President Donald Trump signed an executive order that reduces the scope of the federal bureaucracy by eliminating nonessential government agencies and functions.
The order mandates certain agencies to reduce non-statutory functions, including:
- The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
- The United States Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America
- The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution
- The Institute of Museum and Library Services
- The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
- The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund
- The Minority Business Development Agency
The order instructs the agencies, some of which are not even on the radar of most Americans, to reduce operations to the bare minimum required by law.
Trump’s approach allows the agencies to continue legally mandated duties, but eliminates superfluous activities that may divert resources from more pressing national priorities, such as shrinking the $36 trillion national debt.
The executive order also directs the heads of the affected agencies to submit a compliance report to the Office of Management and Budget within seven days. The report must detail which functions are statutorily required and assess the extent of necessary personnel and funding reductions.
OMB and other relevant executive offices will review these agencies’ budget requests as the process continues to ensure they align with the new directive, and are not spending on non-essential services.
Many of Trump’s previous executive orders have landed in the liberal District of Columbia Court as nongovernmental organizations and former employees of the federal government sue the Trump Administration. But that may be part of the Trump strategy of revealing whether the executive branch is really in charge, or if the judicial branch is actually the one running the government. Americans should have that answer, either way.
