Perryman’s testimony highlights how those behind Project 2025 are already implementing policies through the courts and in states

Democracy Forward’s People’s Guide to Project 2025 outlines disastrous impacts of Project 2025

Washington, D.C. — Today, the President and CEO of Democracy Forward, Skye Perryman, testified as a Democratic witness at a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Hearing. Perryman’s testimony focused on the extreme threats posed by Project 2025, and the far-right efforts to undermine the Biden-Harris administration’s policies to benefit the American people. 

“Project 2025 is not a hypothetical collection of policy proposals, but represents a vision that many special interests and far-right leaders are already implementing through the courts and in communities across the country,” Perryman said during her testimony before Congress. “The American people are rightfully concerned about the harmful threats that Project 2025 and other extreme proposals pose to our way of life, our freedom, and our democracy. Project 2025 is an outgrowth of a broader, concerning trend in our nation and for our democracy. It is important that Congress understand the threats posed by Project 2025 and the harms of far-right, anti-democratic movements that are active in the United States so as to protect our nation’s democracy and the American people’s freedom.”

Earlier this year, Democracy Forward released The People’s Guide to Project 2025, warning the American public of the many alarming proposals in the 900+ page document like attacking reproductive rights and ending the independence of agencies. 

See excerpts of Perryman’s testimony about the threats we face because of the ideas and people behind Project 2025:

  • On far-right groups using the courts to push Project 2025: “It is no surprise, then, that execution of many of the harmful and unpopular proposals in Project 2025—from seeking to restrict access to medication abortion to compromising protections for overtime pay–is already underway in the courts. In many of these cases, groups behind Project 2025 and aligned far-right attorneys general are seeking to undermine people-centered policies and progress that the Biden-Harris administration has achieved, threatening the wellbeing of the American people. In other cases, they are promoting legal theories that are a threat to our Constitution and protections that the American people have long enjoyed.”
  • On states being a testing ground for Project 2025 policies: “Project 2025 and other extreme proposals are already taking hold at the state level. Far-right leaders are using the states as a testing ground for carrying out and normalizing Project 2025 and other extremist tactics. For example, Project 2025 seeks to undermine a range of worker protections from those that ensure safety to those that protect children and young people. Already in states like Florida, far-right leaders have banned workplace heat safety measures and there are proposals to reduce worker protection for minors. Arkansas has passed a law that weakens employment protections for children under the age of 16, turning back a century of progress. As noted above, there are a number of extreme laws that are being enforced in states across the country that ban or restrict reproductive health care, consistent with Project 2025’s vision of restricting reproductive freedom. Education is another area where many of the proposals in Project 2025 are already taking hold at the state level. States like Florida and Texas are seeking to restrict access to books and ideas 74 in schools and a range of states are undermining the benefits of public education for all.”
  • On Project 2025’s attacks on reproductive freedom: “The threats to American democracy and freedoms enjoyed by the American people are neither academic nor are they hyperbole. […] Across the nation, women are living without access to the critical care they need, including in emergent situations. Pregnant patients have been life-flighted out of hospitals in Idaho and are being denied critical emergency care necessary to preserve their health and their lives across the country. […] There is a direct relationship between the rights of women and the strength of a democracy; it is not surprising that as the rights of women are declining in our nation so too is the strength of our democracy.”
  • On Project 2025 enabling discrimination across society: “Project 2025 would seek to undermine key civil rights protections, including through proposing that the federal government stop using the long-standing “disparate impact” standard in assessing discrimination and encouraging the government to bring lawsuits to undermine the standard’s use.”
  • On threatening the independence of agencies writ large, including Weaponizing the Department of Justice: “Project 2025 threatens to weaponize the U.S. Department of Justice against the American people through encouraging the next President to ignore a long-standing norm of not interfering in certain Justice Department operations, such as specific decisions regarding investigations and prosecutions. […] It targets career civil servants who have sworn an oath to the Constitution and do work throughout our federal government to deliver for people, wanting to replace many of them with those who hold political or ideological loyalty.”

You can watch her full testimony here and read it here. For more information about our work, please visit www.democracyforward.org. 

To request an interview with Perryman, please email dgrahamcaso@democracyforward.org.

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