WHAT IS PROJECT 2025—AND HOW IT COULD IMPACT YOU, YOUR FAMILY, AND YOUR COMMUNITY

Slashing federal disaster relief, privatizing public education, politicizing federal agencies, gutting intelligence bureaus, stripping away rights of protected groups, and ending climate change actions are among the proposals detailed in Project 2025

By Miriam Raftery

October 7, 2024 (Washington D.C.) -- Project 2025 is an 887-page blueprint for a second Trump administration, according to its authors. Trump has alternately praised it, claimed never to have read it, and said he disagrees with parts of it; he has denied knowing its authors, even though those authors include 140 top officials and advisors from Trump’s first presidential term, some of whom wrote entire chapters.

ECM has reviewed the entire document and provides this analysis of its most controversial provisions, in summary and detail. Some page citations are provided; citations are available on request for every fact cited.

Project 2025’s  stated mission is to restore family as centerpiece of American life, “dismantle the administrative state” (p 3), defend our nation’s sovereignty and borders against global threats, and secure ”God given individual rights to live freely.”  But if fully implemented, it would dismantle many branches of our federal government, politicize every federal agency,  threaten  our democracy and take away many rights and protections for women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, and our environment.

SUMMARY

Some of its most polarizing proposals include:

Shutting down and privatizing agencies: It aims to close down entirely agencies ranging from the Department of Education (p. 285) to  the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service (p 664) which could charge for weather reports and warnings, also privatizing FEMA  (p. 135), the Federal Emergency Management Agency that provides aid to victims of wildfires, floods and other disasters, privatizing Small Business Administration disaster loans, and privatizing National Flood Insurance. The Transportation and Security Administration, or TSA which was set up to protect us from terrorists after 911 including airport screenings, would be privatized as well. 

Politicizing the federal government including law enforcement and intelligence agencies: It would also undermine national security, take away rights for many Americans, end up to a million civil service jobs and replace them with Trump loyalists, and pose a dire threat to our democracy. It would politicize the Justice Department and the FBI, with the ability to block investigations into, say, efforts to subvert the election or attack the Capitol, while pursuing prosecutions against anyone Trump perceives as an enemy.  The Supreme Court recently ruled that a president is immune from virtually all official acts while in office, eliminating a key check on a president who wishes to act like a dictator or authoritarian. 

Project 2025 says a conservative president must “move swiftly to remove the career and political bureaucrats” and “fill its ranks with political appointees” and “place its nominees for key positions into similar positions as acting directors with” explicit authority to finalize agency actions including regulations.”

The American Federation of Government Employees describes Project 2025’s goals as a “takeover of our country’s system of checks and balances in order to “dismantle the administrative state” – the operations of federal agencies and programs” that would eliminate up to a million federal jobs through a new system of cronyism, budget cuts, shutting down entire agencies, hiring freezes and caps at others.

Ignoring science:Appointees already trained by the Heritage Foundation are ready for appointments to guard against the influence of quote “neutral scientific experts”. The project details how to fire bureaucrats who in theory can’t be fired, how to shut down bureaus it disapproves of, muzzle “woke propaganda at every level of government” decentralize and privatize as much as possible” and abandon some international organizations and agreements, including the Paris Climate Accord, thus posing a threat not only to American democracy, but to the survival of the entire world.

Putting lives of women at risk and taking away freedoms for minority groups: The plan also seeks to weaken or eliminate protections for women, the LTBTQ community including kicking LGBTQ people out of the military, make it easier to discriminate against certain groups, and deny women life-saving care for miscarriages and high-risk pregnancies.

Enabling mass deportations and creation of massive immigrant camps, slashing legal immigration as well as illegal immigration, and reauthorizing separation of children from parents at the border, while allowing a new agency head to ignore all laws to prevent migrant caravans from entering the U.S.

