Among the federal employees sent home during the ongoing government shutdown was the entire team at the Bureau of Labor Statistics that produces inflation estimates. Those estimates, in turn, drive the annual cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security, which sets the benefit rates for the coming year.
The Trump administration, perhaps in acknowledgment of the potential backlash of leaving more than 70 million Social Security recipients in limbo, announced the BLS team will return to produce its report on Friday, Oct. 24, so that the 2026 cost-of-living increase can be announced the same day.
In President Donald Trump’s America, information that has been relied on for decades to make critical economic, scientific, environmental, public safety and health-related decisions has been disappearing.
The administration’s initial attempt to use the shutdown to end reporting on the rate of inflation is just one example of how in President Donald Trump’s America, information that has been relied on for decades to make critical economic, scientific, environmental, public safety and health-related decisions has been disappearing — scrubbed from government websites or no longer collected because it doesn’t conform to the administration’s views.
It’s reminiscent of “1984,” George Orwell’s dystopian novel in which the fictitious Ministry of Truth altered historical records and discarded unwelcome data by disposing of it in “memory holes” where it was wiped out of existence. And in the novel, when individuals fell out of favor, they were made into “unpersons.”
In what can be seen as an uncanny real-world parallel, in 2025, government officials who have provided information contrary to the president’s perception of reality have been fired. This includes the head of the BLS, who provided unwanted employment data on a slowdown in the labor market, and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, whose preliminary report about the limited impact of the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites contradicted Trump’s more grandiose claims.
In addition, references to climate change, slavery, the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II and conflicts with Native Americans have been removed at some national parks, while efforts are now being considered to ban some artwork, exhibitions and programs at the Smithsonian Institution dealing with race, slavery, immigration and sexuality.
The loss of data has been extensive.
For example, an annual survey that has helped shape federal policy to combat food insecurity and hunger for low-income Americans has been abandoned. The move will make it more difficult to track and help those in need and was followed by the passage of legislation that made major reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the formal name for food stamps.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, a process has been put in motion to end the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program that would eliminate pollution reporting requirements for power plants and iron and steel facilities, exempting some 8,000 entities nationwide. The EPA is also suspending pollution reporting mandates for petroleum companies until 2034.
These steps will not only permit companies to pollute the environment without consequences, but also make it harder to adopt new policies to protect our nation’s air quality.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recently discontinued data collection for its Drug Abuse Warning Network that recorded emergency department visits related to substance use and emerging substance use trends across the country, a decision that will keep policymakers in the dark. In addition, the 17-member team that managed the agency’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health has been laid off.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as part of a purge of the workforce, fired about 170 employees at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which collects data on issues such as car crashes, drownings, gun violence, homicides and traumatic brain injuries.
The list goes on.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stopped publishing new content this past summer on its widely used climate.gov website after its staff of 10 people were all fired. The site provided information about changing weather patterns, drought conditions and greenhouse gas emissions.
The shutdown that began on Oct. 1 has compounded this massive information loss.
And at the Department of Justice, the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database is no longer collecting information about misconduct by federal law enforcement officials. In a December report, 4,790 misconduct incidents were cited between 2018 and 2023, with nearly 1,500 federal officers having been suspended, fired or resigned while under investigation for serious misconduct and more than 300 officers convicted of crimes.
The shutdown that began on Oct. 1 has compounded this massive information loss, with additional data collection now suspended, including the monthly jobs report as well as a wide range of agricultural, health, scientific and other information regularly provided to the public.
Good policy decisions require good information and public servants who speak truth to power, factors critically important given the significant consequences of government action. Bad news or withholding information on what is occurring in our society doesn’t change by not knowing it.
Orwell’s “1984”is a fictional account, but nonetheless offers a cautionary tale for America in 2025 about the rise of authoritarianism characterized in part by the manipulation and suppression of facts.
Our country today is flying in the virtual reality of Trump’s head and his loyal followers, with critical data increasingly being suppressed and officials likely only to convey information based on perceptions of what the president wants to hear. This does not bode well for our government or for our country.