Federal employees told to remove pronouns from email signatures by end of day
Kent Nishimura for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Employees at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News that cited two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office seeking to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government.
“Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5.p.m. ET on Friday,” according to one such message sent Friday morning from Jason Bonander, the CDC’s Chief Information Officer. “Staff are being asked to alter signature blocks by 5.p.m. ET today. (Friday, January 31, 2025) to follow the revised policy.”
Federal employees with the Department of Transportation received a similar directive on Thursday, the same day the department was managing the fallout from the D.C. plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Employees were instructed to remove pronouns from everything from government grant applications to email signatures across the department, sources told ABC News.
Employees at the Department of Energy also received a similar notice Thursday.
Energy Department employees were told this was to meet requirements in Trump’s executive order calling for the removal of DEI “language in Federal discourse, communications and publications.”
It was not immediately clear whether employees in other federal agencies received similar messages. Spokespeople for HHS, CDC and Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The mandate to remove pronouns from email signatures is the latest result of the Trump administration’s push to do away with diversity and equity efforts in the federal government.
On his first day in office, Trump signed a pair of executive orders calling for an end to what his administration called “radical and wasteful DEI programs” and seeking to restore “biological truth to the federal government.” Both orders were referenced in the Friday message to agencies.
The memos included instructions for how to edit email signatures.
At least one career civil servant met the order with irritation.
“In my decade-plus years at CDC I’ve never been told what I can and can’t put in my email signature,” said one recipient, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(WILLINGBORO TOWNSHIP, NJ) — A 32-year-old woman has been arrested after allegedly bludgeoning her mother to death inside her own home, officials said.
Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw and Willingboro Township Police Chief Ian S. Bucs announced that Breanna Beacham — who was temporarily staying at her mother’s residence on Hopewell Lane in Willingboro Township — was charged on Tuesday with killing her mother in the victim’s home in the Hawthorne Park neighborhood.
“Police were called to the residence just before 4 p.m. for a report of an assault in progress,” according to a statement from the Burlington County prosecutor’s office on Tuesday. “Upon arrival, investigators discovered the body of Kim Beacham-Hanson, 57.”
The preliminary investigation determined that she had been bludgeoned to death, officials said.
“An autopsy performed by Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood concluded her death was a homicide that was caused by multiple blunt injuries,” according to the Burlington County prosecutor’s office.
Beacham was taken into custody at the home early Tuesday evening and lodged in the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly pending a detention hearing in Superior Court. The case will now be prepared for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment.
Breanna Beacham has now been charged with first degree murder, third degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and fourth degree unlawful possession of a weapon .
The motive for the attack remains under investigation.
(COOPERSBURG, Pa.) — A man has been arrested in the murder of a New Jersey woman whose body was found in a Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, dumpster over the weekend.
Rolando Corte, 42, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Lucrecia Jadan Sumba, 39, from Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.
Sumba was reported missing by friends and family on Jan. 9 to the Elizabeth Police Department. Sumba was killed last Wednesday, according to prosecutors.
Corte was identified and arrested on Sunday. He is being held at the Union County Jail in New Jersey and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
If found guilty, he could face up to life in prison.
It’s unclear if the suspect and victim had any connection or what led police to identify Corte as a suspect.
The woman was found in a dumpster on S. 3rd Street in Coopersburg just before 6 p.m. on Saturday, according to police.
Coopersburg, a suburb of Allentown, is about 80 miles west of Elizabeth.
An autopsy revealed Sumba’s cause of death was sharp force injuries and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the county coroner.
“A joint investigation conducted by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Task Force, Elizabeth Police Department, Coopersburg Police Department, and the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office led to the identification and arrest of Corte,” according to the prosecutor’s office.
Coopersburg Police did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Planning to travel by air in the U.S. later this year? A regular driver’s license may not cut it.
Travelers flying through U.S. airports will soon need to show TSA agents a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, a passport or another form of REAL ID-compliant identification if they want to pass through the security screening.
In an announcement this week, the TSA said it’s sticking with a May 7, 2025, deadline to start enforcing REAL ID requirements. However, officials also said they’re planning for a two-year “phased enforcement” that could allow travelers who don’t have REAL IDs to board flights — with a warning notice.
REAL ID is an effort by the federal government to make driver’s licenses and ID cards more reliable, accurate and standardized. Depending on which state your license or ID is from, REAL IDs will have a gold or black star (or a star in a bear, in the case of California) in the upper portion of the card.
The REAL ID requirement was supposed to go into effect years ago, but was delayed — in part due to state motor vehicle departments working through COVID-19 backlogs.
Federal officials are concerned about how many Americans still don’t have a REAL ID. In January 2024, only about 56% of driver’s licenses and IDs in circulation across the country comply with REAL ID. The Department of Homeland Security estimated that only 61.2% of driver’s licenses and IDs will be REAL ID-compliant by the May 7 deadline.
“We have four months ahead of us,” said Stacey Fitzmaurice, TSA’s executive assistant administrator for operations support. “There’s definitely work to be done, so we want travelers to take the time now to get their REAL ID before the deadline.”
What is REAL ID? The REAL ID Act was passed by Congress in 2005 after the 9/11 Commission recommended the federal government set security standards for states to issue driver’s licenses and identification cards.
“This came out of a recommendation that looked at the events of 9/11 and the vulnerabilities associated with that,” said Fitzmaurice. “The REAL ID requirement is as important today as it first was coming out of the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission, and we are in a much better spot today, given that all of the states have implemented the changes for REAL ID and are implementing the REAL ID licenses today.”
How to get it? You can get a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license from your state’s DMV. You must be able to prove who you are by bringing documentation that includes your full name, date of birth, Social Security number, two proofs of residence and lawful status. Documents with this information could include a birth certificate, Social Security card or passport.
Who needs it? While travelers boarding commercial flights need a REAL ID or an alternative form of approved documentation, children under 18 do not need to have a REAL ID.
For foreign travelers, foreign passports are an acceptable form of identification, according to a TSA spokesperson. The spokesperson said noncitizens who are lawfully admitted for permanent or temporary residence, have conditional permanent residence status, have an approved application for asylum or entered the country as refugees can obtain a REAL ID at their state’s DMV.
REAL ID does not work for international travel. If you’re traveling outside of the country, you’ll still need to bring your passport.
What is the ‘phased enforcement’ of the REAL ID deadline? On Jan. 13, TSA published a final rule sticking with the May 7 deadline but allowing two-year phased enforcement of REAL ID until May 2027.
The agency described the need for a phased deadline.
In the example of TSA, if large numbers of individuals arrive at an airport security checkpoint with noncompliant driver’s licenses or ID cards, they would not be able to proceed through screening, “potentially resulting in missed flights,” the published final rule stated. “Additionally, long lines, confusion, and frustrated travelers at the checkpoint may greatly increase security risks both to passengers and TSA personnel by drawing the resources and attention of TSA personnel away from other passengers, including those known to pose an elevated risk.”
A TSA spokesperson told ABC phased enforcement would “introduce and enable a temporary warning period for those travelers.”
The TSA has not yet unveiled its plan for phased enforcement.
The regulations published this week state that agencies could choose to issue a written or verbal warning if someone attempts to use a non-REAL ID after the deadline.
“We want travelers to be prepared so that they don’t come to the checkpoints in May without a REAL ID-compliant or another acceptable form of ID,” said Fitzmaurice. “If they do — come May — not have their real ID, they could experience delays…We need to verify everyone’s identity who is going through the TSA checkpoints. And for those individuals who don’t bring identification or do not have acceptable forms of identification, we oftentimes will have to do additional requirements before they are able to go through security.”
