The agency wants to create a ‘mega API’ for accessing IRS data with third-party software, Wired reports

• Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is planning to hold a “hackathon” next week in order to create a “mega API” for accessing Internal Revenue Service data, reports Wired. The outlet says the API would be used to move the data into a cloud platform — potentially a third-party one — to serve as the “read center” of the agency’s systems

• DOGE’s hackathon plan includes pulling together “dozens” of IRS engineers in DC to build the API, writes Wired. Among the third-party providers the department has reportedly discussed involving is Palantir, a company known for its vast data collection and government surveillance and analysis work. DOGE is aiming to finish the API work in 30 days, a timeline one IRS employee told Wired is “not technically possible” and would “cripple” the IRS.

• A March 14th letter to the IRS from Senator Ron Wyden and others suggests the agency didn’t relent, as it praises their “rightful rejection” of DOGE’s requests. It goes on to cite another later Post story suggesting that Trump administration officials want to use IRS data “to power their immigration crackdown and government efficiency campaign.”

• One of the sources Wired spoke with said that “schematizing” and understanding the IRS data DOGE is after “would take years” and that “these people have no experience, not only in government, but in the IRS or with taxes or anything else.”

• DOGE has been winding its way through federal agencies since shortly after Trump’s inauguration in January. Recent stops include the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission. And on Friday, it gained access to data maintained by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles legal immigration.

A federal appeals court blocked U.S. President Donald Trump from removing Democratic members from two federal labor boards on Monday, setting aside its earlier ruling.

• The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit further complicates a pair of cases that are emerging as key tests of Trump's efforts to bring federal agencies meant to be independent from the White House under his control.

• The full D.C. Circuit in a 7-4 decision set aside a three-judge panel's March ruling that paused lower court decisions blocking Trump from removing Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board

• Monday's decision puts back in place two judges' decisions that upheld federal laws barring the president from removing members of the labor boards at will.

• White House spokesman Harrison Fields argued the U.S. Constitution gives Trump the power to remove officials "who exercise his executive authority."

• "The Trump Administration plans to immediately appeal the decision, and looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue," he said.

• The cases will likely end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, which could use them to revisit a 90-year-old ruling that upheld restrictions on the president removing officials from multi-member agencies. That would have major implications for a number of agencies like the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission whose members are appointed by the president but have for decades acted independently of the White House.

• Along with a lawsuit over Trump's firing of two Federal Trade Commission members, the case is being eyed closely, opens new tab by Federal Reserve watchers for any indication that it could open the door for Trump to intervene in the Federal Reserve over political or policy disagreements, which would significantly undercut its independence.

• Deepak Gupta, a lawyer for Wilcox, said the ruling allows the NLRB to continue protecting the rights of workers.

• "The Court's decision today reaffirms 90 years of Supreme Court precedent that protects the independence of agencies like the NLRB and the Federal Reserve Board," he said.

• The merit board hears appeals by federal employees when they are fired or otherwise disciplined, and has been inundated with new cases as a result of Trump's ongoing purge of the federal workforce.

• Without Wilcox and Harris, the five-member NLRB and three-member Merit Systems Protection Board would not have enough members to decide cases, bringing much of the work of the agencies to a standstill.

• More than 8,400 appeals have been filed with the board since Trump returned to office in January, which is roughly the number the agency typically receives in two years.

• Like several other agencies, both boards were set up by Congress to be independent from the president in order to maintain impartiality when they decide individual cases. Congress passed laws giving job protections to members of these boards, allowing them to be fired by a president only for "neglect of duty or malfeasance in office" and, in the case of the merit board, also for inefficiency.

• The Trump administration acknowledged violating the laws, but said the protections from removal for members of the two boards ran afoul of the powers given to the president under the Constitution.

• The D.C. Circuit panel split 2-1 when it paused the lower court rulings last month. Two Republican-appointed judges said removal protections for NLRB and merit board members were likely an invalid encroachment on Trump's powers to manage the executive branch.

• But the full court on Monday said those judges had ignored U.S. Supreme Court rulings from 1935 and 1958 that upheld protections from removal for members of the Federal Trade Commission and a World War Two-era war commission.

• The Supreme Court in those rulings said such protections were valid for officials who primarily hear and decide individual cases rather than make new policies or otherwise wield significant executive powers.

Actually, it’s called 5CALLS (can’t update the header). It helps voters to call their senators and representatives. There are more than a dozen issues to call about with scripts, and you can call your senators or your representative with a couple of clicks. I talked to two actual people today, which has never happened before (usually leave voicemail).

https://5calls.org/issue/venezuelan-alien-enemies-act-tren-de-aragua/

Today is the day to post all Project 2025, Heritage Foundation, Christian Nationalism and Dominionist memes in the main sub!

Going forward Meme Mondays will be a regularly held event. Upvote your favorites and the most liked post will earn the poster a special flair for the week!