Response Center

This National Institutes of Health guidance 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 medical 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 research into topics affecting human health. 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 health outcomes globally.

This order reinstates servicemembers who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the pandemic.

This order directs the Secretary of Defense to allow servicemembers who refused the COVID-19 vaccine during the military's 2021-2023 mandate to seek reinstatement and backpay. The order claims that the short-lived vaccine mandate was a burden on the military, but provides no evidence. Moreover, the mandate was lifted in 2023, so these members could already have sought to re-enlist without getting vaccinated.

This policy cuts off all foreign aid to South Africa and prioritizes refugee resettlement for white South African farmers.

This policy expresses outrage at the treatment of "ethnic minority Afrikaners" in South Africa experiencing "racially discriminatory property confiscation," i.e., white South African farmers whose land is being redistributed by the government to promote domestic policy goals. In response, the executive order directs the government -- including USAID, which the administration is attempting to dismantle -- to stop providing any foreign aid to South Africa. The Order also directs the Departments of State and Homeland Security to prioritize humanitarian relief, including refugee admission and resettlement, for white South African farmers, despite the fact that the President suspended the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program three weeks ago.

This order threatens providers of gender-affirming healthcare with loss of federal research and education grant funds, and potential enforcement of unrelated criminal laws.

This order is a full-throated attack on the ability of transgender youth to access gender-affirming medical care, even when their parents and doctors agree that such care is in their best interest, and even though similar procedures are allowed for cisgender individuals. The order directs the federal government to take immediate steps to ensure that any institution receiving federal research or education grants does not provide puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, or gender-affirming surgery to anyone under the age of 19 (including 18-year-olds, who are legally adults). It also directs agencies to rescind guidance based on the WPATH Standards of Care, the leading medical authority on gender-affirming healthcare standards. It directs the Attorney General to weaponize the enforcement of unrelated laws, like those prohibiting consumer fraud and female genital mutilation, against the provision of gender-affirming healthcare. The order also contains numerous instructions for other federal agencies to roll out over time.

This order claims that being transgender is incompatible with military service and directs the Secretary of Defense to take steps to erase the existence of transgender troops.

Falsely claiming that the acceptance and inclusion of transgender people within the Armed Forces is detrimental to unit cohesion, this order seeks to revive President Trump's trans military ban, which was challenged and blocked numerous times under the first Trump administration. The order states that the policy of the United States Government is to exclude from military service people with gender dysphoria and people who use pronouns that do not reflect their sex assigned at birth. The order directs the Secretary of Defense to promptly issue directives to the Department of Defense revoking inclusive pronoun usage and states that the Armed Forces shall not allow people to use sex-segregated facilities that do not align with their sex assigned at birth.

This order seeks to ban transgender girls from participating on girls' sports teams and from girls' locker rooms, and discourages trans inclusion in international competitions.

This executive order seeks to ban transgender girls from girls' sports teams and locker rooms in the name of protecting girls, but it does just the opposite. These bans harm all girls, including cisgender girls, by subjecting them to increased gender policing and arbitrary and invasive investigations. This order also harms intersex and nonbinary students as it increases surveillance of their bodies. The order directs the Secretary of Education to weaponize Title IX's protections against sex discrimination and bring enforcement actions against schools that allow transgender girls to participate on girls' sports teams or use girls' locker rooms, threatening the loss of federal funding for schools that do not comply. This is despite the fact that many federal courts have held that Title IX protects transgender students, and that the Supreme Court has held that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is a form of sex discrimination in an analogous civil-rights context. The order also directs the Secretary of State to rescind support for and participation in sports programs that allow trans women on women's teams, including the Olympics (which the United States is set to host in Los Angeles in 2028). And, it directs the Secretary of State to promote these discriminatory interests internationally, including at the United Nations.