As we are making our way into 2025, the landscape of U.S. trade policy has seen numerous shifts with the Trump Administration. One of the first major actions taken by President Trump was signing the America First Trade Policy Executive Order in January 2025. This executive order aims to prioritize American interests in global trade. This order also explicitly addresses the Buy American Act (BAA) and will most likely have an impact on the Trade Agreements Act (TAA). These executive actions mark a new era in trade policy. Let’s dive in and provide a bit of a refresher on the differences between BAA and TAA and how they tie together with the previous and new administration.

DOGE has become a staple term in the news lately—the Trump Administration recently released an Executive Order (EO) implementing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Cost Efficiency Initiative. The order seeks to transform federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans to ensure there’s transparency and accountability. This EO further establishes and adds structure to the first order published for DOGE, “Establishing and Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency”, as well as proposes significant changes to the federal grant and contracting processes.

You probably clicked on this article because you’re worried about the future of your GSA Schedule contract, or maybe you’re looking to get a contract soon but aren’t sure if you should. We know the last month or so has been full of changes within the federal government, and you may have heard about contract terminations and federal workforce cuts. These things can’t be completely avoided, but what we need to focus on is the fact that the government is still and will always be buying. Priorities and spending habits will change, but the government can’t source the pens to sign those Executive Orders (EOs) from just anywhere. There are rules and regulations in place before agencies can acquire essential goods and services.

With the new administration in full swing now, we are all navigating a slew of changes from Executive Orders, to new regulations, and spending habits. One change we are seeing affecting contractors right away is the government terminating a specific task or delivery order through GSA Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) and other contract vehicles, as part of the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) initiative to cut spending. Why does this happen and when could it happen to you? It’s important to plan for all different types of scenarios with your federal contracts so you aren’t caught off guard and know how to handle each situation. Here’s what you need to know about order terminations and settlements.

In the past year, we’ve seen several changes to government contracting regulations that affect small businesses specifically, including updates from the Small Business Administration (SBA) and amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS). Many of these changes benefit small business government contractors by increasing their government contracting opportunities and streamlining the acquisition processes.

There are a lot of burning questions surrounding the buyout Trump offered to the federal workforce, like: how many employees will accept, or will we see major dips in retention? While there’s still more change to come, let’s focus on what we’ve seen with federal workforce attrition rates in the past, and what it looks like so far under the Trump Administration.