Potential Priorities among the IC and Civilian Agencies under the Trump Administration

This week’s article continues last week's analysis of Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise: Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, where potential emerging priorities under the new administration were discussed for health-centric agencies. In rooting around the document under the intelligence community (IC) and other civilian agency sections, I found a few recommendations listed in Project 2025 that could materialize under a second Trump presidency and affect contractors.

Sample IT elements at the IC and civilian agencies:

• IC: Implement a real-time identity management system with real-time audit that electronically flags unauthorized access
• IC: Require a review of post-quantum encryption progress for at least IC and DOD systems.
• IC: Direct IARPA and S&T focus on challenging technology problems without duplicating private sector efforts in areas such as defense cyber intelligence and AI.
• Treasury: Conduct a review of IT contracts under the IRS Integrated Modernization Business Plan with an oversight board of private sector IT experts to update the management and cost-effectiveness of the project. (In fact, TIGTA recently released Report Number: 2025-208-008 related to the matter)  
  • Treasury: Increase operating budget of the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate but at least 20% (about $44M) focused solely on IT modernization provided IT management is changed.

Sample reorganization priorities at civilian agencies that may impact contractors current or future state of opportunities:

• Justice: Consolidate DOJ’s HR, legal counsel, public relations and other related components and offices.
• Education: Eliminate department with the redistribution of responsibilities and activities to other agencies such as Labor, Commerce and NSF. (There are rumors of a draft EO on the matter. Additionally, the new Education Secretary was vocal about the department’s elimination in her welcome speech)
• Treasury: Merge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Federal Reserve to streamline banking and supervision. (The new administration has begun reorganization of some of these entities under EO 14217)
• Treasury: Eliminate the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and revert those activities to the private sector.

Sample acquisition and contractor implications at the Department of Labor:

• Mandate that all new federal contracts require at least 70% of contractor’s employees to be U.S. citizens, with percentage increasing to 95% over a 10-year period.
• Businesses that commit visa fraud cannot receive federal spending.

Keep in mind that as the Trump Administration agenda continues to unfold, assessing early actions (such as executive orders, memos, agency leadership statements) and potential policy influencers (such as emerging legislation and Project 2025 agency-level recommendations) may help contractors begin to understand where future budget priorities may lie. After the agency RIFs and reorganization plans and contracting reviews are complete, where should contractors be watching for potential opportunities and challenges? (As a reminder: this consideration of Project 2025 is purely exploratory and Deltek does not endorse or validate its recommendations as definitive or final. We are committed to basing our analysis on a comprehensive review of multiple, available resources and data.)

Continue to track details on the new administration under GovWin’s First 100 Days Resource Center.