By the authority vested in me as President by the Structure and the legal guidelines of america of America, and to enhance the method of Federal grantmaking whereas ending offensive waste of tax {dollars}, it’s hereby ordered:
Part 1. Goal. Each tax greenback the Authorities spends ought to enhance American lives or advance American pursuits. This usually doesn’t occur. Federal grants have funded drag reveals in Ecuador, educated doctoral candidates in important race idea, and developed transgender-sexual-education packages. In 2024, one examine claimed that greater than one-quarter of latest Nationwide Science Basis (NSF) grants went to range, fairness, and inclusion and different far-left initiatives. These NSF grants included these to educators that promoted Marxism, class warfare propaganda, and different anti-American ideologies within the classroom, masked as rigorous and considerate investigation.
The hurt imposed by problematic Federal grants doesn’t cease at propagating absurd ideologies. An unsafe lab in Wuhan, China — seemingly the supply of the COVID-19 pandemic — engaged in gain-of-function analysis funded by the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. The NSF gave tens of millions to develop AI-powered social media censorship instruments — a direct assault on free speech. Taxpayer-funded grants have additionally gone to non-governmental organizations that offered free companies to unlawful immigrants, worsening the border disaster and compromising our security, and to organizations that actively labored towards American pursuits overseas.
Even for tasks receiving Federal funds that serve an ostensibly helpful function, the Authorities has paid inadequate consideration to their efficacy. For instance, a big proportion of the outcomes of federally funded scientific analysis tasks can’t be reproduced by exterior researchers. Even at Harvard and Stanford, as soon as thought-about amongst America’s most prestigious universities, senior researchers have resigned following accusations of information falsification. A considerable portion of many Federal grants for university-led analysis goes to not scientific mission candidates or groundbreaking analysis, however to college services and administrative prices.
The grant evaluate course of itself additionally undermines the pursuits of American taxpayers. Writing efficient grant purposes is notoriously advanced, and grant candidates that may afford authorized and technical specialists usually tend to obtain funds — which might then additional assist these non-mission capabilities. As well as, there’s inadequate interagency coordination and evaluate by related material specialists to cut back duplication. Consequently, the most effective proposals don’t all the time obtain funding, and there’s an excessive amount of unfocused analysis of marginal social utility.
Briefly, there’s a sturdy have to strengthen oversight and coordination of, and to streamline, company grantmaking to handle these issues, forestall them from recurring, and guarantee higher accountability to be used of public funds extra broadly. The Authorities holds tax income in belief for the American folks, and businesses ought to deal with it accordingly.
Sec. 2. Definitions. For functions of this order:
(a) The time period “company” has the which means given to it in part 551 of title 5, United States Code, besides that such time period consists of solely businesses which have the statutory authority to award, supply, or handle Federal grants and doesn’t embrace the Government Workplace of the President or any parts thereof.
(b) The time period “company head” means the highest-ranking official or officers of an company, such because the Secretary, Administrator, Chairman, Director, Commissioners, or Board of Administrators, except in any other case specified on this order.
(c) The time period “Director” means the Director of the Workplace of Administration and Finances (OMB).
(d) The time period “discretionary award” or “discretionary grant” means a grant that may be a “discretionary award” as that time period is outlined in 2 CFR 200.1. It doesn’t embrace packages the place laws establishes an entitlement to the funds on the a part of the recipient, resembling block grants; these awarded primarily based on a statutory system; or catastrophe restoration grants.
(e) The time period “funding alternative announcement” means a “discover of funding alternative” as outlined in 2 CFR 200.1, because it pertains to a discretionary award.
(f) The time period “grant” means any “grant settlement or grant” as outlined in 2 CFR 200.1, “cooperative settlement” as outlined in 2 CFR 200.1, or related award of economic help, together with international help awards.
(g) The time period “regulation” means an company assertion of basic or specific applicability and future impact designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe regulation or coverage or describing the process or follow necessities of an company, together with, with out limitation, rules, interpretative guidelines, and statements of coverage.
