Have Government Employees Mentioned Climate Change, Voting or Gender Identity? The Heritage Foundation Wants to Know.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has submitted thousands of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to various federal agencies over the past year. These requests, filed by three investigators, focus on terms such as "climate change," "DEI," "GOTV," and "SOGIE," as well as communications with civil rights and voting rights groups. The requests also target personnel, seeking lists of agency employees and hierarchy charts. The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 aims to identify and fire tens of thousands of career government employees deemed "nonperforming" by a future Trump administration. The project has also recruited, vetted, and trained future government employees for a Republican administration. The FOIA requests have interfered with the government's ability to function, as they overwhelm the system and cause delays in processing other requests. The records requests are far-reaching, including requests for full calendar exports and browser histories of government employees.