Last Monday, April 28, 2025, the House passed a bill titled Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (“ROUTERS”) Act (H.R. 866), which directs the Secretary of Commerce to study national security risks and cybersecurity vulnerabilities “posed by consumer routers, modems, and devices that combine a modem and router, that are designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the influence of a covered country.”  Similar to some other recent supply chain requirements imposed on federal contractors, the bill defines “covered countries” by reference to 10 U.S.C. 4872, which prohibits the acquisition of sensitive materials from North Korea, Russia, Iran, and China.Continue Reading ROUTERS Act on the Horizon: U.S. House Passes New Legislation

On Friday, May 2, the U.S. government announced further steps in its much-discussed plan to re-write the FAR by establishing a “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul” (“RFO”) website on Acquisition.gov, issuing written guidance to federal agencies, and releasing proposed revisions to FAR Part 1 – Federal Acquisition Regulation System and Part 34 – Major System Acquisition.  This activity comes on the heels of recent presidential directives requiring agencies to examine and reform their approach to procurement of goods and services, including Executive Order (“E.O.”) 14275, “Restoring Common Sense To Federal Procurement,” and E.O. 14271, “Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts.”

As anticipated, the FAR re-write is spearheaded by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (“OFPP”) within the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (“FAR Council”).  The RFO website proclaims that the re-write is “the first-ever comprehensive overhaul of the FAR” and aims to “return the FAR to its statutory roots, rewritten in plain language, and remove most non-statutory rules.”  It also will result in “non-regulatory buying guides [to] provide practical strategies grounded in common sense while remaining outside the FAR.”  In short, the goal is characterized as “faster acquisitions, greater competition, and better results.”Continue Reading Early Signs of Progress in the “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul”

On January 21, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14173, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (“EO 14173”), which, among other things, revoked Executive Order 11246 (“EO 11246”), a 60-year-old Civil Rights-era directive that prohibited federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex

Continue Reading The Executive Order 11246 Grace Period Ends Today (April 21)

This is the second blog in a series of Covington blogs on cybersecurity policies, executive orders (“EOs”), and other actions of the new Trump Administration.  This blog describes key cybersecurity developments that took place in March 2025. 

Trump Administration Executive Order on Achieving Efficiency

On March 19, 2025, the Trump

Continue Reading March 2025 Cybersecurity Developments Under the Trump Administration

President Trump has issued two new Executive Orders (“EOs”) that seek to reshape federal procurement.  The much anticipated “Restoring Common Sense To Federal Procurement” EO (the “FAR Reform EO”) seeks to “create the most agile, effective, and efficient procurement system possible” by revising the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”)

Continue Reading Trump Administration Issues Two Executive Orders Seeking To Remake Federal Procurement

This is part of an ongoing series of Covington blogs on the AI policies, executive orders, and other actions of the Trump Administration.  This blog describes AI actions taken by the Trump Administration in March 2025, and prior articles in this series are available here.

White House Receives Public

Continue Reading March 2025 AI Developments Under the Trump Administration

Since January 20, the Trump administration has taken numerous executive actions that impact federal government contractors and grant recipients. In just a single day last week, the Trump administration issued a series of EOs and presidential memoranda that, among other things, seek to reform the defense acquisition system, bolster the U.S. maritime industry, and streamline foreign military sales.  The potential impact of these changes to Department of Defense (“DoD”) procurement policy are relatively self-evident.

At the same time, the Trump administration has taken various steps to reorganize and reduce the federal workforce, including significant changes to the DoD civilian workforce. The potential effects of these personnel policies are less obvious but may be equally meaningful for defense contractors. This blog focuses on one such executive action, Executive Order 14210 (titled Implementing the President’s ‘‘Department of Government Efficiency’’ Workforce Optimization Initiative) and its potential implications for the defense industrial base.Continue Reading DoD is Shrinking its Civilian Workforce: What Contractors Should Know Now

On April 9, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (“EO”), “Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation In the Defense Industrial Base,” that may have significant implications for federal government contractors doing business with the Department of Defense (“DoD”), and particularly those with touchpoints to Major Defense Acquisition Programs (“MDAPs”).Continue Reading Trump Administration Issues Executive Order Aimed At Modernizing Defense Acquisitions And Spurring Innovation

On April 9th, President Trump issued the Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance Executive Order (“Maritime EO”), which declares that “[i]t is the policy of the United States to revitalize and rebuild domestic maritime industries and workforce to promote national security and economic prosperity.”  The Maritime EO aims to improve the nation’s commercial shipbuilding capacity and bolster the maritime workforce.  The four corners of the Maritime EO primarily take two key steps—(1) directing the National Security Adviser to prepare a Maritime Action Plan (“MAP”) to revitalize domestic maritime industries and (2) imposing a series of trade-related measures to bolster domestic shipping.  The Fact Sheet accompanying the Maritime EO further notes that President Trump has established a new Office of Maritime and Industrial Capacity at the National Security Council, which presumably will help coordinate implementation of the Maritime EO.  

While much remains to be seen on how the Maritime EO will be implemented, it is clear that the Trump administration intends to take a multifaceted approach to supporting the domestic maritime industry.  In this regard, the EO tracks and builds upon the SHIPS for America Act of 2024 (“SHIPS Act”), proposed legislation that garnered broad bipartisan support last year after its initial introduction in Congress.  The SHIPS Act was co-sponsored by then-Rep. Michael Waltz, who as the current National Security Adviser has principal responsibility for managing the development of the MAP that forms the backbone for the EO and its policy objectives.  Especially in light of the legislative momentum in this area, we expect that this initial action and any subsequent executive and legislative actions will be of significant interest to a wide range of U.S. businesses, including ship builders and their suppliers.Continue Reading Renewed Effort to Support Commercial Shipbuilding Capacity and the Domestic Maritime Industry

President Trump issued a series of executive orders (“EOs”) and presidential memoranda on Wednesday, April 9, that could impact government contractors across a broad range of industries.  Among other initiatives, these executive actions seek to reform the defense acquisition system, reinvigorate the U.S. maritime industry, and streamline foreign military sales.  The actions also reflect President Trump’s goal of catalyzing innovation and economic growth by reducing regulatory burdens, both in general and in the energy industry specifically.

We briefly summarize below the six April 9 executive actions most likely to impact government contractors.Continue Reading New Executive Actions Address the Defense Acquisition System, U.S. Maritime Industries, Foreign Military Sales, and “Unlawful” Regulations