Executive Order Tracker
Presidential executive orders usually attract more attention than the myriad other executive actions by a presidential administration, because they signal the intent and direction of the administration’s political and regulatory efforts. When a president issues an executive order, most of the resulting commentary focuses on whether its policy goals are good or bad. These evaluations are often predictable based on the partisan affiliation of the commentators.
We at the Center for Practical Federalism believe it’s important to consider not just an executive order’s immediate policy consequences, but its long-term effects on state and local authority. This authority has been unwisely and improperly diminished during decades of federal expansion, so it’s important to scrutinize the effects federal actions have on the federalist balance that was so important to the American founding, and which has undergirded American stability, freedom, and prosperity.
To that end, we offer this tracker of active executive orders that have a direct impact on American federalism and self-governance.
Executive orders typically provide broad instructions to the federal government, setting off a chain of activity across agencies. Without strong federalism safeguards, these orders can concentrate even more power in Washington—making future policy swings more dramatic with each new administration. To that end, this tool will not only scrutinize active executive orders, but also provide insights on how to integrate federalism principles into them, as a bulwark against federal agency overreach.
Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports
“Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” builds on goals and definitions established in a prior EO aimed at protecting women from biological males who compete in all-female sports leagues and use facilities reserved for women.
Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation
This executive order directs federal agencies for every new regulation in 2025 to identify ten existing regulations for elimination. It could have significant implications for federalism and the future of regulatory reform.
Expanding Educational Freedom
“Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunities for Families” directs federal agencies to expand support for education choice by guiding states on using funds for alternatives like private and faith-based schools. While it increases state and local authority, its impact will depend on whether new funding conditions emerge.
Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling
Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling directs federal agencies to halt the prior administration’s programs pushing race and gender identity ideologies into K-12 schools.
Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation
This order is positive for federalism insofar as it ends federal agency pressure on states to cover these procedures as part of their Medicaid programs, as well as threats to find health care providers in violation of anti-discrimination provisions under section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act if they didn’t go along.
Enforcing the Hyde Amendment
This order reverses two orders issued by the Biden Administration in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision that returned authority over abortion regulation to the states.
Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California
This order directs the federal Bureau of Reclamation to increase flow from federally controlled facilities and waterways by ending, if necessary, cooperation with California water authorities where they have prioritized animal species protection over human uses of water. To this end it also authorizes exemptions from the federal Endangered Species and National Environmental Policy Acts.
Council to Assess the Federal Emergency Management Agency
A gathering of officials to improve FEMA effectiveness brings to mind the observation of Sir Barnett Cocks: “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and quietly strangled.” Much in this instance depends on the President’s appointments to the Council charged with this work, at least some of whom will not be federal officials.
Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity
“Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” directs federal agencies to eliminate race-conscious requirements attached to a variety of federal regulations, consent orders, and grants directed at states.
Putting People Over Fish
“Putting People Over Fish” directs the federal departments of Commerce and Interior to resume plans proposed during the first Trump Administration to channel more northern California water to central and southern parts of the state.
Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture
This Order requires that federal public buildings “respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage,” which implies greater deference to the architectural designs and practices of American communities.
Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety
Many provisions in this order will empower states to more easily apply the death penalty if they so choose, like expediting consideration of state requests for federal certification of their appeals processes, and ensuring they have access to drugs necessary for executions.
Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program
This not only aims to reduce the burdens placed on states and communities by large influxes of migrants in recent years, it promises to give states “greater involvement in the process of determining the placement or resettlement of refugees in their jurisdictions.”
Declaring a National Energy Emergency
By invoking, among other powers, the Defense Production Act, this order seeks to facilitate increased energy production on federal lands, and directs federal agencies to expedite petitions for exemptions from Endangered Species Act rules by state governors and others seeking to expand energy production.
Unleashing American Energy
Key provisions concerning states in this order reduce subsidies that had unduly distorted states’ markets and governmental budgets, require federal agencies to review whether their policies and practices have suppressed energy development in the states, and order a review of public lands withdrawals. This last is especially important in states where large swaths of land are controlled by federal agencies.
Initial Rescissions of Biden Administration Executive Orders
Previous executive orders rescinded by this order sparked federal policies that burdened states in numerous ways.
Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential
This order draws heavily on a set of recommendations prepared by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s team to give state officials greater authority over the management of their state’s resources, and thus constitutes a clear advance of federalism in the Last Frontier.
Protecting the American People Against Invasion
Immigration policy is a federal matter, and this order tightens previously permissive federal practices. Its provisions also abide by the legal precedent that while federal laws pre-empt state laws, federal agencies cannot compel state or local officials to implement those laws.
Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness
Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness establishes procedures for naming federal properties after “visionary and patriotic Americans.”
Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism
The chief effect of “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” on state authority is to eliminate a wide swath of federal regulation and guidance that pressured public schools and other state and local programs receiving federal funds to follow practices like allowing biological males to play in women’s sports and access women’s locker rooms, prison facilities, and abuse shelters.