On January 20th, the inaugural day of the Trump Administration, President Trump unveiled a series of executive orders and actions. Executive orders are documents or actions issued by the president to manage the operations of the Federal Government, specifically the executive branch departments and agencies. While these EOs have the force of law, they are in force until they are rescinded, either by the issuing administration or a succeeding one, or are deemed unconstitutional by the courts. Almost all of these orders were a fulfillment of campaign promises made by Trump during the 2024 election. Several of these EOs impact the computing research community, either directly or indirectly.

The “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” EO orders the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), assisted by the US Attorney General and the Director of OPM, to “coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.” Within 60 days each agency, department, or commission shall terminate, “all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions (including but not limited to “Chief Diversity Officer” positions); all “equity action plans,” “equity” actions, initiatives, or programs, “equity-related” grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees.” Additionally, they are to provide the White House with a list of:

• (A) agency or department DEI, DEIA, or “environmental justice” positions, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, and expenditures in existence on November 4, 2024, and an assessment of whether these positions, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, and expenditures have been misleadingly relabeled in an attempt to preserve their pre-November 4, 2024, function;
• (B) Federal contractors who have provided DEI training or DEI training materials to agency or department employees; and
• (C) Federal grantees who received Federal funding to provide or advance DEI, DEIA, or “environmental justice” programs, services, or activities since January 20, 2021.

There is an expectation that all federal employees who work in DEI offices will be furloughed or reassigned by the end of this week. For all intents and purposes, this order outlaws DEI initiatives within the federal government.

The order that is widest in scope, will also impact the community directly: Initial Rescission of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions. This order revokes a large number of executive orders issued by President Biden, the most significant being Executive Order 14110 of October 30, 2023 (AKA: “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” or the AI EO). The full impact of rescinding the AI EO is unclear at the moment, as several actions ordered in the EO have already occurred. But the fate of such things as the NAIRR pilot project at NSF and the AI Safety Institute at NIST are unclear at this time. Both programs enjoy wide, bipartisan support in the Congress and the tech industry; if they are required to shut down, that could be an unintended outcome of revoking the original order. CRA is consulting with our friends and allies in Congress and the Executive Branch to get more information on the full impact of revoking this order.

This order also requires the National Security Advisor to review of all National Security Memos (NSMs) that were issued by the Biden Administration and make recommendations on which ones that should be revoked or kept in force. This could impact the NSM covering artificial intelligence.

There are several executive orders that were issued that will impact the computing research community in less direct or obvious ways. A select list of these orders are:

Establishing and Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” – This order sets up the so called “Department of Government Efficiency” within the executive office of the President (i.e.: the White House). It does this by renaming and re-tasking the United States Digital Service, which was an office set up by President Obama to provide consultation services to federal agencies on information technology. The DOGE office is given an 18-month timeline to do its work and will terminate on July 4, 2026. The effort, which has had an unclear directive until now, is tasked with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize efficiency and productivity.” Intriguingly, the DOGE effort is not tasked with recommending the removal of regulations or funding for specific programs; that had been a stated goal but seems to have fallen by the wayside. There is always a possibility that its scope could change with a future EO though.

Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions within the Federal Workforce and Hiring Freeze – These two orders will likely have a number of unintended impacts, particularly at the federal research funding agencies. With the “Restoring Accountability EO,” the likely impact will be shifting most, if not all, government scientists and rotators into this new “Schedule Policy/Career” (formerly called Schedule F) classification of the federal workforce. This has been a concern since Schedule F was issued toward the end of the first Trump Administration. This action is meant to classify career federal employees more like political appointments, removing civil service protections and allowing for easier removal from their positions. This could have a serious impact on how career government scientists perform their jobs. As for the hiring freeze EO, it is initially set as a 90-day period, while OMB and the DOGE office develop a workforce reduction plan. However, it’s easy to see that being extended for an indeterminate amount of time. An extended freeze could impact rotators at the research agencies and the processes that they oversee.

Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats – This EO covers immigration and could impact the high-skilled immigration changes taken by the Biden Administration in 2022. The order calls on the Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security, as well as the Director of National Intelligence, to conduct a review of all immigration actions taken by the Biden Administration and reestablish a “uniform baseline” that existed before that Administration came into office in 2021. It also orders those same departments to identify countries which, “vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.” It further orders an evaluation of, “all visa programs to ensure that they are not used by foreign nation-states or other hostile actors to harm the security, economic, political, cultural, or other national interests of the United States.” Given the importance of high-skilled immigration to the computing, IT, and CS research communities, any changes in this area could have a significant impact.

This is just the first slate of Executive Orders from the Trump Administration. We are expecting more in the coming weeks and months. As well, these orders may be expanded upon or have unintended impacts that have not been accounted for yet. CRA is still in the process of reviewing these orders and monitoring the unfolding situation. Please check back for more updates.