image of ... [[link removed]]
[[link removed]]
Dear John,
Project 2025 embodies an agenda led by the Heritage Foundation to revise, reorganize and eliminate vast portions of the statutes, rules and norms that were built over decades, and that have guided our democracy and preserved our freedoms during Republican and Democratic administrations alike. Embodied in a 900-page document entitled “Mandate for Leadership – The Conservative Promise,” and developed in collaboration with more than 100 other organizations, Project 2025 would dramatically change both.
It is important to stress that recent changes in the Project’s leadership alter neither the document’s text nor the “Mandate for Leadership” that lies behind it. The president of the Heritage Foundation has made clear that the policy work has been completed as scheduled and their efforts to build a personnel apparatus to carry out this work at all levels of government continues.
All of us, and lawyers in particular, have a role to play in discussing with others the nature of the proposed changes and how they endanger our freedom. To facilitate those discussions, Lawyers Defending American Democracy is publishing a series of “Talking Points” that highlight changes Project 2025 is intent on making and their potential effect.
Each Talking Point will quote directly from a section of the document and explain its impact on our democracy, our freedom, and the rule of law. Please share this information widely with your friends, family, and colleagues in the upcoming months.
Making America More Dangerous (Page 135)
“The bloated [Department of Homeland Security] DHS bureaucracy and budget, along with the wrong priorities, provide real opportunities for a conservative Administration to cut billions in spending and limit government’s role in Americans’ lives. These opportunities include privatizing TSA screening and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program, reforming FEMA emergency spending to shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government, eliminating most of DHS’s grant programs, and removing all unions in the department for national security purposes.”
Why it Matters: Talking Points
This is another of the many breathtaking proposals Project 2025 contains. The authors provide little or no explanation for the changes they seek save a breezy reference to “bloat” and an unexplained claim of “wrong priorities” they attach to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
To fix those unexplained problems they would, among other things, privatize TSA, the agency created after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, that has kept our planes safe from terrorists during the ensuing twenty-three years. They would privatize a national flood insurance program that now provides insurance at affordable costs to almost 23,000 communities in high-risk flood areas. And they would shift disaster preparation and response costs from the federal government to states and local communities.
One has only to look at the destruction wrought by recent hurricanes in this country to see the devasting impact, economic and other, that this proposal could have on America’s states, cities and towns. Or perhaps the authors can ignore this wreckage if it meets their stated goal of “removing all unions” within DHS, in light of the anti-labor theme that pervades Project 2025.
Beyond that, this proposal fundamentally ignores who collectively we are. We are not simply a collection of individuals and entities engaged in a quest for personal profit. We are a Nation. We rely on each other. We have differences to be sure but, ultimately, we are prepared, often through the federal system we have created, to help each other in times of need and difficulty. The authors of this proposal ignore this history of success, simply to tear down crucial services within the federal government that have been designed to keep this country as safe as possible and to respond to disasters when they do happen.
Visit our website [[link removed]] for more on our Project 2025 Talking Points Series.
T hank you for your dedication to maintaining our democracy. Please support our efforts by donating [[link removed]] to LDAD and by sharing this email with your networks. As always, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] [[email protected]] if you may be interested in volunteering or if you wish to share your ideas.
Lawyers Defending American Democracy
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] ldad.org [ldad.org] [link removed] [[link removed]]

Lawyers Defending American Democracy
303 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210
United States
If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe: [link removed] .