This executive order sets forth a new process for federal grant making with respect to discretionary awards. It requires each agency head to appoint a senior appointee (an individual appointed by the president and a non-career member of the Senior Executive Service or a Senior Level, Scientific and Professional, or Grade 15 position in Schedule C of the excepted service) who shall be responsible for creating a process to review new funding opportunity announcements, and to review discretionary grants to ensure that they are consistent with agency priorities and the national interest. Discretionary awards must demonstrably advance the president’s policy priorities and must be given to a broad range of recipients rather than a select few. Awards cannot be used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize or facilitate racial preferences or other forms of racial discrimination by the grant recipient; denial by the grant recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic; illegal immigration; or any other initiatives that compromise public safety or promote anti-American values.

The order also directs each agency head to review the agency’s standard grant terms and conditions to determine whether they allow termination for convenience and to include terms in all future discretionary grants that will permit immediate termination for convenience, or clarify that such termination is permitted, including if the award no longer advances agency priorities or the national interests.