Who wrote the plan?  Heritage Foundation is the conservative group that led the efforts to prepare Project 2025, just as it has prepared similar mandates for leadership for Republican presidents starting with Reagan. The group claims that Reagan and Trump, in his first term, actually implemented over half the proposals in their plan in their first year of office alone.

More than 50 conservative groups and around 300 individuals helped prepare 2025—and about half of those have worked directly for Trump. CNN  found that at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration helped draft Project 2025-and some wrote entire chapters. These include Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, his Acting Secretary of Defense, his deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, his director of the Office of Management and Budget, and his White House advisor on trade.

Where does Trump stand and what does Harris say?  Vice President Kamala Harris calls it a “detailed and dangerous” plan.

As controversy over the plan grows, Trump has tried to distance himself from it.  Most recently at the debate he claimed he had "nothing to do with it" and that he has not read it. Yet speaking at a Heritage event in April 2022, Trump said, “This is a great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do...”  Project 2025’s lead author recently affirmed that he believes the project will be implemented if Trump is reelected. 

It defies credibility to believe that Trump knows nothing about what’s in the plan when 140 of his top and most trusted advisors wrote the plan, including cabinet officers who wrote entire chapters. While we don’t know if he would actually implement every element of the plan, there is no reason to believe he would not implement much or even most of it. The same group wrote a milder blueprint for his first term, and says he implemented 60% in his first year in office.  Plus on the campaign trail, he has already pledged support for some of Project 2025’s most radical and controversial elements.

WHAT’S IN THE PLAN, IN DETAIL?

DISMANTLING THE “DEEP STATE”

The Pendleton Act enacted in 1883  has assured that our federal agencies would be staffed primarily with career civil servants, nonpartisan experts in their fields such as science, medicine and education. It was put in place to end a corrupt spoils system.  Project 2025 seeks to end that and replace up to a million civil servants and other government employees with Trump loyalists.

This goes far beyond prior conservative presidential transition plans. While Cabinet Secretaries must be approved by the Senate, Project 2025 urges the President to install Acting Cabinet Secretaries on day one and empower them with full authority to make decisions, such as implementing or eliminating regulations. 

Everett Kelley, President of the American Federation of Government Employees, says Project 2025 is a “threat to our democracy,” adding,  “It’s a takeover of our federal government in a manner that is not loyal to the Constitution and the law, has no interest in listening to the people, and will force employees to take orders, legal or not, or be terminated.”  It seeks to reinstate Schedule F, allowing the administration to fire up to a half million civil servants and replace them with political appointees  who hold confidential, policy determining or policy-advocating positions.  

CUTTING DISASTER AID: The Federal Emergency Management Agency,  or FEMA, would be eliminated, with some functions shifted to other departments, per page 135. Costs of disaster relief and response would be largely shifted to the states, which would be expected to cover between 25% and 75% of the cost of disasters. There’s not enough resources now for many disaster survivors, and this will make it even worse.

Project 2025 aims to “shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government”  and make it harder to qualify for federal disaster aid. The National Flood Insurance Program would also be privatized. They would also privatize the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAAH, which includes the National Weather Service and provides hurricane forecasts; the weather service would be encouraged to charge money for sharing weather reports with other organizations. Who wants to pay for weather reports or severe weather warnings?

JUSTICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

One of the most troubling aspects is that the Department of Justice would lose its independence and be under control of the President. DOJ decisions would have to be “consistent with the President’s policy,” unlike now when the DOJ acts independently of the executive branch.

So the DOJ could be ordered to drop federal cases against Trump and the January 6 insurrectionists, for example, or follow through on Trump’s threats to prosecute and jail his political enemies or members of the media. The Justice Dept. could refuse to prosecute fake electors, people undermining voting rights or civil rights, or election officials who refuse to certify elections. So we’re losing one of the last remaining checks on unbridled executive power, since the Supreme Court can no longer be counted on to provide this.

