During his first few months in office, President Trump signed numerous executive orders that are likely to impact the government contracting community. This link includes a comprehensive list of executive orders issued by the Trump Administration to date. A few of the most relevant executive orders and their links are provided here.

A. Executive Order 14271, Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts (April 16, 2025): This executive order enforces existing laws directing the government to use the competitive marketplace and innovations of private enterprise (i.e., commercial contracting) to the maximum extent practicable. The executive order references the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994, which identified commercial contracting as the government’s preferred method for acquiring goods and services, and requires agencies to review open solicitations, pre-solicitation notices, solicitation notices, award notices, and sole source notices for non-commercial products and services where a satisfactory commercial option has not been identified within 60 days. Each agency will need to prepare an application, including applicable market research and price analysis, requesting approval to procure such products or services on a non-commercial basis. The approval authority shall assess each application and make an appropriate recommendation to advance the solicitation of commercial products or services.

When proposing to solicit a non-commercial product or service, the contracting officer shall provide a description, again including applicable market research and price analysis, of why the product or service is required. A senior procurement executive responsible for the agency’s acquisition system shall review and approve or deny the proposal in writing.

On May 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) issued implementation guidance to address this executive order. The memo acknowledges that DoD should avoid “inadvertently disqualifying commercial solutions” without “casting truly non-commercial products or services as ‘commercial’ for the purpose of misapplying policies and procedures unique to the acquisition of commercial products and commercial services.” The memo emphasizes the importance of continuous market research to identify commercially available solutions and innovations to meet DoD’s needs. To address the requirements of the executive order, the memo includes DoD’s standard implementation process and a Reporting Template in Appendix 1.

The April 16 executive order can be found here.

The May 27 DoD implementation guidance memo can be found here.

B. Executive Order 14267, Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers (April 9, 2025): The April 9 executive order states that regulations that reduce competition, entrepreneurship, and innovation should be eliminated. Specifically, the executive order states that “[f]ederal regulations should not predetermine economic winners and losers.” To accomplish the goals of this executive order, agency heads should provide a list of regulations that meet one of the six anti-competitive categories identified in the executive order and indicate which of these regulations should be rescinded or modified within 70 days. The executive order required the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (Chairman) to request public input on the identification of such anti-competitive regulations. From there, the Chairman shall provide a consolidated list of regulations to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Director) within 90 days. The OMB Director, in consultation with other senior officials, will decide whether to incorporate the proposed rescissions or modifications into the identified regulations.

The April 9 executive order can be found here.

C. Executive Order 14240, Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement (March 20, 2025): The executive order states that the $490 billion spent annually by the government for common goods and services should be consolidated under the General Services Administration (GSA). The executive order directs agencies to submit proposals to the Administrator of General Services (Administrator) within 60 days to have the GSA conduct domestic procurement with respect to common goods and services, where permitted by law. Within 90 days, the Administrator shall submit a comprehensive plan to the Director of OMB for GSA to procure common goods and services.

Within 30 days, the Director of OMB shall designate the Administrator as the executive agent for all government-wide acquisition contracts for information technology.

The March 20 executive order can be found here.