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Administration Updates
Trump Signs a Flurry of Executive Actions. Here’s the Breakdown.
President Donald Trump's executive actions address key policy areas including energy, immigration, tax reform, health, criminal justice, trade and the federal workforce. They also rescind many Biden-era actions. NCSL staff break it down for you.
Artificial Intelligence
- Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence: Prioritizes the responsible development of AI. The order seeks to accelerate AI innovation to ensure U.S. leadership in the global AI race and reduce regulatory barriers to AI development in the private sector to boost economic growth and maintain competitive advantages.
President Trump rescinded former President Joe Biden’s executive order 14110, which had established key safeguards for the responsible development of artificial intelligence, particularly in the areas of safety and ethical use. The order required various federal agencies to implement measures to ensure AI technologies were developed and deployed responsibly. On a related note, the Biden administration issued a separate order to speed the construction of AI data centers on federal lands to meet AI’s massive energy needs. Trump did not repeal that order.
Criminal Justice and Civil Rights
- Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists: Declares a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to deal with certain international cartels that pose a larger threat to national security than traditional organized crime entities. Per the administration, these international cartels work with known foreign terrorist organizations, operate like insurgent groups using complex strategies and infiltrate Western Hemisphere governments to destabilize them, contribute to the influx of drugs and criminals into the United States, and function as quasi-governmental entities. Tren de Aragua and La Mara Salvatrucha are two such cartels. The executive order calls for the total elimination of these organizations in the United States and mandates the creation of a plan to combat them within 14 days of the date of the order, which was issued Jan. 20.
- Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety: Restores federal capital punishment and orders the attorney general to pursue it when appropriate. It also requires the attorney general to seek the death penalty in federal cases involving the murder of a law enforcement officer or a capital crime committed by a migrant in the U.S. without legal status. The attorney general must also ensure that states allowing capital punishment have enough drugs for lethal injections and seek legal means to overturn Supreme Court precedents that hamper state and federal authority to impose capital punishment.
- Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity: Revokes several orders from previous administrations and directs agency heads to encourage private sector companies to abandon DEI initiatives through policy.
Cryptocurrency
- Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology: Establishes a new working group focused on cryptocurrency, aimed at shaping U.S. policy around digital assets. The group will bring together federal agencies to evaluate the potential challenges and benefits of cryptocurrencies, with the goal of crafting a more coherent regulatory framework. This move reflects growing concerns about the impact of digital currencies on financial markets, consumer protection and national security. The working group is expected to focus on issues such as fraud prevention, market stability and potential use in illicit activities, while also exploring opportunities for innovation in the crypto space.
Energy
- Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements: Withdraws the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and cancels financial agreements made under the agreement.
- Unleashing American Energy: Develops America's energy and natural resources by:
- Encouraging energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters.
- Growing production and processing of non-fuel minerals, including rare earth minerals.
- Terminating (where appropriate) state tailpipe emissions waivers.
- Immediately reviewing all agency actions that "potentially burden the development of domestic energy resources."
- Terminating the American Climate Corps.
- Working to expedite and simplify the permitting process and prepare recommendations to Congress to "facilitate the permitting and construction of interstate energy transportation and other critical energy infrastructure, including, but not limited to, pipelines" and streamline National Environmental Policy Act review.
- Pausing disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, "including but not limited to funds for electric vehicle charging stations made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program."
- Restarting review of applications for liquefied natural gas projects.
- Reviewing agency actions regarding domestic mining and processing of non-fuel minerals, including those that withdrew public lands from consideration.
- Directing the U.S. trade representative to investigate exploitative practices in global mineral markets and assess their impact on U.S. commerce. Also tasks the secretary of commerce with evaluating the national security implications of mineral imports, and proposes measures to counteract forced labor in mineral supply chains.
- Declaring a National Energy Emergency: Actions taken under this order include:
- Using emergency authorities to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining and generation of domestic energy resources. This includes use of eminent domain.
- Considering emergency fuel waivers to allow the year-round sale of E15 gasoline.
- Identifying and using available authorities to speed the completion of all "authorized and appropriated infrastructure, energy, environmental and natural resource projects."
- Identifying planned or potential actions to "facilitate the nation's energy supply" that may be subject to regulations under the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act.
- Assessing how Department of Defense can acquire and transport energy, electricity or fuels necessary to "protect the homeland and to conduct operations abroad."
- Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf From Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government's Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects: Bans wind energy leasing in all areas within the Offshore Continental Shelf. This action does not affect current leases in this area, but a review of all existing leases has been ordered. In addition, no new permits for onshore or offshore wind energy shall be issued.
- Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California: Restarts efforts to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Northern California to areas in the Central Valley and Southern California.
- Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis: Directs all executive departments and agencies to pursue eliminating policies that "increase the cost of food and fuel."
- Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential: Expands and expedites natural resource development in Alaska, including "energy, mineral, timber, and seafood" by expediting the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects on federal and state lands, with a specific focus on liquefied natural gas sales and transportation.