Project 2025 criticizes the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI, claiming it knew claims of collusion with Russia were false, worked to chill free speech of parents threatening school boards,  pressured social media companies to report foreign influence, and sued multiple states for their efforts to “enhance election integrity” but in fact, sued because of state efforts to suppress votes.

The Trump administration should restrict the FBI from going after citizens exercise their rights, such as those disrupting school board meetings. It should review major FBI investigations and terminate those it deems contrary to national interests.

The FBI would no longer be supervised by the Deputy Attorney General but instead, by the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, a leader politically accountable to Trump.

The FBI would be banned from combating spread of misinformation and disinformation by Americans, unless tied to criminal activity. So false political memes and lies targeting victims of school shootings can flourish.

Trump would eliminate as many offices in the FBI as possible without Congressional approval, including firing 300 attorneys and closing the FBI’s Office of General Counsel, the FBI’s Office of Congressional Affairs, and its Office of Public Affairs. He would ask Congress to end the FBI director’s 10 year term and make this job a political appointment.

His DOJ would prioritize prosecutions against abortion pill providers, immigration offenders, and criminal aliens in sanctuary jurisdictions.

He would fill the Justice Dept. and FBI with political appointees to carry out the President’s agenda, including in the Civil Rights division.

INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS (pp. 545-569)

The plan seeks to reform  intelligence agencies to conform with the President’s priorities and eliminate “woke culture” of identity politics and social justice advocacy.

It calls on the President to immediately choose a deputy CIA director who without Senate confirmation can place political appointees throughout the agency to implement the President’s agenda – a president who praises dictators and has taken Russia’s side over America’s own intelligence agencies.

The Deputy Director would also ask for briefings on all CIA activities overseas including covert actions, which could put spies lives at risk if disclosed.

It demands that Intelligence community leaders must “rectify the damage done by the actions of former IC leaders and personnel regarding the claims of Trump-Russia collusion following the 2016 election and the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop investigation...” In other words, ignore truth regarding election interference by a hostile foreign power.

Project 2025 calls for a gag order on intelligence officials.  It says the President should revoke security clearances of any former Directors, Deputy Directors, and senior intelligence officials who discuss their work in the press or on social media without prior clearance from the current Director” AND to vigorously investigate all leaks of information, even nonclassified, and fire or refer for prosecution any employee suspected of leaking information

It also calls for whistleblower protections to be rescinded that Merrick Garland had put in place, and calls for stiffer penalties and mandatory investigations when intelligence leaks target domestic political targets and would prohibit the intelligence community from monitoring domestic disinformation.  So if an intelligence official believed Trump was endangering national security by, say, sharing classified secrets with Vladimir Putin, they could do nothing without risking a prison sentence.

There would also be narrower distribution of the president’s daily briefings, which include intelligence matters.

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY

They would eliminate as many protections as possible for the LGBTQ+ community and people of color., making discrimination legal.  How? By ending:

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or DEI efforts in agencies, from the VA to the Dept. of  Labor.
• Ending data collection on race and ethnicity
• Rescinding bans on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
• Eliminating critical race theory and gender ideology from every public school
• Deleting “woke” terms such as gender identity, sexual orientation, diversity, equity and inclusion, abortion ,reproductive health, reproductive rights and more from every federal rule, regulation, grant and more, and they would
• Banning transgender ideology as pornography and charge teachers or librarians who disseminate it as sex offenders, and
• shut down technology or telecommunications firms that spread messaging that they deem pornographic or inappropriate.

TAKE AWAY WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOMS

Project 2025 sets a goal to “protect the unborn in every jurisdiction in America”(p.6) and wants the next president to work with Congress to pass the strongest abortion restrictions that Congress will pass, also taking executive actions with no regard for even the life or health of mothers. It is not pro-life to let women die.  The urgency of this issue is highlighted in this week’s Supreme Court ruling upholding a Texas ban on medical treatment for women whose lives are at risk without treatment such as after a miscarriage, or when a pregnancy is too dangerous to survive.

