Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaAnthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 27/10/2025Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality. 8453442411321
Reposted by Rebecca Piazzadell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 24/08/2025Destroying government records is illegal and the people doing it should face grievous consequences. The attorneys overseeing it should be disbarred. 13610247
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaLuke Farrell @lukef.bsky.social · 06/06/2025Today in the @missouriindependent.com I shared how new Medicaid red tape imposed by Republicans will kick over 10 million people off their healthcare, including more than 180,000 people in Missouri ‼️ missouriindependent.com/2025/06/06/r...missouriindependent.comRepublicans' new Medicaid red tape will push Missouri to the brink and block healthcare for millions • Missouri IndependentThe budget bill passed by the U.S. House will kick millions of people off of Medicaid by piling on new red tape. 45617
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaFree-quent Flyer @freequentflyer.bsky.social · 14/05/2025Interesting heuristic here: since the overwhelming majority of people are employed, almost by definition the majority of people who lose SNAP benefits to paperwork requirements will be people who have just lost their jobs. An odd group to target for an austerity campaign! 111
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaBobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 13/05/2025Agriculture text is out. Will go through it in this thread. tl;dr: this'd be the largest SNAP (nutrition assistance, formerly food stamps) cuts in history. It would severely worsen food insecurity in America. 23859386
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaKayla B @queenofthesouth.bsky.social · 12/05/2025My daughter’s speech therapist went out of business because Medicaid reimbursement rates were too low. We do not have Medicaid. I’m going to keep posting this until people understand that when Medicaid gets cut *everyone* loses services. 153140024684
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaJohn Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · 06/05/2025When government capacity is intentionally reduced, anyone with needs out of the ordinary is the first feel the failure 15615
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaRobert Gordon @robertgo.bsky.social · 02/04/2025Some news about RIFs within HHS's procurement staff. I oversaw HHS procurement policy as an assistant secretary for a year and know folks still there. Heavy sledding alert, but TLDR: Enormous cuts make contract bloat and fraud far likelier. 1/10 413146
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaRebecca Fielding-Miller @rebeccafieldingmiller.com · 22/03/2025Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women. More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications. I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that. 849288099020
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaJohn Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · 21/03/2025I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of the others they've fired. It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵 191103874334
Rebecca Piazza @rdpiazza.bsky.social · 08/03/2025Where Vincent Vega can’t get over the bargain of a five dollar shake 151
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaAngela ColterGEIST 👻 @angelacolter.bsky.social · 02/03/202518F alum here. While I appreciate the well-deserved attention the 18F team is getting, let's address a fundamental misunderstanding of why 18F was so effective in working with other govt agencies to improve their digital services and why starting a consulting company is not a substitute. 1/ 9389129
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaWaldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 01/03/2025Every year, OPM runs the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to find out how feds feel about their jobs. It's a big deal for agencies, who all want to be top-ranked. (IIRC, NASA usually wins.) This year, OPM is skipping it. www.chcoc.gov/content/2025...chcoc.gov2025 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and Compliance with Recent Executive Orders | CHCOC 2268
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaDan Hon @danhon.com · 02/03/2025... and one of the reasons why you haven't heard of 18F is because 18F's successes are really down to the agencies, departments, and programs. Because they're responsible for the tech. And you want them to be responsible, not a small authoritarian unaccountable cadre that works in secret. 1817
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaWaldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 01/03/202518F, the federal government’s technology shop, was demolished by Musk’s team shortly after midnight. It was a cost-recoverable org, charging agencies for their expertise, using a consulting model. Its cost to government was negligible, its benefits huge. My team there once saved DoD $500 billion. 8762262356
Rebecca Piazza @rdpiazza.bsky.social · 01/03/2025Mourning 18F’s elimination as a former employee but even more so as a former 18F agency customer. Unlike DOGE, 18F did the hard work of cultural transformation and sharing their methods with other Feds as they helped improve services. They weren’t just techies, they were teachers. 033146
Rebecca Piazza @rdpiazza.bsky.social · 28/02/2025I would much rather have a crossing guard by my neighborhood school who occasionally smokes pot on the weekend than no crossing guard, which is the current situation. This risk calculus seems wrong. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...washingtonpost.comDrug test failures fueling shortage of school crossing guards in D.C.More than two in five who apply to be crossing guards test positive, largely for marijuana, a drug D.C. legalized a decade ago. 020
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaAdam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025The point of excluding categories of people from the military like this is to send the message that they are unworthy of citizenship, it is pure bigotry and the assumptions behind it are disproven by the honorable service of the people being targeted in the first place bsky.app/profile/bran... 7234691153
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaJames Medlock @jdcmedlock.bsky.social · 20/02/2025Don’t make me tap the sign (cc RFK Jr) 111624220
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaAdam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 14/02/2025This is like if the mob got to fire every federal agent investigating organized crime bsky.app/profile/make... 321999739
