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Timeline › 2025 › February

February 2025

28 entries from February 2025.

Feb 28

GSA eliminated 18F, firing all ~90 employees of the federal technology unit, under DOGE direction

On February 28, 2025, the General Services Administration eliminated 18F, its internal technology consulting unit, firing all approximately 90 employees at the direction of DOGE. GSA Deputy Administrator Thomas Shedd announced the closure in an internal email; 18F's website was taken offline the same day. 18F was a congressionally-funded team of engineers and designers that helped federal agencies modernize digital services and largely paid for itself through interagency billing.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed SF418, making Iowa the first state to remove gender identity from its civil rights code

On Feb. 28, 2025, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 418, removing "gender identity" as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act and making Iowa the first U.S. state to strip an established protected class from its civil rights code. The law codifies binary definitions of sex tied to birth, ends transgender Iowans' ability to change the sex marker on their birth certificates, and bars instruction on "gender theory" in kindergarten through sixth grade. It took effect July 1, 2025.

Kansas Senate efficiency committee withheld public-portal records from Kansas Reflector past KORA deadlines while granting lawmakers early access

After Kansas Reflector requested public submissions to the Kansas Senate Committee on Government Efficiency's online portal on Feb. 25, 2025, committee chair Sen. Renee Erickson withheld the records well past the Kansas Open Records Act's three-day response requirement, releasing them to the outlet only on April 9, 2025. During the delay, Erickson granted committee members and other senators access to the same records by mid-March 2025. Kansas Reflector's editor-in-chief filed a KORA complaint with the Kansas Attorney General in May 2025.

Feb 27

Wyoming enacted SF0077 barring state and local government from requiring employees to use colleagues' preferred pronouns

On Feb. 27, 2025, Wyoming's SF0077, "Compelled speech is not free speech," became law after Gov. Mark Gordon declined to sign it, taking effect as Chapter 62 of the 2025 Session Laws. The statute, codified at W.S. 9-14-601, prohibits the state and its political subdivisions — including counties and public schools — from requiring any employee to refer to another employee by preferred pronouns as a condition of employment, contracting, or benefit, and creates a private civil right of action. It took effect July 1, 2025.

Feb 26

AG Bondi directed DOJ Civil Rights Division to dismiss Title VII disparate-impact enforcement suits against police and fire departments

On February 26, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to dismiss multiple Biden-era lawsuits against police and fire departments accused of discriminatory hiring. The dismissed cases alleged that written aptitude and physical fitness tests produced racially disparate outcomes in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Bondi framed the dismissals as ending "DEI quotas," although the underlying lawsuits involved standard disparate-impact enforcement that federal courts have upheld since 1971.

Feb 25

SSA Acting Commissioner Dudek dissolved the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, placing 140 employees on administrative leave

On February 25, 2025, the Social Security Administration dissolved its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and placed all 140 of its employees on administrative leave. Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek announced the closure, saying it "advances the President's goal to make all of government more efficient," while claiming statutorily required EEO and reasonable-accommodation functions would be moved elsewhere within the agency. SSA also shuttered its Office of Transformation on the same day.

Trump directed suspension of Covington & Burling security clearances and contract terminations over Jack Smith representation

President Trump issued a presidential memorandum on February 25, 2025, directing the Attorney General and all agency heads to immediately suspend security clearances held by partners, members, and employees of Covington & Burling LLP who had assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith, and to terminate all federal agency contracts with the firm. The memorandum cited the firm's representation of Smith as "involvement in government weaponization." It was the first in a sequence of retaliatory executive actions targeting major law firms whose attorneys had represented parties adverse to Trump or participated in investigations of him.

Feb 24

Rubio issued State Dept cable directing consulates to deny visas and impose permanent fraud bar on transgender applicants

On February 24, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a cable titled "Guidance for Visa Adjudicators on Executive Order 14201: Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" directing all U.S. consulates worldwide to require visa applications to reflect applicants' sex at birth. The cable authorized consular officers to deny visas based on "reasonable suspicion" of transgender identity and to apply a permanent lifetime fraud bar under INA § 212(a)(6)(C)(i) to applicants found to have "misrepresented" their sex. While framed around athletes, the cable's Section 6 mandate applied to all visa categories.

Feb 23

Cuyahoga County jail staff failed to give dying detainee Jennifer Wade CPR for more than 20 minutes

On February 23, 2025, corrections staff at the Cuyahoga County jail found 41-year-old Jennifer Wade unresponsive in her mental-health-unit cell but waited more than 20 minutes to begin CPR, and none of the responding officers or contracted MetroHealth nurses performed chest compressions as she died. Body-camera video later showed staff had left Wade on the concrete floor of her cell for hours, with one officer telling her to "stop playing," before anyone sounded an alarm. An initial state review cleared the jail, but after the withheld footage surfaced Ohio's Bureau of Adult Detention reopened the case and found the staff had failed to render aid.

