The Department of Veterans Affairs is moving to slash some 80,000 jobs. The VA’s labor force grew under the Biden administration, largely to help implement the PACT Act, which expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

Meanwhile, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting National Institutes of Health research funding, siding with 22 Democratic attorneys general, medical associations and universities that argued the administration failed to follow correct procedures and that the cuts would make crucial scientific research “nonviable.” In related news, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last week his department would no longer allow public comments in its rulemaking process, ending a 50-year policy to involve public opinion in HHS decisions.

In related news, the staff of the U.S. African Development Foundation blocked DOGE workers, including Trump ally Peter Marocco, deputy acting head of USAID, from entering its offices Wednesday. The DOGE workers eventually left but threatened to return today — with U.S. marshals.