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Timeline › 2025 › December › 31

December 31, 2025

5 entries on this date.

USDA tied wildfire-prevention grants to unrelated DEI and immigration pledges, stalling fire-risk work

On December 31, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Secretary Brooke Rollins issued new terms requiring recipients of USDA grants and contracts -- including Forest Service wildfire-risk-reduction funding, Community Wildfire Defense Grants, and Good Neighbor Authority agreements -- to pledge compliance with unrelated administration policy demands on DEI, "gender ideology," and immigration enforcement. Democratic-led states including Washington, Oregon, Michigan, and Maryland were unable to sign the new agreements, stalling wildfire-prevention work; a 21-state coalition sued and won a preliminary injunction in June 2026, but $15 million in Spokane-area wildfire grants remained undelivered as of early August 2026, when wildfires forced the evacuation of 65,000 residents there.

DHS ousted roughly 50 FEMA disaster-response CORE staff in New Year's Eve contract non-renewals

On December 31, 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and FEMA notified roughly 50 Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) employees that their positions would not be renewed as their contracts expired in early January 2026, according to internal emails obtained by CNN. Two sources said the decision came from FEMA's newly elevated acting administrator, Karen Evans, while a DHS spokesperson called the cuts "a routine staff adjustment of 50 staff out of 8,000" -- a characterization multiple sources disputed, saying ousting every worker whose contract expired in a specific window was not routine.

JTF Southern Spear killed five across two suspected narcotics vessels; 34th-35th strikes, ~115 campaign deaths

On Dec. 31, 2025, Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out successive "lethal kinetic strikes" on two vessels U.S. Southern Command alleged were operated by designated terrorist organizations along known narco-trafficking routes, killing five people — three aboard the first vessel and two aboard the second. SOUTHCOM presented no evidence, identified no one, filed no charges, and reported no attempt at interdiction or arrest. These were the 34th and 35th strikes of Operation Southern Spear and are the earliest strikes in this archive's record of the campaign.

HHS freezes all federal child-care (CCDF) funding nationwide, citing amplified fraud claims

On Dec. 31, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services froze all federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) money to every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories "effective immediately," saying it would release the funds only after each state supplied unspecified "administrative data." The freeze followed a Dec. 30 announcement by HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill and was publicly justified by unverified fraud allegations amplified from a Dec. 26 viral video targeting Somali-American-run day cares in Minnesota. Child-care advocates noted that states already run longstanding, annually updated anti-fraud controls and warned that even a month without funding could force thin-margin providers to close, harming families regardless of whether they receive subsidies.

ICE agents entered Minneapolis hospital without a warrant, shackled patient to bed for 28 hours

On December 31, 2025, ICE agents entered the emergency department at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota without a judicial warrant to arrest a patient who had just arrived for care, and remained at his bedside for approximately 28 hours, according to the advocacy organization Unidos MN and Minnesota state legislators. During that time agents treated the patient as though he were in criminal custody — denying him family visitation and at points shackling him to the bed — and accessed hospital staff-only areas including break rooms and parking lots, before leaving after a Hennepin County commissioner and state legislators confirmed no warrant existed and asked them to go. DHS did not respond to requests for comment.