Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card

0:01The Trump administration offered millions of federal employees an opportunity to resign. The administration offered the equivalent of several months' pay. How are courts answering another administration move to pause federal spending? I'm Michelle Martin, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:21Confirmation hearings begin today for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. What are senators thinking about his views of medicine and vaccines? Also, the nation's report card is out, which shows how American students are doing in math and reading five years after the start of the pandemic. These results are sobering. They're not where we need to be or where we want to be at this point. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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2:23The president issued a sweeping order to pause trillions of dollars in payments. Just as that was supposed to go into effect, a federal judge temporarily blocked it. And the administration added another proposal offering millions of federal employees a chance to quit. In a moment, we'll hear from a former top budget official in the George W. Bush administration. First, NPR White House correspondent Esma Hallett is here to talk about it all. Esma, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so the memo was going out to workers last night, I heard. What exactly is the federal government offering its employees?

2:54The administration says it's giving employees the option to resign, be put on leave and continue to be paid through September. It's a big move with the goal to shrink the government. The union that represents many federal workers described this effort as a purge of dedicated civil servants, and it does not consider the move voluntary. Under this new Trump administration, people in the federal workforce feel like they are being seen as the enemy in a way that they have never been viewed by prior administrations, either Republican or Democrat. And Steve, you know, being a government worker was once seen as a steady, secure job.

3:30But right now, federal workers feel like their jobs are very precarious. And that is indeed the intention. Trump wants government workers in line with his vision. He campaigned on remaking federal government. He campaigned on reshaping government as a whole. He telegraphed a lot of his decisions, and now he is following through just perhaps more swiftly than expected. Now, this email to federal workers, I guess it'll be played out. Maybe it'll go to court. We'll find out what happens in the hours and days to come. But then there's this other memo pausing payments, trillions of dollars worth of payments, it said yesterday.

4:04What exactly was the federal government trying to do with that? It was a memo, Steve, that sparked utter chaos and confusion when it was issued by the Office of Management and Budget. It called for a temporary freeze in federal funds, grants, loans, other forms of assistance. It was a sweeping directive with little clarity. And Trump's press secretary, Caroline Levitt, spent a bulk of the White House press briefing yesterday defending the freeze. And the reason for this is to ensure that every penny that is going out the door is not conflicting with the executive orders and actions that this president has taken.

4:38What she's referring to there are programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as climate and just general overspending. But the memo was so broad that it was not clear what programs would be affected. The White House clarified that direct services like Medicaid, Social Security and food stamps would not be impacted, but also did not articulate if financial assistance that comes through nonprofits, you know, think, for example, of food banks, whether those might be affected. What was the response to all of this? Well, Democrats raised alarm bells and accused Trump of violating the Constitution.

5:12Nonprofits expressed concern about cuts to services they provide. Diane Yentl is the CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, which represents a network of some 33 ,000 nonprofits. She says this freeze could lead to catastrophic consequences. We're talking about potentially shutting down shelters for survivors of domestic violence or shelters for people experiencing homelessness. And so she was amongst a group that filed a legal challenge over Trump's move. And just as this directive was about to go into effect at 5 p.m. yesterday, a federal judge intervened. The charge being here that Congress, not the president, set spending.

5:50So what's the ruling mean? You know, it just allows sort of a bit of breathing room, at least until Monday. That is when a follow-up hearing is planned with more fulsome arguments on the merits of the case. Steve, I will say the courts seem to be really the arena where the fights around Trump's changes will play out. For example, you're also seeing legal challenges to the birthright citizenship executive order as well. NPR White House correspondent Asma Khaled, thanks so much. Good to speak with you. Now, reporters are putting questions to the administration today about another story that emerged overnight.

6:20The Pentagon is moving to remove the security detail for retired Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley, who is under threat from Iran. The military is also revoking Milley's security clearance. And the defense secretary is directing the Pentagon's inspector general to conduct an inquiry into General Milley's conduct that could lead to a reduction in rank. That is one of the first actions under Trump's newly confirmed secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. General Milley repeatedly criticized Trump and also worked behind the scenes to ensure a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election or as peaceful as possible.

6:53Former President Biden issued a preemptive pardon of Milley before leaving office.

7:04Today, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes questions from senators about his bid to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. It is a consequential job. It oversees all of America's health agencies, including Medicare, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and more. It has an annual budget of$1.7 trillion, which is about the size of Australia's GDP. And Kennedy has offered a lot of opinions on health over the years. NPR's Selena Simmons Duffin is here. Good morning. Morning, Steve. Okay, so what has Kennedy said and done that lawmakers may have questions about? Well, first of all, he spent decades as an anti-vaccine activist leading a group called Children's Health Defense, and he believes a thoroughly debunked claim that vaccines cause autism.

7:48I am sure we'll hear a lot about that since this job has broad powers over federal vaccine policy. He has made millions of dollars over the years suing vaccine makers, and he could profit off of lawsuits against Merck while in this job that regulates drug makers. He also denies that HIV causes AIDS. That is an established scientific fact. And he frequently compared COVID-19 public health measures to Hitler's Germany. In this role, he would be in charge of the response if there's another pandemic crisis. So there is just so much to talk about. It's really hard to predict how the hearing will play out, but it will definitely be interesting.