(h) The time period “senior appointee” means a person appointed by the President, a non-career member of the Senior Government Service, or an worker encumbering a Senior Degree, Scientific and Skilled, or Grade 15 place in Schedule C of the excepted service.
Sec. 3. Strengthening Accountability for Company Grantmaking. (a) Every company head shall promptly designate a senior appointee who shall be accountable for making a course of to evaluate new funding alternative bulletins and to evaluate discretionary grants to make sure that they’re in line with company priorities and the nationwide curiosity. For the avoidance of doubt, this course of shall not assure any specific stage of evaluate or consideration to funding candidates besides as in line with relevant regulation. As in line with relevant regulation, this evaluate course of shall incorporate, at a minimal:
(i) evaluate and approval of company funding alternative bulletins by a number of senior appointees or their designees;
(ii) continuation of present coordination with OMB;
(iii) to the extent acceptable to the subject material of the bulletins, evaluate by designated subject-matter specialists as recognized by the company head or the company head’s designee;
(iv) evaluate of funding alternative bulletins and associated kinds to make sure that they embrace solely such necessities as are obligatory for an sufficient analysis of the appliance and are written in plain language with a objective of minimizing the necessity for authorized or technical experience in drafting an utility;
(v) interagency coordination to find out whether or not the subject material of a selected funding alternative announcement has already been addressed by one other company announcement and, if that’s the case, whether or not one of many bulletins needs to be modified or withdrawn to advertise consistency and eradicate redundancy;
(vi) for scientific analysis discretionary grants, evaluate by a minimum of one material professional within the discipline of the appliance, who could also be a member of the grant evaluate panel, this system officer, or an out of doors professional; and
(vii) pre-issuance evaluate of discretionary awards to make sure that the awards are in line with relevant regulation, company priorities, and the nationwide curiosity, which shall contain in-person or digital dialogue of purposes by grant evaluate panels or program workplaces with a senior appointee or that appointee’s designee.
(b) Company heads shall designate a number of senior appointees to evaluate discretionary awards on an annual foundation for consistency with company priorities and substantial progress. Such evaluate shall embrace an accountability mechanism for officers accountable for choice and granting of the awards.
(c) Till such time as the method laid out in subsection (a) of this part is in place, businesses shall not challenge any new funding alternative bulletins with out prior approval from the senior appointee designated underneath subsection (a) of this part, besides as required by regulation.
Sec. 4. Issues for Discretionary Awards. (a) Senior appointees and their designees shall not ministerially ratify or routinely defer to the suggestions of others in reviewing funding alternative bulletins or discretionary awards, however shall as an alternative use their unbiased judgment.
(b) In reviewing and approving funding alternative bulletins and discretionary awards, in addition to in designing the evaluate course of described in part 3(a) of this order, senior appointees and their designees shall, as related and to the extent in line with relevant regulation, apply the next rules, together with in any scoring rubrics used to evaluate grant proposals:
(i) Discretionary awards should, the place relevant, demonstrably advance the President’s coverage priorities.
(ii) Discretionary awards shall not be used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize, or facilitate:
(A) racial preferences or different types of racial discrimination by the grant recipient, together with actions the place race or intentional proxies for race will likely be used as a range criterion for employment or program participation;
(B) denial by the grant recipient of the intercourse binary in people or the notion that intercourse is a selected or mutable attribute;
(C) unlawful immigration; or
(D) some other initiatives that compromise public security or promote anti-American values.
(iii) All else being equal, choice for discretionary awards needs to be given to establishments with decrease oblique value charges.
(iv) Discretionary grants needs to be given to a broad vary of recipients moderately than to a choose group of repeat gamers. Analysis grants needs to be awarded to a mixture of recipients prone to produce instantly demonstrable outcomes and recipients with the potential for doubtlessly longer-term, breakthrough outcomes, in a way in line with the funding alternative announcement.
(v) Candidates ought to decide to complying with administration insurance policies, procedures, and steering respecting Gold Normal Science.
(vi) Discretionary awards ought to embrace clear benchmarks for measuring success and progress in direction of related targets and, as related for awards pertaining to scientific analysis, a dedication to attaining Gold Normal Science.