Project 2025 wants to allow states to impose such harsh restrictions on women and potentially, a national ban on abortions, IVF treatments and certain forms of birth control if Congress approves passage.

 It declares that abortion is not healthcare. It calls for:

• the FDA to reverse approval of abortion pills, end mail-order abortion medications, and make healthcare workers report abortion complications.
• Rescind guidelines which currently protect doctors and hospital workers who perform emergency abortions in violation of state laws, if needed to stabilize a woman’s health.
• Appoint a Special Representative for Domestic Women’s Health with a pro-life mandate.  
• The Reproductive Healthcare Access Task force would be eliminated, replaced by a Pro-Life Task Force.
• States including those women travel to for abortions would have to report to the federal government on how many abortions are performed and why, by what method, at what fetal age, what state the mother is from, and whether a pregnancy is terminated due to miscarriage, stillbirth, death of a child such as from chemotherapy, or induced abortion. States would also have to report abortion complications and any cases of a child born alive after abortion.
• Stem cell research with aborted fetal cell lines, such as those used to test COVID vaccines, would be prohibited.
• The National Institute for Health could no longer require women panelists at scientific conferences.
• Employers could opt out of providing insurance coverage for contraceptives and medical students could opt out of abortion training.
• Birth control training for women would no longer include abortion pills or condoms, but would include fertility awareness such as the rhythm method.
• Policy makers are asked to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, including Medicaid funding, even for non-abortion services.
• Medicaid funds would be withdrawn from states that penalize pro-life entities, such as pharmacies that won’t carry abortion drugs.
• Federal childcare funding will be prioritized for home-based childcare, not universal daycare.
• Head Start Funding for poor families would be ended.

VETERANS

The health of men and women who have served our country are also threatened by Project 2025. .(pp. 649-651)

• It calls for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to “privatize as much as possible” and close many hospitals and clinics. This will hurt veterans who rely on the VA’s expertise on illnesses unique to veterans.
• Veterans will also be talking to robots or chat bots instead of a live person when much of the Veterans Benefits Administration is automated

Given Trump’s disdainful treatment of veterans,  whom he’s called “suckers and losers” it is troubling to consider how this might impact veterans’ care if experts in military medical conditions are removed.  

IMMIGRATION

Trump has demonized immigrants and says he wants to deport 11 million or more, including DACA recipients who came here as children and immigrant spouses of citizens.

Project 2025 would help make mass deportations happen. It calls for:

• An end to illegal immigration and sealing the border.
• Finishing the border wall, and allowing active duty military personnel and National Guardsmen to assist in arrests at the border.
• Consolidating agencies that serve immigrants and refugees in with agencies that enforce border laws, all under a new border and immigration agency with 100,000 employees.
• Prioritizing enforcement including detention and deportation.
• Forcing state and local law enforcement to participate in immigration actions.
• The President would authorize Homeland Security and Border Patrol to use military aircraft in all 50 states and other countries
• Asking Congress to authorize up to 100,000 beds in detention facilities (p. 143).
• Allowing tents as temporary detention facilities when other facilities are full.
• Ordering ICE to take custody of all aliens with records of felonies, violent crimes, DUIs, previously removals or any crime deemed a national safety threat
• Allowing ICE to seize immigrants in “sensitive zones” currently banned, such as schools, hospitals and churches.
• Authorizing the Secretary to waive all legal requirements of Title 8 to avert or curtail a mass migration of immigrants.(p. 152)
• Taking away protections for unaccompanied minors, even trafficking victims, and allow unaccompanied children to be deported to their home countries instead of placed with family members. (p.148)
• Eliminating the Flores settlement that protected migrant children, and move the overseeing of them from  the Dept. of Health and Human Services to Homeland Security. Ban abortions for migrant children.
• Negotiating with Mexico to bring back “remain in Mexico” even though many migrants were killed, robbed and kidnapped under this policy.
• Repealing temporary protected status, such as for migrants from countries experiencing civil war or natural disasters, such as Haitians currently.
• Investigating Afghan evacuees sent to the US, which could include those who aided the US military.
• Denying federal student loans to all of a state’s students and schools, if the state offer in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
• Allowing expedited removal of migrants everywhere, not just within 100 miles of the border.
• Requiring employers to use e-Verify and make it easier to search workplaces.
• Eliminating protections for victims of gang violence, trafficking and domestic violence; these would not be grounds for asylum.
• Making the IRS report immigration status to Homeland Security.
• Restricting federal housing only to US citizens and lawful permanent residents.
• Transforming the visa program into an elite program for foreign workers with the highest skill levels and highest wages, not those with the most economic needs or seeking to join family members.
• Raising fees for those applying for expedited processing.
• Halting funds to nonprofits that transport migrants across the U.S.