8:23What is the case that his supporters are making for RFK Jr. in this role? They portray him as a changemaker who will direct scientific research towards the root causes of chronic diseases. He's talked a lot about the importance of healthy food and getting additives out of the food supply. I reached a White House spokesperson last week who told me Kennedy has met with more than 60 senators, and he's prepared and excited for this process. And I guess we should note here and there there's been a Democrat who said, listen, I agree with Kennedy about this one thing here and there. But then there are efforts to block his confirmation because of all those other opinions you just mentioned.

8:57What's going on? Yeah, so this is definitely a strange bedfellows situation. You have Protect Our Care, which is a left-leaning advocacy organization running ads targeting Republican senators, saying he's an anti-vaccine extremist. extremist. They point to an incident in Samoa, which is a Pacific island that Kennedy visited in 2019, just before a measles outbreak that killed 83 people. Thousands of doctors have been speaking out, saying infectious diseases like measles, also polio, meningitis could make a comeback if the federal government stopped supporting routine vaccinations. And then you have Kennedy detractors on the right as well.

9:34Oh, that's interesting because so many people on the right have felt They need to support everything the president does. Who's resisting? Well, former Vice President Mike Pence objects to the fact that Kennedy has been supportive of abortion rights. Now Kennedy says he'll go along with Trump's opposition to abortion rights, but Pence does not buy that. And his group, Advancing American Freedom, has been running its own ads against Kennedy. Also this week, two conservative media outlets, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, ran editorials against his confirmation. I'm beginning to wonder, Selina, if just one confirmation hearing is going to be sufficient for all the questions that senators have.

10:09Well, actually, he has two. So today is the hearing in the Senate Finance Committee, and tomorrow is the hearing in the HELP Committee. The Finance Committee will actually vote on his nomination, and after that, it will be voted on by the full Senate. Okay, HELP Committee, Health, Education, Labor, what's the P? Do we know the P? Pensions. Oh, pensions. NPR's Selina Simmons-Depin, thanks so much. Okay, thank you.

10:39Every two years, we get a rare glimpse of how the nation's students are doing in math and reading. It comes from the nation's report card, that's what it's called. The latest results are out today and have a lot to say nearly five years after the pandemic first closed schools. NPR's Corey Turner has been looking at the data. Corey, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so how are our students doing? Well, this is not the report card we were hoping for. These results come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which was created by Congress. It's been around for decades. Every other year, the country tests a sample of fourth and eighth graders, and we're talking reading and math.

11:17And the last time we got results in 2022, they showed steep learning losses from the pandemic. So the hope was when students took these tests again in 2024, we might see them doing better. Well, here's Peggy Carr. She is commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. These results are sobering. We're not where we need to be or where we want to be at this point. Now, Steve, as bleak as that sounds, I actually want to start with one glimmer of hope in those sobering results. Fourth graders who took the math test in 2024 actually did a little better than the fourth graders who took it in 2022.

11:54two. And that's really important because it ends a pandemic slide in fourth grade. Okay. So that bit of good news amid some not so good news, I guess. Yeah. A lot of not so good news because even in fourth grade math, kids still aren't back to the scores we saw before the pandemic. In fact, when you break the data down in only one state, Steve, Alabama, are fourth graders doing better in math than fourth graders were doing before the pandemic. One state. And in eighth grade, there's a really worrying achievement gap that's been widening between top and lower performers. Well, this is disturbing at a time when education is so closely linked to people's success later in life.

12:35How are kids doing in reading? Well, that may be the toughest news of all. In fourth and eighth grade, both reading scores continued to fall from 2022 to 2024. And keep in mind, they'd already been falling from 2019 to 2022. The lowest performers in reading are actually scoring worse now than the lowest performers who took the test 30 years ago. And remember how I said only one state had surpassed its pre-pandemic math scores? Well, it is the same in reading. In only one state are fourth graders doing better than they were in 2019, and that is Louisiana. What happened to all the money that the federal government spent since the peak of the pandemic to try to make up for some of the pandemic educational losses?

13:20Yeah. So$190 billion. That is a lot of money. You're right. But several researchers told me, look, that money helped, just not enough. And part of the reason why is because Congress sent most of it directly to districts. They had a lot of freedom in spending it. And they were only required to spend a small fraction of it on learning loss. I also want to say, though, these declines in math and reading, Steve, when you look big picture, they were made worse by the pandemic, but they actually started before COVID, around a decade ago. And researchers told me understanding why is going to be key to getting kids back on track.

13:55This big report card, it's great for understanding where kids are struggling, but not why or what we can do about it. Really appreciate that insight that this slide would have started before the pandemic, something bigger going on. Corey, thanks so much. You're welcome, Steve. That's NPR's Corey Turner.

14:14And that's Up First for this Wednesday, January 29th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Michelle Martin. Remember, you can listen to this podcast sponsor free while financially supporting public media with Up First Plus. Learn more at plus.npr.org. That's P-L-U-S dot N-P-R dot org. Today's Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Diane Weber, Nicole Cohen, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziyad Butch, Nia Dumas, Claire Murashima, and Chris Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us tomorrow.

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