(vii) To the extent institutional affiliation is taken into account in making discretionary awards, businesses ought to prioritize an establishment’s dedication to rigorous, reproducible scholarship over its historic repute or perceived status. As to science grants, businesses ought to prioritize establishments which have demonstrated success in implementing Gold Normal Science.
(c) Nothing on this order shall be construed to discourage or forestall the usage of peer evaluate strategies to judge proposals for discretionary awards or in any other case inform company determination making, offered that peer evaluate suggestions stay advisory and are usually not ministerially ratified, routinely deferred to, or in any other case handled as de facto binding by senior appointees or their designees. Additional, nothing on this order shall be construed to create any rights to any specific stage of evaluate or consideration for any funding applicant besides as in line with relevant regulation.
Sec. 5. Revisions to the Uniform Steerage. (a) The Director shall revise the Uniform Steerage and different related steering to streamline utility necessities and to additional make clear and require all discretionary grants to allow termination for comfort, together with when the award not advances company priorities or the nationwide curiosity, however topic to acceptable exceptions, together with agreements entered into in furtherance of worldwide commerce agreements or these awarded by the Division of Commerce underneath title XCIX of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry Nationwide Protection Authorization Act for Fiscal 12 months 2021 (Public Regulation 116-283), the CHIPS Act of 2022 (Public Regulation 117-167), or division F of the Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act (Public Regulation 117-58).
(b) The Director shall additional revise the Uniform Steerage and different related steering to appropriately restrict the usage of discretionary grant funds for prices associated to services and administration.
Sec. 6. Implementation and Termination Clauses. (a) Inside 30 days of the date of this order, every company head shall evaluate the company’s normal grant phrases and circumstances and submit a report back to the Director detailing:
(i) whether or not the company’s normal phrases and circumstances for discretionary awards allow termination for comfort and embrace the termination provisions described in 2 CFR 200.340(a), together with the provisions that an award could also be terminated by the company “if an award not effectuates this system targets or company priorities” or, within the case of a partial termination by the recipient, if the company “determines that the remaining portion of the Federal award won’t accomplish the needs for which the Federal award was made”;
(ii) whether or not the company’s normal phrases and circumstances for discretionary international help awards allow termination primarily based on the nationwide curiosity; and
(iii) the approximate variety of lively discretionary awards on the company, in addition to the approximate proportion of funding obligated underneath these awards that comprises termination provisions permitting for termination underneath the circumstances described in subsection (i) of this part.
(b) Every company head shall, to the utmost extent permitted by regulation and in line with related Government Orders or different Presidential directives, take steps to revise the phrases and circumstances of present discretionary grants to allow fast termination for comfort, or make clear that such termination is permitted, together with if the award not advances company priorities or the nationwide curiosity. Every company head shall make sure that such phrases are included in all future discretionary grants and likewise shall take steps to revise all relevant rules binding on or integrated in discretionary grant phrases and circumstances to require such phrases. Company heads shall take motion to include these new phrases and circumstances into all future amendments to grant awards.
(c) To the extent practicable and in line with relevant regulation, company heads shall insert in future discretionary grant agreements phrases and circumstances that:
(i) prohibit recipients from straight drawing down basic grant funds for particular tasks with out the affirmative authorization of the company; and
(ii) require grantees to supply written explanations or assist, with specificity, for requests for every drawdown.
Sec. 7. Basic Provisions. (a) Nothing on this order shall be construed to impair or in any other case have an effect on:
(i) the authority granted by regulation to an govt division or company, or the top thereof; or
(ii) the capabilities of the Director of the Workplace of Administration and Finances regarding budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be carried out in line with relevant regulation and topic to the supply of appropriations.
(c) This order will not be meant to, and doesn’t, create any proper or profit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at regulation or in fairness by any occasion towards america, its departments, businesses, or entities, its officers, workers, or brokers, or some other particular person.
(d) If any provision of this order, or the appliance of any provision to any particular person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the rest of this order and the appliance of its provisions to some other individuals or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
(e) The prices for publication of this order shall be borne by the Workplace of Administration and Finances.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
August 7, 2025.
