Latest news with #MichaelScherer
Atlantic
a day ago
- Politics
- Atlantic
A Test Case for Future Funding Cuts
This week, Congress passed Donald Trump's request to claw back $9 billion in approved federal spending, including funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined last night to discuss the president's rescissions request—and what its approval may signal about future appropriations. 'What I think will be remembered of this vote is it was a test case in whether' Republicans in Congress 'could change the way the government appropriates money,' Michael Scherer, a staff writer at The Atlantic, said last night. Historically, Scherer explained, even when one party controls both chambers of Congress, 60 votes are still required to pass a budget through the Senate. 'That means you need a bipartisan process,' he continued. But this differs from a rescissions request, which can pass with only 51 votes. The Trump administration's goal, Scherer argued, is to break away from a bipartisan budgeting process 'by making it a purely partisan' one. This, Scherer said, could 'change dramatically the whole way the federal government's been budgeted for years.' Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Leigh Ann Caldwell, the chief Washington correspondent at Puck; Stephen Hayes, the editor of The Dispatch, Meridith McGraw, a White House reporter at The Wall Street Journal; and Michael Scherer, a staff writer at The Atlantic. Watch the full episode here.
Atlantic
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Atlantic
The Judiciary Pushback Against Trump's Agenda
Donald Trump is shaking up his Cabinet, while his immigration agenda faces mounting pushback from the courts. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss. A Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas has called the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act 'unlawful'—and was among other judges from across the country who have ruled against the president. 'The defining fact of the first three months of this second term of Trump is that so many of the institutions that so successfully opposed him in the first term have been absent or in retreat,' Michael Scherer, an Atlantic staff writer, said last night. 'The one exception to that is the legal process.' Although judges 'operate at a different tempo than politicians or executive orders,' he added, 'you have seen in the last few weeks a really dramatic move by the judiciary to step in.' Joining the guest moderator and White House correspondent at PBS News Hour, Laura Barrón-López, to discuss this and more: Leigh Ann Caldwell, the chief Washington correspondent at Puck; Michael Scherer, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Ali Vitali, the host of Way Too Early on MSNBC; Alexander Ward, a national-security reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Watch the full episode here.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What Could DOGE Do With Federal Data?
This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here. When the Department of Government Efficiency stormed the federal government, it had a clear objective—to remake the government, one must remake the civil service. And in particular, the team of Elon Musk acolytes 'focused on accessing the terminals, uncovering the button pushers, and taking control,' Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Shane Harris, and I wrote this week in an investigation into the DOGE takeover. Computers, they figured, run the government. DOGE members and new political appointees have sought access to data and IT systems across the government—at the Treasury Department, IRS, Department of Health and Human Services, and more. Government technologists have speculated that DOGE's next step will be to centralize those data and feed them into AI systems, making bureaucratic processes more efficient while also identifying fraud and waste, or perhaps simply uncovering further targets to dismantle. Musk's team has reportedly already fed Department of Education data into an AI system, and Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer recently appointed to the General Services Administration, has repeatedly spoken with staff about an AI strategy, mentioning using the technology to develop coding agents and analyze federal contracts. No matter DOGE's goal, putting so much information in one place and under the control of a small group of people with little government experience has raised substantial security concerns. As one recently departed federal technology official wrote in draft testimony for lawmakers, which we obtained, 'DOGE is one romance scam away from a national security emergency.' This Is What Happens When the DOGE Guys Take Over By Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Matteo Wong and Shane Harris They arrived casually dressed and extremely confident—a self-styled super force of bureaucratic disrupters, mostly young men with engineering backgrounds on a mission from the president of the United States, under the command of the world's wealthiest online troll. On February 7, five Department of Government Efficiency representatives made it to the fourth floor of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters, where the executive suites are located. They were interrupted while trying the handles of locked office doors. 'Hey, can I help you?' asked an employee of the agency that was soon to be forced into bureaucratic limbo. The DOGE crew offered no clear answer. Read the full article. What to Read Next DOGE and new Trump appointees' access to federal data and computer systems is growing in both breadth and depth. Defense technologies, Americans' sensitive personal and health data, dangerous biological research, and more are in reach. Within at least one agency, USAID, they have achieved 'God mode,' according to an employee in senior leadership—meaning Elon Musk's team has 'total control over systems that Americans working in conflict zones rely on, the ability to see and manipulate financial systems that have historically awarded tens of billions of dollars, and perhaps much more,' Charlie Warzel, Ian Bogost, and I reported this week. With this level of control, the USAID staffer feared, DOGE could terminate federal workers in 'a conflict zone like Ukraine, Sudan, or Ethiopia.' In the coming weeks, we reported, 'the team is expected to enter IT systems at the CDC and Federal Aviation Administration.' Just how far Musk and his team can go is uncertain; they face various lawsuits, which have thus far had varying success. The team may be trying to improve the government's inner workings, as is its stated purpose. 'But in the offices where the team is reaching internal IT systems,' Charlie, Ian, and I wrote, 'some are beginning to worry that [Musk] might prefer to destroy' the government, 'to take it over, or just to loot its vaults for himself.' Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
21-02-2025
- Business
- Atlantic
What Could DOGE Do With Federal Data?