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaAmi Fields-Meyer @fieldsmeyer.com · 06/02/20251/ I suspect we are days away from hearing Elon is "using AI" to “streamline” benefits programs. You should know why fully automating decisions about who gets critical assistance is a terrible idea that will have disastrous consequences. A 🧵 based on work I’ve done with the great @awhf.bsky.socialnytimes.comMusk Allies Discuss Deploying A.I. to Find Budget SavingsA top official at the General Services Administration said artificial intelligence could be used to identify waste and redundancies in federal contracts. 16235106
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaMerici @merici.bsky.social · 03/02/2025Hello week 2 of tax filing season! 💥 Direct File is live and you can now import your tax information directly from the IRS. Visit DirectFile.irs.gov to check eligibility and learn more. 👏directfile.irs.gov 53317
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaGarrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 01/02/2025Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I’d take a stab at how the US media would cover this story if it was happening in a foreign country. Here’s that story that should be written this weekend: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-s-jun...doomsdayscenario.coMusk's Junta Establishes Him as Head of GovernmentImagining how we'd cover overseas what's happening to the U.S. right now 34569033571
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaBen Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 01/02/2025There appear to be at least three separately operating heel factions breaking things within the government in wholly different ways right now. There's the Miller-headed immigration one, the DOGE/Elon one, and a Project 2025 OMB one. This dynamic hasn't showed up in mainstream reporting at all. 776283888540
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaAriel Kennan @arielmai.bsky.social · 01/02/2025Appreciate that @wyden.senate.gov is asking important questions about access to the payments system. Journalists, please raise these up. I hope more actions will be taken ASAP. www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-ne...finance.senate.govWyden Demands Answers Following Report of Musk Personnel Seeking Access to Highly Sensitive U.S. Treasury Payments System | The United States Senate Committee on FinanceWyden Demands Answers Following Report of Musk Personnel Seeking Access to Highly Sensitive U.S. Treasury Payments System 13462167
Reposted by Rebecca Piazzakate conger @kateconger.com · 01/02/2025“He’s applying the same destructive playbook to the federal government, where the stakes involve not just user experience or advertising dollars, but the basic functioning of American democracy.” www.techdirt.com/2025/01/31/e...techdirt.comElon’s Twitter Destruction Playbook Hits The US Government, And It’s Even More DangerousRemember how Elon Musk destroyed Twitter by ripping apart its infrastructure without understanding it? Now imagine that same playbook applied to the federal government. It’s happening, and th… 1023872
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaMaggie Smith @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social · 30/01/2025We can help feed each other and clothe each other. We can take each other in and provide shelter. We can raise money. We can know our rights when it comes to ICE, etc. But I can’t fly a fucking plane. “We’re all we have” has its limits. We need government regulations for a reason. 831549
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaRumman Chowdhury @ruchowdh.bsky.social · 29/01/2025I’ve spent about 2-3 hours each day on calls or chats with my US gov friends. Here’s an anonymized recap of what’s going on. First, I am so very sorry that they are living our last year at Twitter. I never wanted to think about that time again, and I hope my advice is helpful. 1/ 511828510
Reposted by Rebecca Piazza◥◤Kriston Capps 250 @kristoncapps.bsky.social · 27/01/2025What counts as modern versus traditional or novel versus revivalist is subjective, after all, and a good firm like SOM can design within constraints to deliver a decent project. But this time the goal is to change the procurements process — who selects the firms and even who contractors can hire. 041
Reposted by Rebecca Piazza◥◤Kriston Capps 250 @kristoncapps.bsky.social · 27/01/2025Trump's first federal design order was only briefly lived at GSA and architects got around it by designing classical-ish modern courthouses. This time it will be different. Trump's second order tackles not how federal buildings look, but how they get built: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...bloomberg.comTrump Architecture Memo Promises to Change How the US Government BuildsTwo executive actions issued during the president’s first week back in office would change 60 years of precedent in federal building projects. 141
Rebecca Piazza @rdpiazza.bsky.social · 16/01/2025Tired of seeing people cite that “happiness plateaus at $75,000” study without adjusting for inflation. That was in 2010. Inflation adjusted, that’s more than $109K. 050
Reposted by Rebecca Piazzarev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 16/01/2025the answer to every question of the form "biden said he wanted to do X; why did he not do X" is that the best he held at any point in his presidency is what would be described as a minority government in a parliamentary democracy 735959
Rebecca Piazza @rdpiazza.bsky.social · 07/01/2025The next time you hear someone say the CFPB isn’t needed, ask them if they want to go back to a time when lenders could REPOSSESS PROSTHETIC LIMBS www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/new...consumerfinance.govCFPB Finalizes Rule to Remove Medical Bills from Credit Reports | Consumer Financial Protection BureauToday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule to ban the inclusion of medical bills on credit reports used by lenders and prohibit lenders from using medical information in t... 05117
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaDavid_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 06/01/2025It's going to be an incredible few months of the New York Post doing stories about Manhattan Men Victimized By Congestion Pricing and then it instantly being revealed that the person interviewed is a billionaire because they invented "convenience fees" or hold the patent for Sinus Headaches. 325413829
Rebecca Piazza @rdpiazza.bsky.social · 02/01/2025Happy GEHA finally modernized its website but alarmed that it has added benefits usage sections for Individual Annual/Lifetime Maximum. Those were prohibited by the ACA so shouldn’t even warrant a header. Is GEHA planning for them to return under new political leadership? 060
Reposted by Rebecca PiazzaChristopher Whitaker @civicwhitaker.com · 13/11/2024#civictech is an enabling function.. some of the biggest wins in our space followed changes in actual law. Clear My Record - a product that helps expunge weed convictions - is only possible because activists and community organized worked for YEARS to change the law. THAT was the hard part. 111