Functional democracies require transparency. Without publicly accessible information, constituents have no way to hold elected officials accountable for their actions. When Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), it guaranteed the public the right to know how government actors are spending their tax dollars. Unsurprisingly, the Trump Administration is not complying with FOIA’s public disclosure requirements when it comes to responding to our requests for information about efforts to destabilize the federal government and effectuate dangerous regulatory rollbacks. So we’re suing. 

On July 21, 2025, Food & Water Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), demanding OMB produce records created under several Trump Executive Orders. The records include agency reorganization plans and lists of rules that agencies are considering rescinding, which Trump ordered agencies to submit to OMB.  

These records are a roadmap to make the federal government work for polluters, not everyday people. Russell Vought, director of OMB, was the key architect of Project 2025, the right-wing battle plan to gut our government and vital regulations that protect us from polluters. And the documents we are demanding are a major part of his plans to bring Project 2025 to life. 

These records will shed light on this crooked Administration’s plans to oust longtime public servants from their posts and rob agencies of the institutional knowledge and regulatory tools they need to fight corruption and keep us safe from industrial pollution. 

Along with lists of hard-won environmental protections now on the chopping block at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and other federal agencies, we requested records related to EPA’s plan to rescind the greenhouse gas “endangerment finding” from 2009. The endangerment finding underpins the EPA’s ability to regulate air emissions that are a primary driver of climate change. Federal courts have repeatedly confirmed EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has now proposed rescinding the endangerment finding, arguing EPA never had the authority to issue it in the first place. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has described this move as “the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.” Heedless of the profound and harmful impacts this decision would have on the public, OMB has not responded to Food & Water Watch’s request for records documenting the government’s reconsideration of the endangerment finding. 

Since taking office, the Trump administration has relentlessly targeted protections for our food, water, and climate. Holding OMB accountable to its duty under FOIA is critical to exposing these dangerous and illegal plans and fighting back. OMB’s failure to disclose these documents is contrary to FOIA, but we won’t let this administration loot the government and destroy environmental protections behind closed doors.   

Food & Water Watch is represented in this matter by the public interest law firm Eubanks & Associates, PLLC and Food & Water Watch staff attorney Dani Replogle.