This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here. When the Department of Government Efficiency stormed the federal government, it had a clear objective—to remake the government, one must remake the civil service. And in particular, the team of Elon Musk acolytes 'focused on accessing the terminals, uncovering the button pushers, and taking control,' Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Shane Harris, and I wrote this week in an investigation into the DOGE takeover. Computers, they figured, run the government. DOGE members and new political appointees have sought access to data and IT systems across the government—at the Treasury Department, IRS, Department of Health and Human Services, and more. Government technologists have speculated that DOGE's next step will be to centralize those data and feed them into AI systems, making bureaucratic processes more efficient while also identifying fraud and waste, or perhaps simply uncovering further targets to dismantle. Musk's team has reportedly already fed Department of Education data into an AI system, and Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer recently appointed to the General Services Administration, has repeatedly spoken with staff about an AI strategy, mentioning using the technology to develop coding agents and analyze federal contracts. No matter DOGE's goal, putting so much information in one place and under the control of a small group of people with little government experience has raised substantial security concerns. As one recently departed federal technology official wrote in draft testimony for lawmakers, which we obtained, 'DOGE is one romance scam away from a national security emergency.' This Is What Happens When the DOGE Guys Take Over By Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Matteo Wong and Shane Harris They arrived casually dressed and extremely confident—a self-styled super force of bureaucratic disrupters, mostly young men with engineering backgrounds on a mission from the president of the United States, under the command of the world's wealthiest online troll. On February 7, five Department of Government Efficiency representatives made it to the fourth floor of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters, where the executive suites are located. They were interrupted while trying the handles of locked office doors. 'Hey, can I help you?' asked an employee of the agency that was soon to be forced into bureaucratic limbo. The DOGE crew offered no clear answer. What to Read Next DOGE and new Trump appointees' access to federal data and computer systems is growing in both breadth and depth. Defense technologies, Americans' sensitive personal and health data, dangerous biological research, and more are in reach. Within at least one agency, USAID, they have achieved 'God mode,' according to an employee in senior leadership—meaning Elon Musk's team has 'total control over systems that Americans working in conflict zones rely on, the ability to see and manipulate financial systems that have historically awarded tens of billions of dollars, and perhaps much more,' Charlie Warzel, Ian Bogost, and I reported this week. With this level of control, the USAID staffer feared, DOGE could terminate federal workers in 'a conflict zone like Ukraine, Sudan, or Ethiopia.' In the coming weeks, we reported, 'the team is expected to enter IT systems at the CDC and Federal Aviation Administration.' Just how far Musk and his team can go is uncertain; they face various lawsuits, which have thus far had varying success. The team may be trying to improve the government's inner workings, as is its stated purpose. 'But in the offices where the team is reaching internal IT systems,' Charlie, Ian, and I wrote, 'some are beginning to worry that [Musk] might prefer to destroy' the government, 'to take it over, or just to loot its vaults for himself.'
