Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Apologies for returning a week later than I’d anticipated. It’s good to be back. So much is happening right now–or anticipated. It’s been difficult to cull the news down to a digestible size for you all, but I’ve done my best below. Beyond the Editor’s Choices, I’ll note that US DOJ employees (in two divisions) just voted to unionize for the first time in history, that many state supreme court chief justices addressed access to justice or indigent defense issues in their annual remarks, and that remarks made by Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee for OMB Chief, are getting a lot of attention. As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• The Great Nonprofit Downsizing (The Chronicle of Philanthropy; 14 Jan 2025)

  • Non-profits around the nation face funding shortages (WHSV; 16 Jan 2025)

• Trump says he will create an ‘External Revenue Service’ agency to collect tariff income (Federal News Network; 15 Jan 2025)

• US Attorneys Out, Allies in: Trump Said to Plan Quick Swaps (Bloomberg Law; 15 Jan 2025)

• Student Loan Forgiveness Tracking For IDR Goes Live — 4 Steps To Take Now (Forbes; 14 Jan 2025)

  …this week, the department formally published detailed IDR tracking information for every borrower, allowing them to know exactly where they are on their student loan forgiveness timeline. …Once logged in, your IDR tracker should be visible on your StudentAid.gov dashboard. The tracker will show the number of IDR payments made so far, and the number of IDR payments remaining before the borrower would qualify for loan forgiveness. …Just like with PSLF, it's a good idea to retain records of your IDR loan forgiveness progress reflected in the tracker. While you may never need them, if something happens to your account, or features on the website subsequently change, it may be important to have a record of the information that is displayed. The easiest way to keep records of your IDR loan forgiveness tracker would be via screenshots or converting the webpages into PDF images.

Student Loans & Student Debt

• Supreme Court to Review Biden’s Borrower Defense Rule (Inside Higher Ed; 13 Jan 2025)

• Biden announces final round of student loan forgiveness, bringing aid total to nearly $189 billion (CNBC; 16 Jan 2025)

• US student debt ends Biden era bigger than when he took office (Yahoo! Finance; 17 Jan 2025)

• Student Loan Borrowers: How Linda McMahon's Appointment Impacts You (Investopedia.com; 13 Jan 2025)

• 8 Million Student Loan Borrowers Will Have No Payments For Most Of 2025, As Loan Forgiveness Remains Stalled (Forbes; 16 Jan 2025)

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• DOJ trial attorneys vote to form its first known unions (ABA Journal; 14 Jan 2025)

• I’m a Federal Employee. This Is What We Need Most in the Trump Era. [opinion] (New York Times; 12 Jan 2025)

• Connecticut nonprofits request more funding for programs (WTNH News8; 14 Jan 2025)

• Office of Special Counsel has ‘growing staffing concerns’ amid record caseload (Federal News Network; 14 Jan 2025)

• Congressional Republicans dial up multiple bills to cull telework flexibility (Government Executive; 15 Jan 2025)

• Trump’s second term agenda includes cutting ‘slackers’ from federal workforce, former OMB official says (Federal News Network; 14 Jan 2025)

  • Trump’s pick for OMB chief defends removing civil service protections, withholding appropriated funds (Government Executive; 15 Jan 2025)

  • The civil service system is a barrier to effective talent management [opinion] (Government Executive; 17 Jan 2025)

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• New data shows how ‘rage giving’ boosted immigrant-serving nonprofits during the first Trump Administration (UC Santa Cruz; 13 Jan 2025)

• Kansas justice warns of ‘all-out crisis’ [in access to legal services] (The Iola Register; 16 Jan 2025)

• Texas Supreme Court to decide legal battle over El Paso migrant shelter’s future (Texas Tribune; 13 Jan 2025)

• Incentivizing Attorneys to Work in the ‘Legal Deserts’ of Rural America (ABA The Young Lawyer; 13 Jan 2025)

• The U.S. Needs A National Immigration Legal Defense Fund [opinion] (Above the Law; 14 Jan 2025)

• CT ‘right to counsel’ helped thousands stay housed; saved state $36M (CT Mirror; 15 Jan 2025)

• ‘Kept in limbo:’ As uncertainty over Trump plans looms, migrant children struggle to find legal aid (InvestigativeWest; 15 Jan 2025)

• Potential changes to Legal Aid Alberta funding source raises alarm among non-profits (The Canadian Press; 15 Jan 2025)

  • Province looks to double Alberta Law Foundation's contribution to Legal Aid Alberta (Edmonton Journal; 15 Jan 2025)

• [IN] Gov. Braun closes DEI office, mandates return-to-work in slew of executive orders (Indianapolis Star; 15 Jan 2025)

• West Virginia Governor Bans DEI by Executive Order (Inside Higher Ed; 15 Jan 2025)

• Funding Issues Threaten Future of Legal Aid (Action News Jacksonville [FL]; 16 Jan 2025)

• How is NYC prepping for stepped-up deportations under Trump? (Gothamist; 16 Jan 2025)

Access to Justice – Criminal

• Idaho Supreme Court must intervene in new, 'disastrous' public defense reform, ACLU says (Idaho Statesman; 5 Jan 2025)

• Legislative budget proposes $7 million cut to Kansas public defenders, despite shortage (Kansas Reflector; 15 Jan 2025)

• LA County’s innovative effort to address public defender conflicts wins plaudits (California Lawyer; 13 Jan 2025)

• Rural Texas needs more public defenders. A state commission wants nearly $44M to help (NPR; 13 Jan 2025)

• Port: Indigent defense in North Dakota 'perilously close to a constitutional failure' [opinion] (IN Forum; 13 Jan 2025)

• Iowa chief justice urges magistrate system changes, work to address public defender shortage (Quad-City Times; 15 Jan 2025)

• Chief justice says SD would benefit from expanding its new criminal public defense office (South Dakota Searchlight; 15 Jan 2025)

• Opinion: DA Vasquez is right. The public defense ‘crisis’ is a work stoppage (The Oregonian; 15 Jan 2025)

• [Los Angeles CA] Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman hires new special prosecutor for police misconduct (Los Angeles Times; 16 Jan 2025)

• Public defenders argue their own case (Rochester [NY] Beacon; 16 Jan 2025)

• [Stuben] County [IN] keeps plugging away at public defender expansion (The Herald Republican; 16 Jan 2025)