Heritage Foundation Experts Analyze Trump’s Executive Orders

By admin On Jan 29, 2025

Heritage Foundation Experts Analyze Trump’s Executive Orders:

President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders his first day in office. His executive orders covered policies related to the economy, the border, gender ideology and more.

Below, we round up analysis from The Heritage Foundation’s policy experts on these executive orders. This article will be regularly updated to include new analysis.

Trump issued executive order, “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements,” which withdraws the United States from all commitments, including the Paris Agreement, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The order directs the U.S. United Nations ambassador to immediately submit notification that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change. It goes on to withdraw the U.S. from any agreement associated with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, ends the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan, and directs federal agency heads to review, identify and stop any activities associated with the global warming agenda.

The Heritage Foundation has consistently argued for withdrawing from these commitments for the benefit of every American family and business—and the rest of the world. As academic research shows, alarmist rhetoric around global warming is overblown while the economic consequences of global warming policies are real and growing. This is critical step to modernizing America’s energy and environmental policy.

Though the agreement never made good economic or environmental sense, China’s decision to virtually abandon the pact exacerbated these underlying issues. The Biden administration’s obsession with the global warming agenda has been an unmitigated disaster by any measure. It has caused inflation, reduced consumer choice, empowered America’s strategic competitors, increased the threat of electricity blackouts,, chilled investment in new energy infrastructure, and left Americans less prepared to deal with natural disasters.

The foundation for much of this bad policy is America’s participation in international environmental agreements that put premium on environmental virtue signaling at the expense of America’s economy and world standing. This executive order changes that.

Empowering Alaskans

Trump issued executive order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which rescinds the previous administration’s efforts to stop resource development in Alaska, clears federal bureaucracy, and empowers Alaskans develop their resources for the benefit of Alaska and the United States.

This executive order will help lower prices and empower Alaskans to develop their resources while protecting critical habitat and Alaska’s cultural heritage. It opens that Arctic National Wildlife Preserve to development, expedites permitting and leasing in Alaska, prioritizes the development and sale of liquefied natural gas, orders federal agency heads to facilitate Alaskan resource development, and essentially path for energy development in the state.

The Heritage Foundation has consistently argued that developing Alaskan resources will benefit Alaska and the country. The gas and oil industry, for example, supports nearly 50,000 Alaskan jobs, accounted for 35% of the state’s economy at $19.4 billion, and generally provides nearly 90% of the Alaskan government’s general fund, putting over $180 billion in the state’s coffers since Alaska became a state in 1959.

Heritage has also argued against the false premise that Americans must choose between economic development and environmental protection and cultural traditions. Indeed, responsible resource development provides the means to protect the natural environment and cultural traditions. To this end, rather than use alleged environmental concerns to justify federally imposed anti-energy policies, this executive order empowers Alaskans to drive policies forward that protect the state’s natural beauty, cultural heritage, and economic interests.

TikTok

On Monday, Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Justice to pause enforcement of the law mandating a Chinese divestment of TikTok (“The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”) for a period of 75 days.

The Heritage Foundation was an early advisor to the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party during the drafting of this legislation, emphasizing the immense risks posed by a CCP-controlled TikTok to U.S. security and sovereignty.

The president’s order recognizes the concerns he articulated in his 2020 executive order, which sought to ban TikTok due to its threats to national security, foreign policy, and the U.S. economy.

Under President Joe Biden, TikTok was given 270 days to divest to comply with the law and allow Americans continued access to the platform. However, Biden made no material progress and declined to implement the law before leaving office.

The Heritage Foundation is confident that Trump will accomplish more in 75 days than Biden did in nearly a year of inaction, securing a deal that ensures the complete divestment of TikTok’s algorithm because allowing shared control with the CCP would leave Americans just as vulnerable as before the law’s passage.

—Wes Hodges, lead of the campaign to Hold Big Tech Accountable and advisor for coalitions at The Heritage Foundation

Return to In-Person Work for Feds

President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Return to In-Person Work” requires heads of executive departments and agencies to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”

It’s the president’s responsibility, under his Article II duties, to supervise executive agencies and faithfully execute the laws, including managing telework policies, and “ensur[ing] that telework does not diminish employee performance or agency operations.”

Even as the Biden administration rightly noted that the law “does not mandate telework or confer a legal right or entitlement” to telework and directed agencies to “aggressively implement” a “substantial increase in meaningful in-person work,” federal employee unions pushed back, with 43% of federal employees still teleworking and 7% fully remote in 2023.

The Trump administration will face substantial opposition to this EO from federal employee labor unions, some of whom recently took action to thwart the Trump’s telework plans.

—Rachel Greszler is senior research fellow on workforce and public finance with the Roe Institute of The Heritage Foundation.

Federal Hiring Freeze

President Donald Trump’s “Hiring Freeze” executive order prevents federal agencies from filling open federal civilian positions and prohibits the creation of new positions.

The freeze is not applicable to the armed forces or immigration enforcement, and it does not affect members of the excepted federal service, including political appointees who are now beginning their service under the Trump administration. Moreover, the executive order “does not prohibit making reallocations to meet the highest priority needs, maintain essential services, and protect national security, homeland security, and public safety.”

The hiring freeze will be in effect until the director of the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the director of the Office of Personnel Management and the administrator of the new U.S. DOGE Service, submits a plan “to reduce the size of the federal government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.”

Over the past two years, the number of federal employees increased by 133,700, or 5.9%, which is nearly twice the 3.1% increase in private employment. At an average salary of $106,400 and an additional $56,500 in benefits for each federal employee, that’s costing taxpayers an additional $22.8 billion per year, even as the quality and availability of many government services has deteriorated.

This hiring freeze will help incoming Trump administration officials determine their workforce needs and allocation, including prioritizing core government functions and eliminating misuse and abuse of taxpayer dollars.