Feb 22

OPM demanded weekly work reports from 2 million federal employees under DOGE direction; Musk threatened mass resignation for non-response

On February 22, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management sent a government-wide email to approximately 2 million federal employees directing them to submit five bullets summarizing their weekly work accomplishments and copy their managers, with a deadline of the following Monday at 11:59 PM ET. The email was sent at the direction of Elon Musk, a White House special government employee leading DOGE, who simultaneously posted on X that failure to respond would be taken as a resignation. OPM's own February 5 privacy impact assessment, published in response to ongoing litigation, had explicitly stated seven times that responses to government-wide emails are voluntary.

Feb 21

Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a memo directing transfer of transgender inmates to facilities matching birth sex and cutting affirming care

On February 21, 2025, the Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a memo implementing President Trump's Executive Order 14168, directing staff to refer to transgender inmates by the legal name and pronouns matching their sex assigned at birth, barring the use of funds for gender-affirming items and care, and suspending clothing and pat-search accommodations and support programs previously offered to transgender inmates. The memo laid the groundwork to transfer transgender women out of women's facilities into men's facilities based on sex assigned at birth. Affected women were moved into segregated housing pending transfer, and those slated for men's prisons faced the cutoff of their hormone treatments.

ICE officers beat disabled Sunnyvale man Ulises Peña López unconscious during 2025 arrest, lawsuit alleges

On February 21, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Ulises Peña López, a disabled carpenter, outside his home in Sunnyvale, California, and, according to a federal lawsuit filed in July 2026, beat him in front of his wife and young daughter before taking him to a nearby alley and continuing until he lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized. The suit says GEO Group and CoreCivic, the private contractors that ran the detention facilities where he was held for more than six months, failed to accommodate his disability, and that he suffered a stroke and a heart attack in custody that left him partially paralyzed. He was deported to Mexico in October 2025.

Feb 20

United States deported 200 third-country migrants to Costa Rica without written agreement

The United States deported roughly 200 people, including 80 children, to Costa Rica on two flights in February 2025, before any written agreement existed governing the transfers. Deportees from Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, and other countries were held for months at a border migration facility with their passports confiscated, until Costa Rica's Constitutional Court ordered their release that June for violating their rights to legal counsel and information.

Feb 19

Trump signed EO 14217, directing elimination of Inter-American Foundation, USADF, USIP, and Presidio Trust

On February 19, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14217, "Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy," directing four congressionally-created entities — the Inter-American Foundation, U.S. African Development Foundation, U.S. Institute of Peace, and Presidio Trust — to eliminate all non-statutory functions and reduce staff to the legal minimum. The EO also abolished the Presidential Management Fellows Program and terminated six federal advisory committees.

Feb 18

Trump signed EO 14215, asserting presidential control over independent regulatory agencies and requiring OMB approval of their regulations

On February 18, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14215, "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies," asserting presidential authority over independent regulatory agencies including the FEC, FTC, FCC, SEC, CFPB, and NLRB. The order required these agencies to submit significant rules to OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review before publication, and declared that the President's and Attorney General's legal interpretations are binding on all executive branch employees. Congress deliberately shielded these agencies from direct presidential control when it established them.

Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Kelly's veto to enact SB63, banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors

On February 18, 2025, the Kansas Legislature overrode Governor Laura Kelly's veto to enact SB63, the "Help Not Harm Act," barring healthcare providers from prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgery for gender transition to minors. The law restricts state funds and Medicaid from being used for gender transition, bars state employees from promoting a minor's social transition, and exposes providers to professional discipline and civil suits. It took effect July 1, 2025, and required minors already receiving care to be weaned off by December 31, 2025.

Feb 17

DOJ official Ed Martin threatened to reject Georgetown Law hires over DEI programs

On February 17, 2025, Ed Martin, then interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, sent a letter to Georgetown University Law Center dean William Treanor demanding to know whether Georgetown had eliminated DEI from its curriculum and warning that his office would reject any fellowship, internship, or attorney applicant affiliated with a law school that continued to teach DEI. Treanor responded on March 6, 2025, invoking First Amendment protections for university curriculum autonomy and calling the demand a constitutional violation. The D.C. Bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel later filed ethics charges against Martin over the letter.

DOGE fired 89 FDA Human Foods Program staff overseeing food and chemical safety; deputy commissioner resigned in protest

On February 17, 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency fired 89 staff within FDA's Human Foods Program, eliminating specialists in nutrition, infant-formula safety, food-safety response, and chemical-safety review. FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones resigned the same day, calling the cuts "indiscriminate" and warning they would undermine the administration's own stated food-safety and nutrition goals.

Feb 14

OPM directed agencies to fire 25,000+ probationary federal employees, bypassing statutory RIF procedures

On February 14, 2025, Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell sent a memorandum to the Chief Human Capital Officers Council directing all federal agencies to separate probationary employees not identified as mission-critical by end of day February 17. Agencies across government fired more than 25,000 employees using template termination letters citing employee "performance" — a rationale contradicted by the absence of any individualized performance review. Federal courts ruled the directive unlawful, finding OPM lacked statutory authority to direct other agencies to fire employees and that the mass separations required 60-day advance notice and formal RIF procedures that were never followed.

