Policies & Analysis

The USDA allowed a contract to lapse with the organization that has maintained an information clearinghouse of food assistance resources for over a decade.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is required by law to contract with a nongovernmental organization to establish and maintain an "information clearinghouse" of food assistance resources. In recent years, this has included a phone hotline, an automated texting service, and an online database of resources. The nonprofit Hunger Free America has held this contract since 2014 and helped hundreds of thousands of callers locate and use food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, SNAP, WIC, and the Summer Food Service Program. But in May 2025, USDA let this contract lapse with only eight hours' notice. Hunger Free America sued to ensure that USDA followed the law and funded the information clearinghouse, and voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit in September 2025 after USDA reinstated the contract.

The Trump-Vance administration has refused to reimburse cities for Congressionally-authorized spending on efforts to ensure safety at large public events.

The Securing the Cities (STC) Program, part of a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in 2018, requires the Department of Homeland Security to provide resources to local governments to ensure public safety. This includes, for example, funds to prevent nuclear and other terrorist attacks in high-risk cities or prevent threats at events like presidential rallies, national conventions, and major sporting events. Thirteen local governments have partnered with DHS, establishing cooperative agreements to spend these funds. Cities first spend funds and then request reimbursement, which DHS historically paid within 72 hours. But the Trump-Vance administration has apparently frozen STC reimbursements since February 2025 and has not renewed awards with all local government partners.

This decision terminates Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan, which protects immigrants from Afghanistan from deportation and provides them with access to work permits.

DHS Secretary Noem issued a decision terminating the existing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Afghanistan. TPS exists to protect from deportation citizens of countries experiencing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other crises. The Afghanistan designation was protecting some 12,000 Afghan citizens in the U.S. from being deported and also allowing them to obtain work permits while they remained in the U.S.

This Executive Order seeks to give corporations a free pass for pollution.

This Executive Order announces an intention to identify any regulations that have criminal penalties, and disfavors criminal enforcement of regulations. While potentially reasonable in some contexts, here, this Executive Order likely will have the effect of undermining crucial environmental laws---such as the Clean Water Act--which include criminal penalties for violating some regulations. These environmental protection laws are essential to regulate dangerous and hazardous substances that can negatively impact the environment and people's health. While this Executive Order has no legal force by itself, it indicates an intention to undertake a harmful deregulatory regime that risks Americans' safety and health.

USDA ordered states to provide years' worth of sensitive, personally identifying information regarding SNAP recipients, including Social Security numbers and immigration status.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in May 2025 demanded that states turn over multiple years' worth of sensitive, personally identifying information on recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). The information USDA requested includes "all household group members names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, residential and mailing addresses used or provided, as well as all data records used to determine eligibility or ineligibility," as well as applicants' immigration and citizenship status, education, employment, and marital status.

This order restricts funding for research into how infectious diseases work and spread, increasing Trump administration interference with independent scientific research.

This order seeks to limit "gain-of-function research," which involves experimenting with viruses and other pathogens to discover how they can become more harmful or transmissible. It blocks U.S. funding for this type of research in many countries abroad and pauses domestic U.S.-funded research while new policies are developed. The order also seeks to limit non-federally funded gain-of-function research in the United States and increases Trump administration interference with independent scientific research. While careful oversight of gain-of-function research is important to ensure safety, many scientists worry that this outright ban on funding this work abroad and an indefinite pause on this work in the United States will make us less prepared to prevent or respond to future pandemics. This order also builds on the Trump-Vance administration's attacks on science and independent research, and builds on some officials' claims that the COVID-19 virus was the result of a lab error.

The President's FY26 Budget would terminate the National Endowment for the Humanities

The President's FY26 Budget would terminate funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities and provide for closing the agency. The NEH supports 56 state and local humanities councils and is the largest funding of the arts and arts education in the country. The budget proposal follows efforts by the Trump administration to cancel FY25 funding, which has been challenged in litigation.

The National Science Foundation seeks to cut the amount of "indirect costs" funding that research institutions receive for facilities, equipment, and personnel.

This guidance caps the amount of "indirect costs" funding that universities and other research institutions receive at 15% of their "direct costs" amount. Until now, scientific and engineering research institutions might receive 50% or more in indirect costs funding, which supports building and laboratory maintenance, equipment upkeep costs, accounting, and researcher compensation. The guidance will severely limit the ability of universities and other grant recipients to carry out vital and cutting edge scientific research. Small institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities, may be especially likely to shutter research initiatives if they cannot access alternate funding in their budgets to cover indirect costs. America will lose its edge as a leader in research procedures and delivering results that positively impact scientific and engineering outcomes globally. This policy is similar to indirect cost rate caps that the Trump administration tried to impose at the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy earlier in 2025.

This order seeks to illegally revoke the federal funding for NPR and PBS because of the networks' allegedly biased news coverage.

President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to "cease federal funding for NPR and PBS" because of the networks' alleged ideological bias. President Trump does not have the power to do so because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a government agency under the President's authority and the funds have been appropriated by Congress. PBS and NPR are the nation's primary public broadcasters, and through educational and news content, they reach the vast majority of the country free of charge. These attacks jeopardize the independence of these essential institutions, the ability of all Americans to access high-quality news free of charge, and chill the conduct of media organizations of all types across the country.

The Department abruptly rescinded funding intended for counselors and mental health professionals in public schools.

These letters inform 260 grantees that funding for mental health professionals will end at the end of this year, instead of the 5 year term originally granted and provided for by Congress. This will require programs that support student mental health to be suspended or canceled on short notice. Many schools will return to unmanageable ratios of mental health professionals to students. This will harm students, especially more vulnerable students including students of color and disabled students.

President Trump tried to fire three of the CPB's board members and later signed a bill eviscerating the CPB's budget, leading to its closure.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a D.C.-based nonprofit created by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to steward the federal government's investment in public broadcasting, including to organizations like NPR and PBS. It is not a federal agency, and its board members are not federal officials. Yet in April 2025, President Trump purported to fire three members of the CPB's Board of Directors without cause. The CPB and its officers sued to challenge the firing as unlawful. On August 1, 2025, the CPB announced that it will be closing at the end of September after President Trump signed a law clawing back over $1 billion in funding.

The order promotes the militarization of local law enforcement and decreases accountability for officer misconduct.

This EO directs the Attorney General to work on creating resources for law enforcement officers accused of misconduct and on rethinking civil rights consent decrees holding local law enforcement accountable for crimes committed while in uniform. It also directs the Secretary of Defense to produce a report on how to use military assets for local policing, along with continuing the Trump administration's attacks on policies supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Taken together, this EO stands to harm over-policed communities, undo civil rights protections, and undermine local governments.