This is the third 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 April 2025. 

NIST Publishes Initial Draft of Guidance for High Performance Computing Systems

U.S. National

Continue Reading April 2025 Cybersecurity Developments Under the Trump Administration

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 April 2025, and prior articles in this series are available here.

White House OMB Issues

Continue Reading April 2025 AI Developments Under the Trump Administration

On April 20th, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers, including Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) in the Senate and Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Representative Trent Kelly (R-Miss.) in the House, reintroduced the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act of 2025 (the “SHIPS Act” or the “Act”). The SHIPS Act’s sponsors describe the bill as a “comprehensive approach to revitalizing the U.S. Merchant Marine.” It aims to: (1) establish national oversight and consistent funding for U.S. maritime policy; (2) make U.S.-flagged vessels more commercially competitive through de-regulation; (3) rebuild the U.S. shipyard industrial base; and (4) expand and strengthen the maritime labor force. It also sets a goal for establishing a fleet of 250 U.S.-flagged vessels in international commerce.Continue Reading Reintroduced SHIPS Act Signals Continued Momentum for Domestic Maritime Investment

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