内容摘要：Neth Simon said she would be delighted if the statue’s pieces could be reassembled after being far apart from each other for a century.

Neth Simon said she would be delighted if the statue’s pieces could be reassembled after being far apart from each other for a century.

As the end of 2024 approached, the arrival of winter in the Northern Hemisphere meant relief from the heat in the form of cold temperatures and idyllic scenes like snow-frosted trees. But there were also reminders that global warming had already altered Earth so much that climate-driven disasters, such as raging wildfires even during winter months, are never far off. While impossible to predict when and where disaster may strike, one thing is all but certain in 2025: the storms, floods, heat waves, droughts and wildfires will continue.Frozen trees surround a chapel on a cold day, in Oberreifenberg near Frankfurt, Germany, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Frozen trees surround a chapel on a cold day, in Oberreifenberg near Frankfurt, Germany, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)People enjoy a hot water pool near Mount Bental in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)People enjoy a hot water pool near Mount Bental in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A person walks along a road as the Franklin Fire approaches in Malibu, Calif., Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)A person walks along a road as the Franklin Fire approaches in Malibu, Calif., Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s

for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas atTo many veterans of the agency, the irony of DOGE’s slash-and-burn approach to GSA is that it is jeopardizing one of the agency’s longstanding missions: improving government efficiency.

The agency, for example, had an in-house consulting shop that during the first Trump administration focused on improving government services, especially those relying on technology. Among its initiatives, the team helped create systems to allow Americans to file taxes online and was working to improve online passport renewal.In the early weeks of the second Trump administration, DOGE officials gutted the team. Shedd defended that move, telling employees in a meeting that the team was eliminated because its work was not cost-effective, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Any reduction in headcount could also jeopardize the government’s ability to police contracts once they are issued to keep costs down.Such decisions have baffled those who have tracked GSA’s work.