EDUCATION

• “”Ultimately, the Department of Education should be eliminated.”  (p. 318) Trump has also stated this on the campaign trail.
• Oversight for education would be handed over to the states, if a conservative Congress approves. States could then use federal funding for any education purpose that state law allows.  In Louisiana, that could mean teaching the Ten Commandments.
• Some actions could be done by executive order or cabinet policy changes. These include gutting regulations that ban sex-based discrimination in schools and discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. This includes sports.
• “Critical race theory” and “gender ideology” should be removed from curricula in every public school in the country, the plan says. (page 5)
• Parents could use an education savings account funded by state and local taxpayers to send their children to faith-based schools, with no more federal funding of public schools if Project 2025’s vision is full realized.
• Student loans would be privatized, and there would be no more student loan forgiveness, not even for those in public service such as working as public defenders or as public health workers, or at Indian clinics.
• Congress should pass a Parents Bill of Rights that would let parents sue if their rights to educate their children as they see fit are violated. How much might this cost taxpayers?
• Educators should not be forced to discuss contemporary political issues( p. 343). How can you teach political science and not talk about current affairs?
• Project 2025 wants Congress to rescind the National Education Association’s charter—the teacher’s union—because it has lobbied for more education spending and for keeping schools closed during the pandemic. 
• Colleges and universities could no longer be accredited if the mandate diversity, equity and inclusion policies, or undermine religious beliefs. 

ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Trump has said he does not believe in climate change and wants to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, as Project 2025 plans to do.  It aims to “stop the war on oil and gas”  and calls for:

• More oil drilling, coal mining, and gas production including on federal lands, in the Arctic reserve, and drilling off our coastlines including California’s to the maximum possible, never mind the devastating effects of past oil spills here.
• Repeal of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, which provide subsidies to renewable energy developers, and end the Federal Energy Regulator Commission favoring renewable energy and make it easier to build gas pipelines without considering upstream or downstream effects.
• Expand nuclear power, making it easier to site nuclear power plants, build new nuclear warheads and naval nuclear reactors, increase plutonium pits, and resume nuclear bomb testing in Nevada, and reject ratification of the Test Ban Treaty.
• Eliminate carbon capture and carbon storage programs, end the focus on climate change and green subsidies, and even end energy efficiency standards for appliances.
• Oppose climate reparations to nations’  harmed by climate change
• Revamp the Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate many environmental protections
• Prohibit the EPA from doing scientific studies without Congressional authorization, and require a diversity of scientific viewpoints
•  Mae the EPA consider benefits of pesticides when deciding whether to approve them
• Eliminate the EPA;s offices of environmental justice and civil rights, public engagement, and environmental education. 
• Cut back the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program and repealing hydrofluorocarbon regulations for manufacturers that the Biden administration implemented to protect the ozone layer
• End federal mandates and subsidies for electric vehicles
• Put a political appointee in charge of EPA grants and prohibit grants to environmental advocacy groups
• Prohibit other states from adopting California’s emission standards on greenhouse gases
• Stop the International Civil Aviation Organization from increasing fuel efficiency standards on airplanes 
• Reconsider the designation of PFAS “forever” chemicals as hazardous substances ;
• Reject EPA  Research and Development activities that weren’t authorized by Congress, such as how the agency sets safe levels of certain chemicals
• Eliminate EPA regional labs and enforcement offices, which will endanger public health by giving corporations and big businesses a greenlight to pollute.
• Roll back protections for endangered species and critical habitats
• Allow hunting of wolves in 48 states and bears in Yellowstone
• Bring back bear baiting and allow killing of predators in national parks
• Ask Congress to allow killing of wild horses and burros on public lands
• Weaken the National Environmental Policy Act
• Roll back national monuments declared by Biden
• Let states choose how to use transportation grants, ie, building more instead of transit; shift to user fees such as airport landing fees, toll charges, gas taxes