Health and Human Services
Presidential Actions
Executive Order 14070 of April 5, 2022
- Economic Relief Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Executive Order 14002 of Jan. 22, 2021
- Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery
Executive Order 13995 of Jan. 21, 2021
- Establishing the COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board and Ensuring a Sustainable Public Health Workforce for COVID-19 and Other Biological Threats
Executive Order 13996 of Jan. 21, 2021
- Improving and Expanding Access to Care and Treatments for COVID-19
Executive Order 13997 of Jan. 21, 2021
- Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Americans
Executive Order 14087 of Oct. 14, 2022
- Organizing and Mobilizing the United States Government to Provide a Unified and Effective Response to Combat COVID-19 and to Provide United States Leadership on Global Health and Security
Executive Order 13987 of Jan. 20, 2021
- Protecting Worker Health and Safety
Executive Order 13999 of Jan. 21, 2021
- Strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act
Executive Order 14009 of Jan. 28, 2021
Immigration and Border Action
- Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program: Communicates that the United States doesn't have the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, including refugees. Public safety, national security and protection of taxpayer resources are priorities, therefore only refugees who can fully assimilate into the U.S. without infringing on these paramount goals will be permitted. Additionally, state and local governments are granted a say on where refugees will be placed. The order also revokes Biden's executive order addressing refugee resettlement.
- Clarifying the Military's Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States: Declares that there are existing threats to our national sovereignty and calls for the military to seal the southern border to protect against "forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities."
- Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States: Declares the current situation at the southern border a national emergency, directs secretary of defense to send armed forces members to assist the Department of Homeland Security in operations at the border, and instructs the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to construct physical barriers along the border.
- Securing Our Borders: Orders the construction of physical barriers at the southern border, terminates categorical parole programs for certain countries, directs the Department of Justice and the DHS to take DNA samples and fingerprints of migrants without legal status in federal custody, and directs the DOJ and DHS to prioritize human trafficking and smuggling cases for prosecution.
- Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship: Directs all agencies to stop issuing proof of citizenship to individuals who were born in the United States, but whose mother was unlawfully or lawfully temporarily present in the country at the time of the individual's birth, if that individual's father was not a citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said individual's birth.
- Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats: Directs agencies to strengthen vetting and screening of migrants seeking admission to or already present in the United States. The order also directs agencies to identify countries with deficient screening information and to partially or fully suspend the admission of nationals from those countries.
- Protecting the American People Against Invasion: Directs agencies to revoke memoranda and guidance based on certain immigration-related executive orders from previous administrations and prioritize the prosecution of criminal offenses related to unauthorized entry or the continued presence of migrants lacking legal status.
- Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion: Declares the situation at the southern border an invasion.
Trade
- America First Trade Policy: Directs federal agencies to address trade deficits, unfair trade practices and currency manipulation while reviewing trade agreements such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The policy emphasizes boosting domestic manufacturing, protecting intellectual property and safeguarding national security. It includes measures to assess impacts on American workers, farmers and businesses, with potential implications for state economies through changes in tariff rates and trade practices more broadly.
- See additional trade-related item under Unleashing American Energy heading above.
Miscellaneous
- Establishing and Implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency: Launches the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, by renaming the United States Digital Service to the United States DOGE Service with a goal of "modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity." The order further directs agency heads to establish a "DOGE Team" to implement the president's DOGE agenda. Trump first announced his intention to establish DOGE in November; it was to be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who published an op-ed stating the federal government needs paring down and that the "entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic." Ramaswamy has since left the effort to run for governor of Ohio. The GOP House congressional leadership supports the effort and created an Oversight Subcommittee for Delivering on Government Efficiency. However, opponents to the effort quickly mobilized as multiple lawsuits were filed immediately after Trump's swearing in, challenging the legality of the DOGE under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
- Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness: Renames Denali, the Alaska Native name for North America's highest peak, to Mount McKinley and the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.
Education Department Releases Title IX Guidance on Name, Image and Likeness Activities (Biden Administration)
The guidance explains that colleges and universities must provide equivalent benefits and opportunities based on sex to student-athletes related to name, image and likeness activities under Title IX. Notably, the guidance considers any compensation a school provides for a student-athlete's NIL to qualify as athletic financial assistance, which must be provided proportionally to male and female student-athletes.
The guidance also clarifies that schools must continue to provide equivalent publicity to men's and women's athletic teams, including in the context of NIL activities, and must provide equivalent support services to students seeking NIL. The guidance explains that compensation provided by a third party for a student-athlete's NIL does not count as financial assistance for Title IX compliance purposes; however, schools are responsible under Title IX for any disparities based on sex that may be created through student-athlete agreements with third parties. The guidance is nonbinding and does not have the force and effect of law, unlike a regulation. It is unclear whether the incoming Trump administration will retain the guidance, issue its own guidance, or pursue rulemaking on the issue.
