The new federal landscape
Updates and resources to help your land trust navigate a rapidly-changing landscape.
Explore the Land
Since taking office on January 20, President Donald Trump has issued an unprecedented number of executive orders and other administrative actions that touch on almost every part of the federal government. These directives will also impact state and local governments, companies, nonprofit organizations and individuals across the country, though in what ways and to what degree is not yet clear.
These actions have created real and potentially long-lasting uncertainty and challenges for the land trust community, and the Land Trust Alliance is committed to advocating for land trusts and private land conservation, to creating opportunities for land trusts to come together, and to providing its members with tools, resources and information to help them navigate the shifting sands of this new landscape.
What we know
A summary of executive orders and actions that may affect land trusts
Updated March 3
Federal funding
- Federal Funding
Office of Management and Budget Memo: Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan and Other Financial Assistance Programs
Jan. 27, 2025The memo placed a freeze on nearly all federal grants and loans, domestically and internationally, effectively hitting the pause button on money appropriated by Congress for specific, pre-ordained purposes. The Office of Management and Budget rescinded the directive on January 28, 2025, but many funds are still on hold. Multiple court orders placed the freeze on hold, and the most recent issued on February 25, 2025, ordered the Trump administration to release the funds.
Contracts, grants and federal spending
- EO 14222
Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative
Feb. 26, 2025Requires agency heads to coordinate with DOGE team leads to build a system to record every contract and grant payment with a written justification for each payment. It also requires agency heads to consult with DOGE team leads to review all existing grants and contracts within 30 days and terminate or modify them to “promote efficiency and advance the policies of my [a]dministration.” Additionally, it freezes all federal employee credit cards, with some exceptions for those engaged in emergency response, and requires extra justification for federal employee travel.
Regulations and energy
- EO 14219
Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Deregulatory Initiative
Feb. 19, 2025Requires agency heads in coordination with DOGE team leads to review all regulations for consistency with law and administration priorities within 60 days. Upon review agency heads will consult with the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to develop a “unified regulatory agenda that seeks to rescind or modify these regulations.”
- EO 14213
Establishing the National Energy Dominance Council
Feb. 14, 2025Established the National Energy Dominance Council comprised of cabinet members and other Trump appointees. The council advises the president on using executive authority to make America more energy-dominant and includes a list of things for review, including ways to cut red tape and rapidly approve the construction of energy infrastructure.
- EO 14156
Declaring a National Energy Emergency
Jan. 20, 2025Authorizes the use of emergency authorities to facilitate the generation of domestic energy resources, including on federal lands and through the possible use of eminent domain or the Defense Production Act; expedites the completion of all authorized and appropriated energy infrastructure projects.
- EO 14096
Unleashing American Energy
Jan. 20, 2025Calls for actions to streamline the permitting process of energy infrastructure siting and for a pause on the disbursement of Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding to provide for a 90-day review. Also rescinds a number of previous executive orders and actions related to climate change, renewable energy and environmental justice. This has been followed up by Office of Management and Budget guidance clarifying the pause applies only to funds associated with the Green New Deal.
Federal workforce
- EO 14217
Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy
Feb. 19, 2025Eliminates multiple federal entities including all Federal Executive Boards and the Presidential Management Fellows Program.
- EO 14215
Ensuring Accountability for all Federal Agencies
Feb. 18, 2025Puts into place “[p]residential supervision and control of the entire executive branch” including independent agencies. States that the president and the attorney general, subject to the president’s supervision and control, "shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch.”
- EO 14210
Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative
Feb. 11, 2025Outlines additional actions targeted at reducing the federal workforce. It states that for every new federal hire, four federal employees must leave the workforce. In addition, under this EO agency heads must consult with a Department of Government Efficiency team lead before hiring any new staff.
- EO 14170
Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service
Jan. 20, 2025Targeted at reducing the federal workforce, it requires the assistant to the president for domestic policy, in consultation with the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the director of the Office of Personnel Management and the administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency to develop a hiring plan within 120 days of issuance of the order.
Nonprofit organizations
- Nonprofit Organizations
Memorandum for the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies/Radical Transparency about Wasteful Spending
Feb. 18, 2025Directs the heads of executive departments and agencies to make public the details of terminated programs, contracts, grants and agreements.
- Nonprofit Organizations
Memorandum for the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies/Advancing U.S. Interests when Funding
Feb. 6, 2025Orders agencies to stop funding nonprofits that undermine the national interest. It does not provide a definition for "national interest" or "nonprofits."
Diversity, equity and inclusion
- EO 14173
Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-based Opportunity
Jan. 20, 2025Calls for the elimination of federal government Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and trainings, often provided by or in partnership with nonprofits. This order also extends to the private sector and calls for a strategic enforcement plan to “deter DEI programs or principles that constitute illegal discrimination or preferences” in the private sector.
- EO 14151
Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing
Jan. 20, 2025Directs the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management to coordinate with all federal agencies to terminate all DEI programs in federal agencies, including equity related grants and equity action plans.
Other
- Other
Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production
March 1, 2025Gives the secretaries of Interior and Agriculture 30 days to work through the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to issue new or updated guidance regarding tools to increase timber production and decrease timber supply uncertainty. It directs the secretaries of the Interior and Commerce to work through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the assistant administrator for fisheries to complete a strategy in 60 days to speed the approval of forestry projects under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and to examine existing authorities to delegate section 7 consultation of the ESA to other agencies. It directs all relevant agencies to eliminate, to the maximum extent permissible by law, all undue delays to timber production.
- EO 14148
Initial Recissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions
Jan. 20, 2025Rescinds 14 of President Biden’s executive orders relating to climate change and environmental justice, including EO 14008, "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” which contained a commitment to conserve 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030, also known as “30x30."
The Impacts of the Recent Executive Orders on Nonprofits
A regularly updated collection of information and resources from the National Council of Nonprofits, including a summary chart which outlines some of the EOs that may affect nonprofits directly or indirectly.