HEALTHCARE

Project 2025 would drastically revamp federal health agencies and could be populated not by health professionals, but decision makers who are conspiracy theorists or even executives of chemical or pharmaceutical companies.

Regarding the pandemic, Project 2025 states, “Unaccountable bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci should never again have such broad, unchecked power to issue health guidelines that will certainly be the basis for federal and state mandates”-

The plan considers pandemic lockdowns, school closures, mask and vaccine mandates to be “overreaching.”

To prevent this in the future, it seeks to split the Centers for Disease Control into two entities, separating the gathering of scientific data from making public health recommendations or policies, which could hinder its ability to address future outbreaks.

Other responses to the pandemic include calls to:

• End enforcement of COVID-19 vaccination mandates on Medicaid and Medicare hospitals and refrain from imposing mask mandates on health care personnel 
• Pay damages to all medical professionals who were dismissed due vaccine mandates, and  
• Restrict Health and Human Services’ ability to declare indefinite public health emergencies
• Prohibit  CDC officials from being able to say that school children should be masked or vaccinated.”
• Make the CDC consider social costs such as how much risk mitigation is worth the price of shutting down churches on the holiest day of the Christian calendar” and “What is the proper balance of lives saved versus souls saved?”
• Restrict money to the World Health Organization and other international organizations that don’t embrace the view that pandemics can be tackled without impeding people’s rights

Other health agency changes include:

• Health and Human Services should have its #1 goal be to “protect life, conscience and bodily integrity” rooted in “biological realities, not ideology.”
• Make states the primary regulators of the medical profession, and let doctors charge more for Medicare and Medicaid patients.
• Raise eligibility requirements for Medicaid, impose work requirements, and a lifetime cap on benefits. It blames the deficit on Medicare and Medicaid.
• End Medicare’s ability to negotiate prescription drug prices.
• Encourage competition between Medicare Advantage and private plans

The plan also seeks to have health agencies repeal policies that don’t support marriage, such as changing adoption requirements so faith-based organizations can refuse adoption to single mothers or LGBTQ couples.

It also calls to privatize test developments and lab functions, so that the government would lose ownership of data.

MEDIA AND A FREE PRESS

Every Republican since Nixon has tried to strip funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes NPR and PBS, which includes public interest news and educational shows like Sesame Street.

To overcome Congressional opposition, Project 2025 says Trump should tell Congress he won’t sign the appropriations spending bill if it contains a penny for public broadcasting, holding the national budget hostage unless public broadcasting is defunded.

Project 2025 also aims to have the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yank exemption from licensing fees for NPR,  PBS and other noncommercial educational stations such as Pacific and locally, KNSJ.

In addition it seeks to reform the US Agency for Global Media from top to bottom, bring it under control of the National Security Council or State Department, have it serve American interests as conservatives define this and if they don’t, defund and disestablish these global American media outlets.

