Stand with USAID until the end. Public servants deserve respect.
Everyone is encouraged to show up and bear witness.
The USAID “pick up your belongings tomorrow” directive is insane, abusive and wildly illegal.
The green light to strip USAID down to the bone was given by Trump-appointed judge Carl Nichols, who ruled last Friday that Trump’s unconstitutional acts to destroy the agency didn’t threaten anyone with irreparable harm.
The Trump regime has given the USAID offices to Customs and Border Patrol, and have demanded workers clear out their desks by Friday, February 28th.
USAID has made final decisions to cancel nearly 5,800 awards, while keeping more than 500, and that the State Department has canceled about 4,100 awards, while keeping about 2,700.
There will be solidarity sings Friday morning from 7:30 am - 8:30 am and 10 am - 12 pm.
The 7:30 am sing is led by All Souls UU choir.
The 10 am sing is led by the bēheld women’s choral ensemble.
The time to stand up is now.
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Friday 7:30 AM - 4 PM
Fork Off Coalition
District of Columbia
02/28/2025 at 07:30AM
CFPB Union presents: “Rock out with your Lockout.”
We’re taking it to the streets nationwide!
Join us in showing the American people that we work for the many, not the few.
Be there and spread the word far and wide!
Sign the petition to end CFPB delay on unemployment & health coverage for fired workers.
CFPB Headquarters
1700 G Street NW
Washington, DC
CFPB Union
District of Columbia
02/27/2025 at 12:00PM
Business meeting to consider the nomination of Steven Bradbury to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation.
Bradbury’s nomination hearing was February 20th.
Bradbury, the author of memos supporting the use of torture during the George W. Bush presidency, was narrowly confirmed as general counsel for the Department of Transportation in Trump’s first term.
Bradbury’s nomination was reported favorably on a party-line vote of 15-13.
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
253 Russell
02/27/2025 at 10:00AM
Full committee hearing.
Nominees:
- Dr. Stephen Miran, to be Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Executive Office of the President
- Jeffrey Kessler, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, Department of Commerce
- William Pulte, to be Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency
- Jonathan McKernan, to be Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
Stephen Miran is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a senior strategist at Hudson Bay Capital, the global investment firm. Miran works at the intersection of economic policy and investing. During the first Trump administration, he was senior advisor for economic policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, where he was a student of Marty Feldstein. He received a B.A. from Boston University, where he studied economics, philosophy, and mathematics.
Jeffrey I. Kessler is a partner in WilmerHale’s International Trade Practice. He served as Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance at the US Department of Commerce during the first Trump administration. Kessler headed the 360-person office that enforces US anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws, monitoring foreign compliance with trade agreements, supporting the negotiation and implementation of international trade agreements to open foreign markets, administering the Foreign-Trade Zones program, and evaluating Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion requests. He was the decisionmaker in hundreds of trade remedies cases, renegotiated politically-charged trade pacts with foreign countries and producers.
Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
538 Dirksen
02/27/2025 at 10:00AM
Full committee hearing.
Nominee:
- Keith Sonderling, Boca Raton, FL
Sonderling began his career as a management-side labor and employment attorney in his native state of Florida. After spending nearly 10 years in the private sector he joined the Department of Labor in the first Trump administration. There he held several roles, most notably serving as the acting and deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD). There, he was responsible for gifting Amazon, Uber, and other giants of the gig economy by ruling that gig workers are independent contractors.
In 2020, Sonderling was tapped to become one of five commissioners at the EEOC. He was strongly supported by the business community.
The deputy secretary of labor serves as the de facto chief operating officer of the DOL, managing an approximately 17,000-person workforce and a $14 billion dollar budget. Further, the deputy manages the politically appointed heads of each agency that falls under the DOL, including vital agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, WHD, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), among others.
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
562 Dirksen
02/27/2025 at 10:00AM
Full committee hearing.
Nominee:
- John C. Phelan, to be Secretary of the Navy
Phelan heads the Palm Beach-based private investment firm Rugger Management. Previously he was Managing Partner and Co-Founder of MSD Capital, LP, the private investment firm for Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies. Prior to forming MSD, Phelan was a principal for seven years at ESL Partners, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment firm. At ESL, Phelan was responsible for ESL’s Special Situation and Distressed Investments and helped grow the firm from $50 million to over $2 billion in assets under management. Prior to ESL, Phelan was a vice president at the Equity Group and was in charge of acquisitions (Western region) for the Zell-Merrill Lynch Real Estate Opportunity Funds. Phelan began his career at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he worked as a financial analyst in the Investment Banking Division. He has not served in the Navy or any other branch of the military.
He does, however, have an extensive art collection. Phelan and his wife Amy, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, started collecting art more than two decades ago and they were included on a list of the world’s top 200 art collectors published by Artnews earlier this year. Phelan raised $12 million for Trump’s campaign when he hosted a dinner at his $38 million Aspen home in August. The Phelans are on the North American acquisitions council of the Tate museums and the contemporary art council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. John also serves on the board of the Aspen Art Museum, where admission has been free for visitors since 2009 thanks to an endowment from him and his wife. From 2006 to 2019, the Phelans also hosted an annual wine tasting event called WineCrush to raise funds for the institution as part of its summer ArtCrush gala.
Senate Armed Services Committee
G-50 Dirksen
02/27/2025 at 09:30AM
Full committee executive session.
Nominee:
- Lori Chavez-DeRemer, of Oregon, to be Secretary of Labor.
Her nomination hearing was held on February 19th.
Vote to report favorably: 13-9
- R Sens. Cassidy, Collins, Mullin, Marshall, Scott, Hawley, Tuberville, Banks, Husted, Moody: Aye
- D Sens. Kaine, Hassen, Hickenlooper: Aye
- R Sen. Paul: No
- D Sens. Sanders, Murray, Baldwin, Blunt-Rochester, Alsobrooks: No
- D Sens. Murphy, Markey, Kim: No by proxy
- R Sen Murkowski: Absent
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
562 Dirksen
02/27/2025 at 09:30AM
Full committee business meeting to vote on the nominations of:
- Troy Edgar to be Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Dan Bishop to be Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget
Chair Rand Paul scheduled the vote only two days after the nomination hearing, instead of the standard week.
Democrats boycotted the business meeting. Ranking member Gary Peters (D-Mich.) was the only Democrat to attend.
The vote to support Bishop was 8-1, Peters casting the vote in opposition. Bishop’s nomination now goes before the Senate Budget Committee.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
342 Dirksen
02/27/2025 at 09:00AM
Stand with USAID until the end. Public servants deserve respect.
Everyone is encouraged to show up and bear witness.
The USAID “pick up your belongings tomorrow” directive is insane, abusive and wildly illegal.
The green light to strip USAID down to the bone was given by Trump-appointed judge Carl Nichols, who ruled last Friday that Trump’s unconstitutional acts to destroy the agency didn’t threaten anyone with irreparable harm.
USAID has made final decisions to cancel nearly 5,800 awards, while keeping more than 500, and that the State Department has canceled about 4,100 awards, while keeping about 2,700.
The time to stand up is now.
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Thursday 7:30 AM - 6 PM
Friday 7:30 AM - 4 PM
Fork Off Coalition
District of Columbia
02/27/2025 at 07:30AM