Policies & Analysis

The Trump administration unilaterally revoked New York City's congestion pricing program that cut traffic and vehicle emissions.

On February 19th, 2025, the Trump administration began the process of revoking New York City's authorization to operate its congestion pricing program, which was designed to reduce traffic, vehicles emissions, and drive times. This program had started on January 5, 2025 and has already shown initial results. Congestion pricing has been successfully used in other major cities across the world, including as a way to encourage alternative transportation methods, such as buses and bikes. The Trump administration's revocation of this program was challenged immediately. At the end of May, a federal court blocked the revocation, after the MTA sued. As the case is decided by the courts, the congestion pricing program will continue.

This order attempts to deny all federal benefits to undocumented immigrants and "sanctuary" cities and states.

This executive order instructs agencies to identify all programs that allow "illegal aliens" — a term that does not designate any specific population in immigration law — to obtain any benefits, and to cut off access to those benefits. The order also instructs agencies not to make payments to states and localities that might "abet" "sanctuary" policies, which is somewhat duplicative of past executive orders and DOJ memos. Finally, this order instructs Russell Vought at OMB, Elon Musk at DOGE, and Stephen Miller, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, to look for any sources of "funding for illegal aliens" and suggest ways to align federal spending with the goals of this order. Existing law already determines which benefits noncitizens are eligible for and in what circumstances they can qualify; any attempts to deny benefits to people who qualify for them would be illegal. Additionally, past attempts to deny federal funding to states and localities that choose not to spend local tax dollars on immigration enforcement have been declared unconstitutional by multiple courts.

This order claims to protect IVF access, but it excludes same-sex couples and single people.

This short, non-binding executive order proclaims that our public policy must make in vitro fertilization (IVF) more available to men and women experiencing fertility challenges. However, this deceptive order excludes many types of families, including same-sex couples and single people, and does not meaningfully make IVF more available to anyone. This order is part of the Trump-Vance administration's pronatalist agenda, seeking to increase birthrates among married heterosexual couples. The order does not address same-sex couples or single individuals who wish to have children, both of whom can face additional obstacles to receiving IVF treatment.

This order gives the Trump White House direct control over agencies that Congress created to be independent from politics.

This order gives the White House direct control over agencies that Congress decided should be independent and insulated from politics, like the Federal Election Commission and Government Accountability Office. This order forces all rulemaking and other regulatory actions from independent agencies to go through the White House and Attorney General, which is not the current process. It threatens to hold up funding to independent agencies that don't implement “the Presidents policies and priorities.” It allows the White House to set performance standards for independent agency heads, which could create pretexts to unlawfully fire them. One concerning example might be the Federal Election Commission: this EO attempts to unlawfully change the definition of "agency" to include the Federal Elections Commission without Congressional approval.

The Department canceled millions in funds for training teachers because of material on "divisive ideologies."

Agency announced a termination in $600 million of already awarded grants used for teacher preparation because the programs included materials about racism, bias, equity and/or cultural competence. This occurred outside of the process for changing federal grant priorities. It will contribute to the ongoing nationwide teacher shortage.

This order conditions federal funding on ending school-based COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

This order directs the Secretary of Education to create guidelines for all schools, educational agencies, and universities to end COVID-19 vaccination requirements for in-person education. This will likely apply to only a very small number of schools and universities, because most schools that have a COVID-19 vaccine mandate apply it only to staff and not to students. However, it will endanger populations most vulnerable to COVID-19 and its documented possible complications, such as students, teachers, and members of their communities with underlying medical conditions. This also encourages anti-vaccine movements, endangering public health writ large, and potentially lays the groundwork for broader assaults on school vaccine mandates.

This policy guidance directs all schools to stop any recognition of race or diversity in curriculum, programming, or activities.

This policy guidance incorrectly asserts that the 2023 Supreme Court opinion about race in college admissions prohibits all schools (pre-K through higher education) from any use of race in all aspects of "student, academic and campus life." This seemingly includes curriculum, affinity groups or programming (such as recognizing Black History Month), race-neutral programs, and initiatives aimed at improving diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This directive forces agencies to fire all employees who have been hired recently (known as probationary employees) regardless of performance or merit.

The acting head of the Office of Personnel Management, the government's HR department, has instructed each agency to arbitrarily fire all employees who have been newly hired or recently started a new role (known as probationary employees). This action unlawfully encroaches on both the power of Congress (which established protections for career civil servants) and agencies themselves to manage their own workforce. It undermines effective government by firing employees without any assessment of merit or performance, endangering Americans by undermining the quality of the services that these employees provide - everything from keeping our food and medicine safe, to securing our borders, to improving our communities.

This order sets a federal policy of addressing chronic diseases, with misleading claims about their causes and flimsy attacks on existing federal programs and scientific research.

The Make America Healthy Again Commission is charged with assessing and making recommendations to address chronic health issues, including restructuring the federal government's response to childhood chronic diseases. It undertakes this effort while the rest of the Trump administration is blocking funding for scientific research and public health programs. The Order asserts without evidence that chronic diseases have been ignored by the federal government, that current scientific research is replete with conflicts of interest, and that federal funding has not promoted high-quality scientific research. The Commission is authorized to hold hearings and receive expert input, and is directed to issue an initial assessment in 100 days and a "Make Our Children Health Again" strategy within 180 days. However, the commission is headed by a vaccine skeptic and the Order falsely implies that chronic diseases are caused by an "over-reliance on medication and treatments" that can be addressed by "fresh thinking" on "food and drug quality and safety."

This order calls for reform of the Foreign Service such that State Department employees will be recruited, evaluated, and promoted based on their loyalty to President Trump.

The order tells the Secretary of State to reform recruitment, evaluation, and retention standards to ensure that all State Department employees fully carry out President Trump's America First foreign policy agenda. Foreign Service Officers have long implemented presidents' initiatives regardless of their party, but this order politicizes their work by suggesting any officer who shows dissent or contradicts Trump will be fired. The order expands President Trump's Schedule Policy/Career (formerly known as Schedule F) directive by trying to make it easier to fire non-political government workers who are not fully aligned with President Trump's agenda. It reverses the longstanding principle of the Foreign Service that officers are hired and promoted for their merit, expertise, and experience, rather than their political loyalty.

The Trump Administration has taken back federal money that it already distributed to the City of New York while threatening to deprive other cities and states of funding.

The Trump Administration seemingly illegally seized money from a City of New York bank account. FEMA had distributed the funds to New York through a program to keep migrants from becoming homeless. Trump and Elon Musk had been critical of the housing program, but have pointed to no authority that would allow them to seize funds from the bank account.

This order empowers DOGE agents to control workforce decisions in most federal agencies, specifically directing large-scale reductions in force and other limitations on hiring.

This order empowers DOGE agents, who typically have no experience in the federal government, to control workforce decisions in most federal agencies. Agency heads must consult DOGE on all hiring decisions, and are limited to hiring one person for every four that depart the agency. The order directs agency heads to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs) and directs the Office of Personnel Management to change regulations to make it easier to find applicants not suitable for federal employment. Employees necessary for national security, homeland, security, or public safety may be exempted from the order.