Trump has threatened to jail even members of the corporate media he doesn’t like, such as debate moderators and journalists who asked him tough questions, and to eliminate broadcast licenses for networks such as ABC and CBS. This should terrify us all.

MILITARY

Project 2025 aims to restore warfighting as the military’s sole mission but also calls for the military to support border protection operations. The Coast Guard would be moved to the Department of Defense.

Military recruiters would have access to students in secondary schools, and students in all schools that receive federal funding would have to complete the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, the military test.

Other military goals are to:

• Discharge LGBTQ+ military members, which the plan refers to as “suffering from gender dysphoria” and ban new LGBTQ+ recruits.
• End funding for abortions or transgender surgeries for military members.
• Reinstate service members discharged for refusing the COVID vaccine, restore their ranks and provide back pay.
• The plan hints at restoring the draft, stating,” “The Army no longer reflects national demographics to the degree that it did before 1974 when the draft was eliminated.”
• Expand the US arsenal and readiness to test nuclear weapons, with enough nukes to deter both Russia and China simultaneously.
• Remove from military academies any teaching of critical race theory, diversity, equity or inclusion.
• Reduce US forces in Europe to have NATO allies field most conventional forces and NATO rely on the US primarily for our nuclear deterrent.

HOUSING 

Ultimately the plan seeks to abolish the  Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and get the federal government out of the housing loan business.

• The FHA,  which provides loans for many first-time buyers, would increase the mortgage insurance premium for any mortgages longer than 20 years before ultimately being shut down.
• Eligibility for first-time homebuyers would be restricted and the federal authority’s obligation for single-family housing programs abandoned. The New Housing Supply Fund would be eliminated.
• Rental assistance programs would require most tenants to work and limit how long they are eligible for housing benefits.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would be taken apart and much of its work sent to states or other agencies – bad news for low income and working-class families who rely on its already meager help.  And Project 2025 wants Congress to reconsider the public housing model altogether. 
• Noncitizens and mixed status families would be banned from living in federally assisted housing.
• Housing first policies for the homeless would end. So would housing programs perceived as anti-marriage.

LABOR

They’re coming after labor unions and workers’ protections, too.  The plan aims to have the president declare public unions illegal and take away union rights including collective bargaining.  Some agencies could lose unions right away via executive action based on national security grounds, such as at the Department of Justice, the TSA and FEMA, which handles emergencies such as wildfires.

In addition, Project 2025 wants to:

• Slash the Dept. of Labor’s budget to the low end of the historical average, limit health and safety inspections to only the worst offenders, and hire as many political appointees as possible.
• Retract labor regulations supporting a ”woke” agenda including diversity, equity and inclusion policies, racial quotas, collecting statistics on race or ethnicity by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and protection based on sexual orientation or transgender status.
• Have Trump issue an executive order protecting religious employers and religious employees, allowing them to discrimination based on their religious views.
• Pass a law clarifying that employers can deny any accommodations for abortions.
• Make it easier for workers to decertify unions and harder to form new unions at businesses; some of this will require Congressional approval.
• Have Trump to issue executive orders to renegotiate all union collective bargaining agreements for public unions; Congress should consider whether public sector unions are appropriate or not.
• Congress should require most  workers to be paid extra for working on the Sabbath because “God ordained the Sabbath’s day of rest.”
• End Project Labor Agreements for public construction projects and make these bids go to contractors who can deliver the best product at the cheapest cost.
• Ask Congress to repeal the Davis-Bason Act and let markets determine market wages.
• Require that all federal contractors hire at least 70% US citizens and increases that to 95% in 10 years.
• Cap and phase out visa programs for foreign workers.
• Exempt small businesses and first-time,non-willful violators from OSHA fines for safety issues.
• Let teens work in dangerous jobs, with parental consent and training.
• Limit overtime for teleworkers and exempt home offices from OSHA requirements.
• Prohibit worker retirement savings investors from considering environmental or social concerns and require that investing be based only on risks and returns.