Utah Gov. Cox signed HB269 restricting transgender access to sex-designated spaces and college housing

Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed House Bill 269, "Privacy Protections in Sex-designated Areas," into law on February 14, 2025, tightening birth-sex restrictions on access to sex-designated privacy spaces in education and government facilities. The law requires degree-granting institutions to assign students to sex-designated housing by their sex at birth, narrows the exception for sex-based distinctions in interscholastic activities, and removes a medical-treatment documentation route that had supported access to certain sex-designated spaces. It passed the House 59-14 and the Senate 22-7.

Feb 13

Alabama Gov. Ivey signed the "What Is a Woman Act," codifying binary sex definitions and enabling exclusion of transgender people

On February 13, 2025, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB79, the "What Is a Woman Act," into law, codifying binary definitions of "sex," "male," "female," "man," and "woman" throughout Alabama law based on reproductive anatomy observed or clinically verified at birth, with no exceptions for intersex people. The law directs that transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals be recorded in state vital-statistics and medical registries according to that assigned sex, and authorizes state and local governments to restrict bathrooms, changing rooms, dormitories, prisons, and other sex-segregated spaces on that basis. The measure, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, took effect October 1, 2025.

DHS awarded $220M in no-bid advertising contracts under Noem, funneling work to firms tied to her inner circle

On February 13, 2025, DHS awarded a $143 million no-bid contract to Safe America Media LLC — a Delaware shell company incorporated just seven days earlier — as part of a $220 million advertising campaign to promote the agency's immigration enforcement mission and featuring Secretary Kristi Noem prominently. DHS bypassed competitive bidding by invoking a border "national emergency." A second $77 million no-bid contract went to People Who Think LLC. Work under the Safe America Media contract was secretly subcontracted to the Strategy Group, an Ohio Republican consulting firm run by the husband of Noem's DHS chief spokesperson. Noem separately implemented a policy requiring her personal sign-off on all DHS grants and contracts exceeding $100,000, causing agency-wide funding bottlenecks.

Feb 11

DHS fired FEMA CFO Mary Comans and three other officials without a hearing after Musk criticized migrant-hotel payments

On February 11, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had fired FEMA Chief Financial Officer Mary Comans, two program analysts, and a grant specialist, saying they had "circumvented leadership" to approve $59 million in Shelter and Services Program payments to New York City for migrant-hotel costs. The firings followed public criticism of the payments by then-DOGE head Elon Musk, and Comans was terminated without a hearing or the chance to respond to the allegations against her.

Trump signed EO 14210 ordering mass federal workforce reductions and granting DOGE political veto over career hiring

On February 11, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14210, directing all federal agencies to begin large-scale reductions in force and imposing a 1:4 hiring cap allowing no more than one new hire per four departures. The order required DOGE-designated team leads to approve all new career civil service appointments, inserting a political veto into the merit-based hiring system the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 was designed to protect from partisan control. Agency DEI offices and units performing non-statutory functions were identified as priority targets for elimination.

Feb 10

Trump fired Office of Government Ethics Director David Huitema without explanation; OGE reverted to acting director

On February 10, 2025, President Trump fired David Huitema as director of the Office of Government Ethics via a brief email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office, with no explanation given. Huitema had been Senate-confirmed in November 2024 to a five-year term, having served 19 years in federal ethics roles including at the State Department. The OGE, established by Congress as the executive branch's principal ethics watchdog, reverted to an acting director upon Huitema's removal.

Feb 7

Trump fired Office of Special Counsel Director Hampton Dellinger without statutory cause, disabling federal whistleblower protection agency

On February 7, 2025, President Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, director of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), via a one-sentence email from a White House personnel aide citing no cause. Federal statute limits OSC director removal to cases of inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance — grounds the termination notice did not invoke. The OSC is the primary federal agency responsible for investigating whistleblower retaliation, enforcing the Hatch Act, and protecting the employment rights of military veterans.

Feb 6

Trump signed Executive Order 14203 imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court officials and their U.S. supporters

On February 6, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14203, imposing asset freezes and U.S. entry bans on International Criminal Court officials and anyone providing them material support, in response to the ICC's arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. A week later, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan under the order. The sanctions extended to U.S. lawyers and human-rights advocates who assist the court, triggering First Amendment litigation.

Feb 2

Panama accepted 299 third-country deportees under expanded, unwritten MOU

The United States and Panama expanded an existing Memorandum of Understanding on February 2, 2025, under which roughly 299 migrants and asylum seekers from Asian and other countries were forcibly transferred to Panama that same month, many expelled without any protection screening under a Trump proclamation suspending asylum access. Dozens remained stranded in Panama for months, held at a jungle-camp facility and a Panama City hotel, before human rights groups intervened.