [Girls in the Juvenile Justice System]). 

Luckily the Internet Archive has a copy on their website:

< https://web.archive.org/web/20241212231228/https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/model-programs-guide/literature-reviews/bullying-and-cyberbullying >

&

< https://web.archive.org/web/20240302091432/https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/model-programs-guide/literature-reviews/girls-juvenile-justice-system >

&

<https://web.archive.org/web/20240520191924/https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/model-programs-guide/literature-reviews/alternatives-to-detention-and-confinement  >

(3)  Government data:

Massive cuts to the U.S. Department of Education have radically altered its ability to continue on delivering these high quality - and highly depended upon - education resources:

• the ERIC database
• the What Works Clearinghouse 
• National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 

[1] What happened…

In February, 2025, the newly minted U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by Elon Musk, announced that nearly $900 million in cuts would come to contracts with the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The Institute funds research on how to improve education at all levels, in both the United States and around the world. 

(For more information, please visit “What is IES and what does it do?”)

In order to mitigate the loss of funding and to subscribe to Trump’s February 26th Executive Order EO14222 (“Implementing the President’s ‘‘Department of Government Efficiency’’ Cost Efficiency Initiative”), a permanent layoff of almost 50% of Department of Education’s staff ensued, disabling the 158 year old agency from fully continuing its research and data collection programs.

[2] Effects of the cuts on making federally-funded data-collection & research freely accessible to the public…

(a) The ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) database:

The Institute of Education Sciences' database, ERIC, is heavily used in many post-secondary institutions around the world. Started in 1966, it now contains citations to over 1.6 million education resources, including peer-reviewed journal articles, research reports, fact sheets, conference papers & books and a few other types of materials; over 400,000 of these items are full-text, downloadable and free. Over 1,000 academic journals are indexed in ERIC, with over 600 of those journals displaying the full text of the articles that have received research funding from the IES*.  Laurier users can access ERIC through the U.S. government website, and through our subscription-based database platforms from ProQuest and EbscoHost. 

*From 2011, on, researchers funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) had to submit the full-text of their research articles to ERIC, no more than 1 year after publication.  (See “Public Access to Research Policy: IES Policy Regarding Public Access to Research” & “U.S. Department of Education Plan for Public Access: Improving Access to Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research" for a full explanation.) 

But with the 2025 reductions in the Department of Education's workforce, funding, programs and services, ERIC will undergo a major change. In early March, 2025, journal publishers began to receive this message from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES):

“…The Department of Education is working with the Department of Government Efficiency to “reduce overall Federal spending” and “reallocate spending to promote efficiency” (EO 14222). As a result, ERIC will be significantly reducing the number of records we index going forward. We expect to be reducing the collection by approximately 45% starting April 24, 2025…”

However, all records currently in ERIC (up until at least April 24, 2025) are supposed to remain available & findable in searches.

• ERIC Journal List (November, 2024), as posted by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
• ERIC Journal List (November, 2024), as preserved on the Internet Archive 

Implications for doing evidence syntheses: 

With the regular volume of added content, going forward, to be reduced by 45% come April, efforts are underway to study what journal titles may be cut, and what other available academic databases may contain the same journals, such as EbscoHost’s Education Source.  This website will be updated if more information becomes forward.

For further information about any upcoming changes in ERIC:

• check this blog post from the University of Toronto's OISE Education Librarians, Desmond Wong & Jenaya Webb: "Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC)"

(b) The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) database:

Started in 2002, the Institute of Education Sciences' What Works Clearinghouse, is a database of "evidence-based recommendations for educators to improve student outcomes", from pre-school to post-secondary.  The database holds a searchable collection of "Practice Guides", "Intervention Reports" ("summaries of findings of the highest-quality research on a given intervention or practice in education"), "Reviews of Individual Studies" & downloadable data from WWC study reviews.  There is also a collection of resources for training educators, with videos, webinars, and other helpful materials.

Many of the WWC resources have been downloaded & preserved in the Internet Archive, but it is uncertain if the WWC will be updated &/or properly maintained on Institute of Education Sciences' website, post-April 24, 2025.

(c) The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its collected data:

The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) oversees the National Center for Education Statistics, which collects & analyzes education data on such topics as evaluating federal programs for effectiveness and reporting how well the United States is doing in educating its students.  

However, many fear, cuts to funding research and employing people to run the programs will result in a loss of access to data and issues in data collection and preservation accountability.  For more information on potential outcomes and concerns, please visit:

1. Layoffs Gut Federal Education Research Agency. By Kathryn Palmer / Insider Higher Ed (March 14, 2025) “…It’s not clear how many of the department’s dozens of data-collection programs—including those related to early childhood education, college student outcomes and workforce readiness—will be downsized or ended as a result of the cuts. The department did not respond to Inside Higher Ed’s request for clarity on exactly which contracts were canceled. (It did confirm, however, that it still maintains contracts for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the College Scorecard and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.)…”

    

2. $900 Million in Institute of Education Sciences Contracts Axed. By  Ryan Quinn and Katherine Knott / Insider Higher Ed (February 12, 2025) "... cuts essentially decimated the agency, hindering its ability to collect and process data and release congressionally mandated reports. …(researchers)… will lose their online access to restricted education data sets in June, … (and) anticipate having to go through an onerous regulatory process to set up private rooms with computers disconnected from the internet in order to review the data on physical discs that the Education Department (will) mail to them….instead of stored securely in an online data platform…”

    

3. AERA (American Educational Research Association) and Other Education Research Associations Issue Joint Letter to Congress (March 25, 2025) “In a March 25 letter, AERA and other education research leaders call on Congress to protect the nation’s education data, research infrastructure, and knowledge base, by safeguarding the IES and broader Education Department staff, leadership, and mission,…the Administration’s sudden, arbitrary termination of more than 1,300 employees across the U.S. Department of Education…has resulted in barely a skeletal staff at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), leaving only three staff remaining at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and just slightly over 20 staff to execute the vital functions of the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), the National Center for Education Research (NCER), and at the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER)…”