Regardless, the guidance has the potential to be consequential given its timing. A pending class-action antitrust settlement between the NCAA and student-athletes would permit colleges and universities to directly share revenue with student-athletes up to a capped amount annually. A final hearing on the settlement is set for April 7. In anticipation of the settlement being finalized, some states have permitted schools to share revenue directly with students. Reports suggest that many institutions have begun drawing up plans for a revenue-sharing structure under the settlement terms and have even made tentative offers to prospective student-athletes based on those revenue-sharing plans. Reports suggest many of the revenue-sharing structures would provide the predominant share of revenues to men's football and men's basketball teams, with women's basketball teams in line for the third-largest share. Based on the newly issued guidance, those agreements would likely violate Title IX. Read more
Remote Access to Buprenorphine: Final Rule (Biden Administration)
The Expansion of Buprenorphine Treatment via Telemedicine Encounter will provide patients with remote access to buprenorphine, a medication used in the treatment of opioid use disorder. According to a press release, the rule, jointly issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, will allow patients to receive a six-month supply of buprenorphine via telemedicine without an in-person visit. Subsequent prescriptions will require an in-person visit with the provider.
To balance access to treatment with safeguards against abuse, the rule requires practitioners to "review the patient's prescription drug monitoring program data for the state in which the patient is located when the telemedicine encounter occurs, and the pharmacist must verify the identity of the patient prior to filling the prescription." This is in addition to the existing requirement that practitioners be registered with the DEA to prescribe Schedule III-V controlled substances-the category which includes buprenorphine.
Publication of this final rule follows three extensions of COVID-19-era telehealth flexibilities. In an earlier letter to the Hill supporting these extensions, NCSL highlighted their success in facilitating access to important medications by easing barriers to care faced by patients who lack the ability to take time off from work and/or lack access to affordable child care or transportation-all of which may be necessary to attend an in-person office visit. Preliminary findings on the efficacy of teleprescribing flexibilities indicate that patients had greater fidelity to treatment schedules and lower risk of overdose. Read more
Historic Move to Add the ERA to the Constitution
Prior to leaving office, President Biden announced that the Equal Rights Amendment is ratified and should be incorporated as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. Virginia was the 38th state to ratify the ERA in 2020. A constitutional amendment requires ratification by three-fourths of the states. There will likely be challenges given that five states rescinded their ratification and the amendment contained a ratification deadline of 1982, which was not met. If the ERA becomes part of the Constitution, it will raise many legal issues, such as gender pay equity, and raise the judicial standard of review in discrimination cases based on sex from intermediate judicial scrutiny to strict judicial scrutiny.
Biden Administration Treasury Report Highlights Growing Insurance Challenges From Extreme Weather
The report, "Analyses of U.S. Homeowners Insurance Markets, 2018-2022: Climate-Related Risks and Other Factors," highlights the growing challenges that extreme weather is creating for the insurance industry, with rising costs and reduced availability in high-risk areas. The analysis found that, between 2018 and 2022, homeowners in regions most exposed to severe weather-related disasters saw premiums increase at a rate significantly faster than inflation, while insurance nonrenewals spiked, especially in the highest-risk areas. The report revealed that premiums in the most vulnerable areas were 82% higher on average compared with lower-risk regions, and claims in these areas were also substantially more expensive.
The report emphasizes the need for continued data-sharing and collaboration among insurers, regulators and lawmakers to address these issues. Though it has no regulatory power, the analysis emphasizes the serious risks extreme weather poses to the stability of the homeowners insurance market. In response, lawmakers are exploring solutions, such as the reintroduction of the Wildfire Insurance Coverage Study Act, aimed at better understanding the impact of wildfires and severe weather on insurance availability and affordability. The legislation passed out of committee in the 118th Congress with bipartisan support.
Identity Theft Awareness Week Is Here
During Identity Theft Awareness Week, which starts today, the Federal Trade Commission and its partners will host free webinars to share information about how to spot, avoid, report and recover from identity theft. There will be a particular focus on preventing fraud and scams targeting members of the military and their families, as well as veterans. Consider checking out the FTC's materials to help advise and protect your constituents, family and friends, and yourself from identity theft.
Court Updates
Federal Judge Vacates Title IX Regulation
The Biden administration's Title IX rule was blocked nationwide after being previously blocked in 26 states due to other lawsuits. The rule had gone into effect in August after being finalized in April. The rule is unlikely to be appealed by the incoming administration. The previous Trump administration finalized its own Title IX rule in 2020, which remains in effect in all states.
The Biden administration's Title IX rule interpreted the statute to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics and pregnancy and changed how schools respond to sex discrimination, sex-based harassment and sexual assault. Read more
TikTok Ban Extended Despite Supreme Court's Ruling
The court upheld the constitutionality of the enacted law-Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act-that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, did not sell the app by Jan. 19.
After losing before the D.C. Circuit Court, TikTok petitioned the Supreme Court to review its case and block the law from taking effect. The company argued the new law infringed on the First Amendment's right to free speech by banning a platform used by more than half the U.S. population. However, the Supreme Court sided with Congress and the lower court in upholding the constitutionality of the law. The court rejected TikTok's First Amendment argument, concluding that the law served compelling national security interests and was sufficiently tailored to achieve those interests.
Despite the court's ruling, the app will continue to operate in the country for an additional 75 days pursuant to an executive order signed by President Trump on his first day in office. According to various reports, Trump is mulling ways to retain TikTok's presence in the U.S., while addressing the national security concerns that led Congress to enact legislation to ban the app in the first place. Read more