Kevin J. Maynard

WHAT: President Trump issued two new Executive Orders (EOs) on April 15 and April 16, 2025, focused on federal procurement streamlining. The April 15 EO, entitled “Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement,” is intended to “create the most agile, effective, and efficient procurement system possible” by revising the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to ensure that it contains “only provisions required by statute or essential to sound procurement.”

WHAT: FedRAMP has announced that it will be working on a new framework for authorization and assessment of cloud services for federal consumption, calling the initiative “FedRAMP 20X” (announcement here). In response to concerns from cloud service providers (CSPs) and other stakeholders that the existing FedRAMP process is too expensive, time-consuming, and challenging, FedRAMP 20X aims to improve the efficiency of the FedRAMP process by “transitioning away from costly, inefficient, manually compiled documentation and towards industry-led, data-driven security reporting.”

WHAT: The Trump Administration’s ongoing effort to rein in government spending continues with the issuance of an Executive Order (EO) aimed at consolidating federal procurement authority in the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The EO also seeks to eliminate duplicative government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs) for the acquisition of information technology (IT) and other “common goods and services” that are procured government-wide and identified in categories previously established by the Category Management Leadership Council led by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

On February 26, 2025, the Trump Administration issued a new Executive Order (EO) that will significantly impact existing and new government contracts and grants.

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) branch that oversees False Claims Act (FCA) investigations affirmed the Trump Administration’s commitment to pursue civil fraud cases as part of its focus on achieving governmental efficiency and eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse. Speaking at a national conference last week, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Granston confirmed that DOJ plans to continue enforcing the False Claims Act “aggressively” under the new Administration. In particular, he highlighted the statute as a “powerful” enforcement mechanism against entities that try to evade new import tariffs.

The Trump Administration and its newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been taking unprecedented actions affecting federal contractors. Initially, agencies were directed to “freeze” or “pause” funding, which resulted in the issuance of stop work orders. More recently, agencies have begun terminating contracts for convenience. In this webinar, a team from Wiley and Baker Tilly will provide contractors with practical guidance on what to do in the event of a stop work order or termination, including best practices for preparing and negotiating termination settlement proposals.