Donald Trump has installed a lot of anti-choice, anti-contraception, anti-science, pro-discrimination staff at the Health and Human Services Department, and they are busy making some scary, extreme policy, from setting up an office to protect the right to discriminate to laying the groundwork for “a rollback of Obama-era protections for transgender patients and allowing health providers more protections to deny procedures like abortion.” That latter move:
… surprised [Shannon] Royce's own staff and close colleagues, many of whom weren't aware that the center's request for information — a key tool in rulemaking that lets agencies solicit comments that they can use to revise or introduce regulations — was even being developed until it was publicly posted. The reason: Royce, the center's director, didn't tell them.
"Shannon put it together with Roger Severino and jammed it out the door," said one staffer, who noted that the center had never issued a request for information before. "We were messaging each other — 'did our office just put out an RFI?'"
Trump’s far-right ideologues aren’t always good at their whole jobs, but they’re good at the making evil policy part:
[Former head of Americans United for Life Charmaine] Yoest — the public affairs chief — was criticized for the agency's handling of questions about Price's controversial use of charter jets. HHS seemed unconcerned by the stories at first and felt there was little need to respond, according to White House officials, who griped about the agency's crisis-management strategy last year. The communications office has seen a steady stream of departures and remains under-staffed.
Jane Norton, an anti-abortion activist tapped to be HHS' top liaison, was pushed out after less than seven months in the job, as she struggled to communicate the department's work to governors, business associations and other groups. She was also the plaintiff in a long-running lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Colorado, which created an eye-catching legal situation: one of HHS' top leaders actively suing one of HHS' grantees. Oral arguments in the case were held in November 2017, while Norton was still at seat in HHS.
But staff acknowledge that the political leaders are starting to achieve a steady stream of symbolic, anti-abortion goals, led by Royce and Severino. "She's a force of nature," said one staffer who's worked with Royce inside HHS. "She just goes after and goes after it."
Ending the right to choose is something to which Republicans bring a deep bench, so they can staff up an agency and get rolling. And speaking of the bench, all those judges Trump has nominated and Senate Republicans have jammed through will be on the federal bench, backing up this kind of policy for the rest of their lives. The damage these people are doing is incalculable.
Trump’s nominees are one more reason it's so important to win the Senate. Can you give $1 to the Arizona and Nevada Democratic nominee funds?