AGRICULTURE AND FOOD PROGRAMS SUCH AS SNAP AND SCHOOL LUNCHES

As for Agriculture, and the food we eat, here are some changes proposed:

• Reduce crop subsidies and make farmers pay more for crop insurance
• Repeal federal dietary guidelines
• Repeal labeling requirements for genetically modified foods, as obstacles to the biotech industry
• Impose work requirements for SNAP, or food stamps, for able-bodied recipients as young as 16
• Make it harder for students to qualify for school lunches
• Get rid of baby formula labeling regulations and allow competitive bidding for infant formula contracts
• Remove all climate-smart agricultural practices references from the US Department of Agriculture’s website and withdraw the US from United Nations efforts to promote sustainable agricultural practices
• Let meat inspected by states to be sold nationwide
• Repeal export promotion programs
• Encourage robotic farm equipment to replace farmworker jobs.
• Eliminate the Conservation Reserve program for farmers
• Increase timber sales from federal forests, and make it easier to clear forests to reduce wildfires

FOREIGN POLICY

Project 2025 calls for big changes in foreign policy.  It states that at the State Dept, “No one in a leadership position on the morning of January 20 should hold that position at the end of the day.”

It would:

• Place State Dept. appointees directly into roles through the department including foreign service and civil service personnel, pending Senate confirmation.
• Have President Trump accept resignations of all political ambassadors worldwide and reassess all career ambassadors.
• Freeze all ongoing treaty and international agreements.
• Rescind all climate policies from foreign aid programs, shut down the USAID’s Climate Strategy Office and withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.
• Dismantle USAID’s DEI agenda,  rename the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment office and install a pro-life political appointee as Senior Coordinator of Women, Children and Families.
• Impose a gag order on issues on which the White House wants to be the primary or only voice.
• Issue a new pro-life executive order to protect life in foreign assistance. Prohibit US finds to any organizations that won’t support a pro-life and anti-LGBTQ agenda. 
• Stop promoting policies supporting abortion and pro-LGBTQ policies in Africa. Change policies away from humanitarian aid for Africa and toward free market systems.
• Declare Mexico is no longer a first-world nation due to control by cartels; next administration must take all steps to support restoring Mexico as a full sovereign Mexico.
• Push to boost energy production in Central and South America.
• Consider withdrawing or ending funding for the World Health Organization, United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, and UN Relief and Works Agency.
• Appoint a Chief Advisor for International Religious Freedom and condition funding on religious freedom.
• Cut humanitarian aid and rely on local faith-based entities instead of the UN andnonprofits.
• Shift to foreign aid led by the private sector in the Middle East and Africa
• Strengthen free markets in Latin America

CIVIL RIGHTS AND TRANSPARENCY

Last but not least, Project 2025 would make it harder for you to know what your government is going, taking away important tools for transparency.

It would disband advisory boards and working groups in which the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)  officers currently participate, and  they would no longer issue bulletins or periodicals to keep the public informed about your rights and liberties.

Election integrity is also at risk, given Trump’s prior well-documented efforts to have Vice President Mike Pence certify a slate of fake electors different than the electoral results certified and submitted by all 50 governors. Pence refused to do so,  but Trump’s VP nominee J.D. Vance has said he would have certified those false electors – raising concerns that he would do so in the future, making it impossible to seat the winner voted for by the American people and the electoral college, an action that potentially kick the election to the Supreme Court to decide.

It is not partisan to warn of threats to our democracy. That’s why such staunch conservative Republicans as former Vice President Dick Cheney and many of Trump’s own former cabinet officials , generals, and national security officers have said he is unfit to serve a second term.

There is one way to stop Project 2025 from dismantling our democratic institutions—and that’s through your votes for president and members of Congress who can support or thwart portions of the next president.

Vote wisely --whether you support a major party candidate, a third party candidate, or withhold your vote in key races--or you may not have the opportunity to do so again.