Policies & Analysis

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has unlawfully cancelled billions of dollars worth of grants already distributed through the Inflation Reduction Act and other environmental programs.

The grants cancelled by the Trump administration were intended for projects reducing pollution, improving climate resiliency, increasing water quality, accelerating clean energy, and more. Without federal money, grant recipients may have to lay off staff and shutter projects, putting communities across the country at greater risk of suffering the dangerous effects of pollution, extreme weather, and unaffordable energy costs.

This order directs the Secretary of Education to unlawfully disqualify non-profits from student loan forgiveness programs if the administration disagrees with their missions.

This Executive Order directs the Secretary of Education to propose revisions to the bipartisan Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PLSF) program that would wrongfully target groups with which the administration disagrees. PSLF was established by Congress in 2007 to encourage people to work in lower-paying nonprofit and government jobs by forgiving their remaining federal student loans after they made 10 years of repayments over 10 years of service in those jobs. The Executive Order unlawfully singles out for exclusion from this program organizations that it claims have "a substantial illegal purpose," which its broad and vague definition could include organizations supporting immigrants, transgender children, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

This executive order attempts to legitimize questionable monetary policies through the purchase of bitcoin.

This Executive Order creating a "strategic bitcoin reserve" in the United States attempts to legitimize volatile and risky asset class that does not benefit the US economy. This EO builds on other questionable pro-cryptocurrency policies of the Trump administration, including directing the SEC to reduce its enforcement efforts against cryptocurrency interests.

This order suspended security clearances and cut off access to federal buildings for all Perkins Coie employees and ended all federal contracts with the firm.

This Executive Order targeted the Perkins Coie law firm in retaliation for its representation of clients that Trump disfavors. The EO was designed to punish Perkins Coie and interfere with its ability to represent clients by accusing the law firm of being "dishonest and dangerous" in its legal representation and of engaging in unlawful discrimination through its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. The EO sought to immediately suspend all security clearances, government benefits and services, and previously granted federal contracts held by Perkins Coie or its employees.

This order designates English as the official language of the U.S. as part of a push to make the country less welcoming to non-English speakers.

This Executive Order designates English as the official language of the United States and revokes a quarter-century-old executive order intended to make public services more accessible to people with limited English proficiency. The United States has never before had an official language, nor is there a clear legal basis for doing so. This order is consistent with a widespread effort by the Trump administration to make public services less accessible. While the messaging of the EO is clear in its effort to stigmatize people who do not speak English, it does not direct agencies to take specific actions other than removing prior guidance related to the revoked EO.

This funding cut baselessly terminates NOAA's Maine Sea Grant to the detriment of coastal communities and fishing industries.

The termination of NOAA's Maine Sea Grant pogram will eliminate millions of dollars of essential funding to Maine's coastal communities. This 50-year program was established to aid coastal communities in protecting and growing fishing industries in Maine and has contributed to the economic viability of coastal communities in the state. Terminating this program will be harmful to these communities and to the fishing industries in Maine. Among other work, the Sea Grant project provides training for young fishermen for opportunities to lead in Maine's fishing industry. Notably, this cut in funding occurred one week after the confrontation between the Governor of Maine Janet Mills and President Trump, when President Trump threatened to cut off funding for Maine if the state didn't comply with his executive order banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

HUD terminated grants that housing organizations used to combat illegal discrimination in housing sales and rentals.

In February, HUD cancelled $30 million of funding to 78 grants from its Fair Housing Initiatives Program. In March, a coalition of fair housing groups challenged the termination in federal district court. After initial success before the court, its injunction against HUD was dissolved following the Supreme Court's shadow docket decision in California v. Department of Education.

The order directs agencies to work with DOGE to put systems in place to review contracts and grants to create political review of congressionally-authorized funding.

The order directs agency leadership to work with DOGE teams to put systems in place to review funding, including grants, contracts, non-essential travel and government credit card use. The order effectively puts a new, political, layer of review over government spending, inevitably leading to funding cuts to programs authorized by and appropriated by Congress.

This memorandum directs various government agencies to suspend security clearances for Covington & Burling LLP attorneys and employees who assisted in representing Jack Smith.

This memorandum was the first executive action taken by the Trump Administration to target a specific law firm in retaliation for its legal work. With this memorandum, President Trump directed various government agencies to suspend security clearances for any Covington & Burling LLP attorneys and employees — specifically Peter Koski — and to terminate any contracts between the federal government and the firm.

This Notice immediately reduces the validity of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to citizens and nationals of Haiti by 6 months.

This DHS Notice immediately reduces the time period of the temporary protected status (TPS) designation and extension for Haitians that the Biden administration granted in June 2024. Now, instead of expiring in February 2026, Haitians' TPS will expire in August 2025. The Trump-Vance administration's main justification for this decision is that "the ever-increasing population of Haitian TPS recipients" is contrary to the national interests of the United States. Although the Notice does not explain why the presence of Haitians is contrary to the national interest, it alludes to false narratives of gang violence and negative effects on U.S. workers and communities. These narratives build on the debunked claims made by then-candidates Trump and Vance about the Haitian community in Springfield, OH.

The Department of Education prevented student loan borrowers from applying for all income-driven repayment plans after the Eighth Circuit put one of those plans on hold.

In February 2025, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision pausing the entire SAVE income-driven repayment (IDR) plan for student loans. The Biden-Harris administration introduced the SAVE Plan in 2023 as the most affordable option for borrowers seeking to have their payments reduced and their loans ultimately forgiven. Three days after the Eighth Circuit's decision, the Trump administration paused all IDR plan applications, including ones not affected by the Eighth Circuit's decision, and directed student loan servicers not to process existing IDR applications. Because borrowers must be enrolled in an IDR plan to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, this drastic decision also jeopardized the ability of teachers, nurses, first responders, and other public servants to receive forgiveness after ten years of qualifying payments. One week after a national teachers' union filed a lawsuit to revive IDR plan application processing, the Department of Education filed a notice with the court stating that it had reopened the IDR online application and was coordinating with student loan servicers to resume processing IDR applications.

This order directs the federal government to embark on a reckless and unlawful deregulatory agenda.

This executive order directs senior government officials, including those associated with DOGE, to initiate a process to review all government regulations. According to the EO, the review is for the purposes of modifying or rescinding regulations, and in some cases, deprioritizing agency actions to enforce them. Under the guise of confronting "federal overreach," this EO is likely to lead the federal government to engage in a reckless campaign of deregulation, undermining or eliminating important regulations that are essential for the public health, economic stability, and environmental safety.