The Trump Administration Executive Orders related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”), Executive Order 14170 (Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service) and Executive Order 14173 (Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity) (the “EOs”), have given businesses and other organizations (including universities) much to think about regarding their DEI initiatives.
On January 20 and 21, 2025, President Trump signed two executive orders focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs: EO 14151, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” and EO 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit‐Based Opportunity” (the “EOs”). You can read more about the content of these EOs here.
In Part 1 of our blog series, we outlined the Trump Administration’s new Executive Orders (“EOs”) on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (“DEI”) and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (“DEIA”) programs, and the current legal status of those EOs. In this second part, we provide several observations on what actions federal contractors and grant recipients might want
The first 100 days of President Trump’s second term have been action-packed with the President issuing 43 Executive Orders within hours of his inauguration – and an additional 46 that soon followed. Two Executive Orders in particular – Executive Order 14151, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferences,” and Executive Order 14173, “Ending
In the ever-evolving world of cybersecurity, even organizations that meet stringent security standards can be victims of sophisticated cyberattacks. A notable example of this is the December 8, 2024 cybersecurity incident involving the U.S. Department of the Treasury and its third-party cloud service provider, BeyondTrust. This incident underscores some critical lessons for entities (both government
On October 22, 2024, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that Pennsylvania State University (“Penn State”) has agreed to pay $1,250,000 to settle a False Claims Act (“FCA”) case brought against the University approximately two years ago. The whistleblower in the case, former chief information officer of the Penn State Applied Research Laboratory, alleged that
A federal district court in the Middle District of Florida issued a decision on Sept. 30th that threatens the federal government’s continued reliance on the False Claims Act (“FCA”) as the most powerful weapon in the Department of Justice’s enforcement arsenal. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle threw out a case against a group of Medicare
The proposed rule to implement the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (“CMMC”) program in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (“DFARS”) was published in the Federal Register on August 15, 2024 and will have a 60-day comment period (through October 15, 2024).
On May 3, 2024, the FAR Council published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (the “Advanced Notice”) seeking to implement Section 5949 of the James M. Inohfe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 prohibition on procuring certain covered semiconductor products and services. The Congressional prohibition does not go into effect until
On April 1, 2024, the FAR Council published a new Final Rule that establishes FAR Part 40 – but without any new provisions of substance. This Final Rule becomes effective on May 1, 2024. Subsequently, the FAR Council published a Request for Information (“RFI”) on April 10, 2024. The RFI seeks feedback on the scope
