The Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank behind Project 2025, is blasting the federal government with thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests, in an apparent effort to identify government employees who could be hired by Trump’s second administration, a new report from ProPublica claims.
The requests for information were made on behalf of the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, which organizers describe as promoting “responsible government that is accountable to its citizens.” ProPublica reports that, through an analysis of more than 2,000 FOIA requests submitted by members of the Oversight Project, the center found that the rightwing think-tank has been pushing agencies such as the State Department and the Federal Trade Commission to search the subject of “hot – buttons used by individual government employees.” Those topics apparently include phrases like “climate equality,” DEI, and “just voting.”
One of the men said to be involved in the effort—Mike Howell—is the same guy who recently had an internet encounter with the “gay haired hacker,” one of the cybercriminals who reportedly hacked the Heritage Foundation in July. (The organization maintains that it was not hacked.) Notably, Howell reportedly criticized the criminal, a self-proclaimed member of the LGTBQ community, as “rebellious,” and “a bad bystander.” ProPublica now reports that one of the keywords the FOIA deluge involved is “SOGIE,” an acronym that stands for gender, gender identity, and expression. Howell is the executive director of the Oversight Project.
Howell told ProPublica that he and his team have “submitted more than 50,000 requests for information over the past two years,” apparently calling it “the most prestigious international investigation in the world.”
Such efforts are especially troubling given that the Heritage Foundation is also a proponent of reintroducing Plan F, a policy that would eliminate job protections for thousands of government employees. Trump created Schedule F by executive order in 2020, in the final days of his presidency. Critics say that, if re-enacted, Schedule F would allow the Trump administration to fire public servants en masse and replace them with politicians. It is unclear whether this is actually possible, however. In April, the Office of Personnel Management published new rules and regulations designed to protect most federal employees from that effort. Even the Conservatives have criticized the idea, saying it could cause political chaos.
Project 2025—dubbed a policy “blueprint” for the next Trump administration—has it, too. Not only has Project 2025 been criticized by its most ardent critics as a plan to establish a Christian nationalism of authoritarianism, but the majority of Americans seem to dislike the policies associated with it. Although Trump has denied being associated with the project, it was written by a number of former administration officials and many analysts see it as an accurate representation of the policies that will drive his second term.
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