On March 27, 2025, citing priorities to reduce agency budget costs and eliminate redundancy among sub-agencies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would be undergoing a significant restructuring, including cutting 20,000 jobs largely from public health agencies. 

On March 14, 2025, in a late Friday decision, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that, for the time being, the Trump Administration is permitted to enforce Executive Orders (EOs) 14151 (Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing) and 14173 (Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity), which prohibit Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) (also referred to as Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, or DEIA in the EOs) efforts within the federal government and by federal contractors, respectively.

Almost immediately upon taking office, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders that signaled a seismic shift in federal policy on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and/or Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA).