Mandate for Leadership

The Conservative Promise

Project 2025

PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PROJECT

ISBN: 978-0-89195-174-2

Mandate for Leadership

The Conservative Promise

Foreword by Kevin D. Roberts, PhD Edited by Paul Dans and Steven Groves

SECTION 1: TAKING THE REINS OF GOVERNMENT .. ie

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS... ; THE PROJECT 2025 ADVISORY BOARD

THE 2025 PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PROJECT: A NOTE ON “PROJECT 2025”

AUTHORS. CONTRIBUTORS

FOREWORD: A PROMISE TO AMERICA Kevin D. Roberts, PhD

WHITE HOUSE OFFICE Rick Dearborn

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Russ Vought

CENTRAL PERSONNEL AGENCIES: MANAGING THE BUREAUCRACY. - Donald Devine, Dennis Dean Kirk, and Paul Dans

SECTION 2: THE COMMON DEFENSE

4.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Christopher Miller

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Ken Cuccinelli

DEPARTMENT OF STATE..... Kiron K. Skinner

INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY Dustin J. Carmack MEDIA AGENCIES

U.S. AGENCY FOR GLOBAL MEDIA... eer Mora Namdar CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING .... Mike Gonzalez

AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Max Primorac

23

43

69

246

253

SECTION 3: THE GENERAL WELFARE

10. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Daren Bakst

11. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION... Lindsey M. Burke

12. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND RELATED COMMISSIONS Bernard L. McNamee

13. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Mandy M. Gunasekara

14. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Roger Severino

15. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., MD

16. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR William Perry Pendley

17. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Gene Hamilton

18. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND RELATED AGENCIES .. Jonathan Berry

19. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION. Diana Furchtgott-Roth

20. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Brooks D. Tucker

283 289

319

363

417

449

545

641

SECTION 4: THE ECONOMY

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Thomas F. Gilman

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY William L. Walton, Stephen Moore, and David R. Burton EXPORT-IMPORT BANK

THE EXPORT-IMPORT BANK SHOULD BE ABOLISHED

Veronique de Rugy

THE CASE FOR THE EXPORT-IMPORT BANK

Jennifer Hazelton

FEDERAL RESERVE... Paul Winfree

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Karen Kerrigan TRADE

THE CASE FOR FAIR TRADE... Peter Navarro

THE CASE FOR FREE TRADE..... Kent Lassman

SECTION 5: INDEPENDENT REGULATORY AGENCIES

27.

28.

29.

30.

FINANCIAL REGULATORY AGENCIES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION AND RELATED AGENCIES David R. Burton CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU .... Robert Bowes

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Brendan Carr

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION Hans A. von Spakovsky

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ... Adam Candeub

ONWARD! Edwin J. Feulner

657 663

691

717 717

724

745

Acknowledgments

his work, Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise, is a col-

lective effort of hundreds of volunteers who have banded together in the

spirit of advancing positive change for America. Our work is by no means the comprehensive compendium of conservative policies, nor is our group the exclusive cadre of conservative thinkers. The ideas expressed in this volume are not necessarily shared by all. What unites us is the drive to make our country better.

First and foremost, we thank the chapter authors and contributors who gave so freely of their time in service of their country.

We were particularly grateful to have the help of dedicated members of The Heritage Foundation’s management and policy teams. Executive Vice President Derrick Morgan, Chief of Staff Wesley Coopersmith, Associate Director of Project 2025 Spencer Chretien, and Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies Director Paul Ray devoted a significant amount of their valuable time to reviewing and editing the lengthy manuscript and provided expert advice and insight.

The job of transforming the work of dozens of authors and hundreds of contributors into a cohesive manuscript fell upon Heritage’s formidable team of editors led by Director of Research Editors Therese Pennefather, Senior Editor William T. Poole, Marla Hess, Jessica Lowther, Karina Rollins, and Kathleen Scaturro, without whose tireless efforts you would not be reading these words. The talented work of Data Graphics Services Manager John Fleming, Manager of Web Development and Print Projects Jay Simon, Director of Marketing Elizabeth Fender, Senior Graphic Designer Grace Desandro, and Senior Designer Melissa Bluey came together to bring the volume to life. We also thank the dedicated junior staff who provided immeasurable assistance, especially Jordan Embree, Sarah Calvis, and Jonathan Moy.

Most important, we are grateful to the leadership, supporters, and donors of each of the Project 2025 advisory board member organizations and those of The Heritage Foundation, without whom Project 2025 would not be possible.

Thank you.

Paul Dans & Steven Groves

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The Project 2025 Advisory Board

Alabama Policy Institute

Alliance Defending Freedom

American Compass

The American Conservative

America First Legal Foundation American Accountability Foundation American Center for Law and Justice American Cornerstone Institute American Council of Trustees and Alumni American Legislative Exchange Council The American Main Street Initiative American Moment

American Principles Project

Center for Equal Opportunity

Center for Family and Human Rights Center for Immigration Studies

Center for Renewing America Claremont Institute

Coalition for a Prosperous America Competitive Enterprise Institute Conservative Partnership Institute Concerned Women for America Defense of Freedom Institute

Ethics and Public Policy Center

Family Policy Alliance

Family Research Council

First Liberty Institute

Forge Leadership Network

Foundation for Defense of Democracies Foundation for Government Accountability FreedomWorks

The Heritage Foundation

Hillsdale College

Honest Elections Project

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Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

Independent Women’s Forum Institute for the American Worker Institute for Energy Research Institute for Women’s Health Intercollegiate Studies Institute James Madison Institute

Keystone Policy

The Leadership Institute

Liberty University

National Association of Scholars National Center for Public Policy Research Pacific Research Institute

Patrick Henry College

Personnel Policy Operations

Recovery for America Now Foundation 1792 Exchange

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Texas Public Policy Foundation

Teneo Network

Young America’s Foundation

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The 2025 Presidential Transition Project

A NOTE ON “PROJECT 2025”

e want you! The 2025 Presidential Transition Project is the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative Administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025. Welcome to the mission. By opening this book, you are now a part of it. Indeed, one set of eyes reading these passages will be those of the 47th President of the United States, and we hope every other reader will join in making the incoming Admin- istration a success.

History teaches that a President’s power to implement an agendais at its apex during the Administration’s opening days. To execute requires a well-conceived, coordinated, unified plan and a trained and committed cadre of personnel to implement it. In recent election cycles, presidential candidates normally began transition planning in the late spring of election year or even after the party’s nomination was secured. That is too late. The federal government’s complexity and growth advance at a seemingly logarithmic rate every four years. For conservatives to have a fighting chance to take on the Adminis- trative State and reform our federal government, the work must start now. The entirety of this effort is to support the next conservative President, whoever he or she may be.

In the winter of 1980, the fledging Heritage Foundation handed to President-elect Ronald Reagan the inaugural Mandate for Leadership. This collective work by conser- vative thought leaders and former government hands—most of whom were not part of Heritage—set out policy prescriptions, agency by agency for the incoming President. The book literally put the conservative movement and Reagan on the same page, and the revolution that followed might never have been, save for this band of committed and volunteer activists. With this volume, we have gone back to the future—and then some.

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Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

It’s not 1980. In 2023, the game has changed. The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before. The task at hand to reverse this tide and restore our Republic to its original moorings is too great for any one conservative policy shop to spearhead. It requires the collective action of our movement. With the quickening approach of January 2025, we have two years and one chance to get it right.

Project 2025 is more than 50 (and growing) of the nation’s leading conservative organizations joining forces to prepare and seize the day. The axiom goes “person- nel is policy,” and we need a new generation of Americans to answer the call and come to serve. This book is functionally an invitation for you the reader—Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith, and Ms. Smith—to come to Washington or support those who can. Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State.

The project is built on four pillars.

e = Pillar I—this volume—puts in one place a consensus view of how major federal agencies must be governed and where disagreement exists brackets out these differences for the next President to choose a path.

e Pillar IT is a personnel database that allows candidates to build their own professional profiles and our coalition members to review and voice their recommendations. These recommendations will then be collated and shared with the President-elect’s team, greatly streamlining the appointment process.

e Pillar IIT is the Presidential Administration Academy, an online educational system taught by experts from our coalition. For the newcomer, this will explain how the government functions and how to function in government. For the experienced, we will host in-person seminars with advanced training and set the bar for what is expected of senior leadership.

e In Pillar [TV—the Playbook—we are forming agency teams and drafting tran- sition plans to move out upon the President’s utterance of “so help me God.”

As Americans living at the approach of our nation’s 250th birthday, we have been given much. As conservatives, we are as much required to steward this precious heritage for the next generation. On behalf of our coalition partners, we thank you and invite you to come join with us at project2025.org.

Paul Dans Director, Project 2025

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Authors

Daren Bakst is Deputy Director, Center for Energy and Environment, and Senior

Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CED. Before joining CEI, Daren

was a Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, where he played a lead- ing role in the launch of the organization’s new energy and environmental center. For a decade, he led Heritage’s food and agricultural policy work, and he edited and

co-authored Heritage’s book Farms and Free Enterprise. He has testified numerous

times before Congress, has appeared frequently on media outlets, and has played

leadership roles in such organizations such as the Federalist Society, American

Agricultural Law Association, and Food and Drug Law Institute (serving on the

Food and Drug Law Journat’s editorial advisory board).

Jonathan Berry is managing partner at Boyden Gray & Associates PLLC. He

served as acting Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, overseeing all aspects of rulemaking and policy development. At the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice, he assisted with the development of regulatory policy and with

the nominations of Justice Neil Gorsuch and dozens of other judges. He previ- ously served as Chief Counsel for the Trump transition and earlier clerked for Associate Justice Samuel Alito and Judge Jerry Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals

for the Fifth Circuit. He is a graduate of Yale College and Columbia University School of Law.

Lindsey M. Burke is Director of the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. Burke served on Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s transition steering committee and landing team for education. She serves on the Board of Visitors for George Mason University, the board of the Educational Free- dom Institute, and the advisory board of the Independent Women’s Forum’s Education Freedom Center. Dr. Burke’s research has been published in such journals as Social Science Quarterly, Educational Research and Evaluation, and Research in Educational Administration and Leadership. She holds a BA from Hollins University, an MA from the University of Virginia, and a PhD from George Mason University.

David R. Burton is Senior Fellow in Economic Policy in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He focuses on securities regulation, tax policy, business law, entrepreneurship, administra- tive law, financial privacy, the U.S. Department of Commerce, corporate welfare,

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

international investment, international information sharing, the U.S. economic relationship with China, and climate-related financial risk. Previously, Burton was General Counsel at the National Small Business Association; a partner in the Argus Group; Vice President, Finance, and General Counsel for New England Machinery; and manager of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Tax Policy Center. He holds a JD from the University of Maryland School of Law and a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Adam Candeub is a professor of law at Michigan State University. His scholarly

research focuses on telecommunication, antitrust, and Internet issues. He served

as acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Deputy Associate Attorney Gen- eral at the Justice Department during the Trump Administration. He received his

BA magna cum laude from Yale University and his JD magna cum laude from the

University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Dustin J. Carmack is Research Fellow for Cybersecurity, Intelligence, and Emerg- ing Technologies in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage

Foundation. Previously, he served in the Intelligence Community as Chief of Staff to the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe. In Congress, he served

as Chief of Staff to Congressman John Ratcliffe (TX-04) and Congressman Ron

DeSantis (FL-06). Mr. Carmack studied at Truman State University in Missouri

and Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Brendan Carr has nearly 20 years of private-sector and public-sector experience in communications and tech policy. He currently serves as the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission. Prior to this role, Carr served as the Federal Communication Commission’s General Counsel. Earlier, he worked as an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP. Previously, he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After graduating from Georgetown University, he earned his JD magna cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where he served as an editor of the Catholic Univer- sity Law Review.

Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., MD, is Founder and Chairman of the American Corner- stone Institute and previously served as the 17th Secretary of the U.S. Department

of Housing and Urban Development. Born in Detroit to a single mother with a

third-grade education, Dr. Carson was raised to love reading and education. He

attended Yale and earned his MD from the University of Michigan Medical School. For nearly 30 years, Dr. Carson served as Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at

the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, where he performed the first separation of twins conjoined at the back of the head.

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2025 Presidential Transition Project

Ken Cuccinelli served as Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2019 and then, from November 2019 through the end of the Trump Administration, as Acting Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. During his tenure as Acting Deputy Secretary, Ken also served as the Chief Regulatory Officer for the Department of Homeland Security. He also has served the Commonwealth of Virginia, first as a state senator and then as Virginia’s 46th Attorney General.

Rick Dearborn served as Deputy Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump and

was responsible for the day-to-day operations of five separate departments of the

Executive Office of the President. He also served as Executive Director of the 2016

President-elect Donald Trump transition team. Before that, Rick served in several

roles, including as Chief of Staff, in the office of then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions

(R-AL) for nearly two decades. Between his two tours in Senator Sessions’ office, he was appointed by President George W. Bush as Assistant Secretary of Energy for

Congressional Affairs. Earlier in his career, Rick worked for the National Repub- lican Senatorial Committee, the Senate Republican Conference, and the Senate

Steering Committee. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BA in Public Administration and a minor in economics.

Veronique de Rugy is the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and Senior

Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a nation- ally syndicated columnist. Her primary research interests include the U.S. economy, the federal budget, taxation, tax competition, and cronyism. De Rugy is the author

of a weekly opinion column for the Creators Syndicate, writes regular columns

for Reason magazine, and blogs about economics at National Review Online’s The

Corner. She received her MA in economics from the Paris Dauphine University and

her PhD in economics from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Donald Devine is Senior Scholar at The Fund for American Studies in Washington, DC. He was President Ronald Reagan’s first-term Office of Personnel Management Director when The Washington Post labeled him “Reagan’s Terrible Swift Sword of the Civil Service” for cutting bureaucracy and reducing spending by billions of dol- lars. He was a professor at the University of Maryland and Bellevue University and is acolumnist and author of 10 books, including his recent The Enduring Tension.

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, an Oxford-educated economist, directs the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation and is adjunct professor of economics at George Washington University. Diana served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Trans- portation, where she directed the Department’s $1.2 billion research budget; the

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Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

Office of Positioning, Navigation and Timing and Spectrum Management; and the University Transportation Center program. Diana worked in senior roles in the White House under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, where she was Chief of Staff of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Thomas F. Gilman served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration

and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Trump

Administration. Currently, he is a Director of ACLJ Action and Chairman of Torn- gat Metals. Tom is the former CEO of Chrysler Financial and has had a 40-plus year career as a senior executive and entrepreneur in the global automotive industry, including roles at Chrysler Corporation, Cerberus Capital Management, Asbury Automotive Group, TD Auto Finance, and Automotive Capital Services. He holds

a BS in finance from Villanova University.

Mandy M. Gunasekara of Oxford, Mississippi, is a principal at Section VII Strat- egies, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum, and Visiting Fellow in the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foun- dation. During the Trump Administration, Mandy served as the Chief of Staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation. She previously served in numer- ous roles at the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, including as Majority Counsel for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under Chair- man Jim Inhofe. She received her BA from Mississippi College and her JD from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Gene Hamilton is Vice-President and General Counsel of America First Legal Foun- dation. Gene served as Counselor to the Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice; Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security; General Counsel on

the Senate Committee on the Judiciary; Assistant Chief Counsel at U.S. Immigration

and Customs Enforcement; and as an Attorney Advisor in the Secretary’s Honors

Program for Attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security. Gene graduated

from the Washington and Lee University School of Law magna cum laude and Order

of the Coif and has a BA in international affairs from the University of Georgia.

Jennifer Hazelton has worked as a senior strategic consultant for the Depart- ment of Defense in Industrial Base Policy and has held senior positions at USAID, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and the State Department. She was also acommunications director in the U.S. Congress and worked as an award-win- ning journalist for CNN and Fox News Channel. Hazelton holds an MA in business administration from Emory University and earned her BA from the Univer- sity of Georgia.

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2025 Presidential Transition Project

Karen Kerrigan is President and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council and has helped to strengthen U.S. entrepreneurship and global business growth for 28 years. She has provided counsel across the globe via training missions focused on entrepreneurial development, effective advocacy, policy formation, and implementation. Karen testifies regularly before Congress and has served on numerous federal advisory boards representing the interests of entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Dennis Dean Kirk is Associate Director for Personnel Policy with the 2025 Pres- idential Transition Project at The Heritage Foundation. Born and raised in Kansas, he graduated with honors from Northern Arizona University and Washburn Uni- versity Law School. Dennis has over 45 years of experience in private law and

public federal government counsel services. He served in President George Bush’s

Administration in the U.S. Army’s Office of General Counsel and later as Associate

General Counsel for Strategic Integration and Business Transformation, where

he was recognized with the Exceptional Civilian and Meritorious Civilian Service

Awards and other awards. During the Trump Administration, Dennis served in

senior positions at the Office of Personnel Management and was nominated by President Trump to be Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Kent Lassman is President and CEO of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Educated at the Catholic University of America and North Carolina State Univer- sity, he has written on telecommunications, privacy, environmental, antitrust, and consumer protection regulation as well as trade policy and the design of regulatory systems. Kent’s policy research and advocacy have taken him to 45 state capitals, more than a dozen countries, and deep into the heart of the federal regulatory state.

Bernard L. McNamee is an energy and regulatory attorney with a major law firm and was formerly a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He is also the Street Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the Appalachian School of Law. In addition to serving as a Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner, McNamee has served in various senior policy and legal positions throughout his career, including at the U.S. Department of Energy, for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, and for Virginia Governor George Allen. McNamee also served four attorneys general in two states (Virginia and Texas).

Christopher Miller served in several positions during the Trump Administration, including as Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense, Director of the National Counter- terrorism Center, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism and Trans- national Threats at the National Security Council. Before his civilian service in the

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Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

Department of Defense, Miller was an Army Green Beret in the 5th Special Forces Group with multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, achieving the rank of colonel. Miller earned a BA from George Washington University and an MA from the Naval War College. He also graduated from the College of Naval Command and Staff and the Army War College.

Stephen Moore is a conservative economist and author. He is currently a senior economist at FreedomWorks, a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and a Fox News analyst. From 2005 to 2014, Moore served as the senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial page and as amember of the Journals editorial board. He still contributes regularly to the Journal's editorial page. He is a frequent lecturer to business investment and university audiences around the world on the U.S. economic and political outlook in Washington, DC.

Mora Namdar is an attorney and Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. She speaks fluent Farsi and is an expert on U.S. national security, human rights, global communications, the Middle East, and international law. Mora served as senior advisor for critical issues at the U.S. State Department and was appointed by President Donald Trump to perform the duties of the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs. She also served as Vice President of Legal, Compliance, and Risk at the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Peter Navarro holds a PhD in economics from Harvard and was one of only three senior White House officials to serve with Donald Trump from the 2016 campaign to the end of the President’s first term. He was the West Wing’s chief China hawk and trade czar and served as Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy and Defense Production Act Policy Coordinator. His books include The Coming China Wars (2006); Death by China (2011); Crouching Tiger (2015); and his White House memoirs Jn Trump Time (2021) and Taking Back Trump’s America (2022). His top-rated Taking Back Trump’s America podcast appears on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

William Perry Pendley was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He earned a BA and

an MA from George Washington University, was a U.S. Marine Corps captain, and

earned his JD from the University of Wyoming College of Law. He was an attorney

on Capitol Hill, a senior official for President Ronald Reagan, and leader of the

Bureau of Land Management for President Donald Trump. For 30 years, he was

president of Mountain States Legal Foundation where he argued and won cases

before the Supreme Court of the United States. He authored five books, includ- ing Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today.

2025 Presidential Transition Project

Max Primorac is Director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He was acting Chief Operating Officer and Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Previously he was deputy director of Iraq’s reconstruction program at the U.S. Department of State anda senior adviser in the Office of the Secretary. Max was educated at Franklin and Marshall College and the University of Chicago.

Roger Severino is Vice President of Domestic Policy at The Heritage Founda- tion. As director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2017 to 2021, he led a team of more than 250 staff enforcing civil rights, conscience, and health information privacy laws. Roger sub- sequently founded the HHS Accountability Project at the Ethics & Public Policy Center. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School, an MA in public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and a BA from the University of Southern California.

Kiron K. Skinner is President and CEO of the Foundation for America and the World, Taube Professor of International Relations and Politics at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a Visiting Fellow and Senior Advisor at The Heritage Foundation. Skinner served as Director of Policy Planning and Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of State from 2018 to 2019 and was a member of the Defense Business Board at the U.S. Department of Defense in 2020. Skinner holds an MA and a PhD in political science from Harvard University and undergraduate degrees from Spelman College and Sacramento City College.

Brooks D. Tucker served in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as Assis- tant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs from 2017 to 2021 and as Acting Chief of Staff from 2020 to 2021. He helped to craft the policy frame- work for President-elect Trump’s transition team and served as the Senior Policy Adviser for National Security and Veterans Affairs to Senator Richard Burr from 2010 to 2015. A retired Marine lieutenant colonel, Brooks served in Afghanistan, Iraq, North Africa, the Caucasus, and the Western Pacific. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course, and Marine Corps Command and Staff College and holds a Certificate in Legislative Studies from Georgetown University.

Hans A. von Spakovsky is Senior Legal Fellow and Manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative in the Edwin Meese Center III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He is a former member of President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. From 2006 to 2007, von

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Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

Spakovsky was a Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission. He served as career Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US. Department of Justice from 2002 to 2005.

Russ Vought is Founder and President of the Center for Renewing America. A longtime conservative leader on Capitol Hill, Russ served in President Trump’s

Cabinet as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, where he oversaw

the implementation of the presidential budget, key policies on deregulation, and

a landmark effort to eliminate critical race theory and other radical ideologies in

executive agencies. Prior to his White House service, Russ spent nearly two decades

in the broader conservative movement on Capitol Hill, including as Policy Direc- tor for the House Republican Conference, Executive Director of the Republican

Study Committee, and Legislative Assistant to former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm. Russ graduated with a BA from Wheaton College and received a JD from George

Washington University Law School.

William L. Walton is Chairman of the Resolute Protector Foundation and host

of The Bill Walton Show. In 2016 and 2017, Mr. Walton served in President-elect

Donald Trump’s transition team as Agency Action Leader for all the federal eco- nomic agencies. He served as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Allied Capital

Corporation, a $6 billion NYSE-traded private investment firm, from 1997 to 2010. He is the immediate past President of the Council for National Policy. His extensive

board service includes The Heritage Foundation, American Conservative Union, American Enterprise Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Venture Cap- ital Association, and Financial Services Roundtable.

Paul Winfree is Distinguished Fellow in Economic Policy and Public Leadership

at The Heritage Foundation. Before rejoining Heritage in 2018, Paul was Deputy

Assistant to the President, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and

Director of Budget Policy at the White House. During the 2016 presidential transi- tion, he led the team responsible for the Office of Management and Budget. He also

has served as a senior staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget. Paul served in both the Biden and Trump Administrations for three terms as the

Chair of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board that oversees the Fulbright pro- gram and educational exchanges sponsored by the Department of State.

EDITORS

Paul Dans is Director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project at The Heritage Foundation, organizing policy and personnel recommendations and training for appointees in the next presidential Administration. Before joining Heritage, he served in the Trump Administration as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel

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2025 Presidential Transition Project

Management, as OPM’s White House liaison, and as a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Paul has extensive experience in high-stakes commercial litigation and worked for several large international law firms in New York City from 1997 to 2012 before founding his own law firm. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Steven Groves is the Margaret Thatcher Fellow in the Margaret Thatcher Center

for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation. Groves served in the Trump Adminis- tration, first as Ambassador Nikki Haley’s Chief of Staff at the U.S. Mission to the

United Nations. He later joined the White House as Assistant Special Counsel, representing the White House in the Mueller investigation. Groves also served as

White House Deputy Press Secretary. His prior positions include Senior Counsel

for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and associate at

Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. Groves holds an LLM from Georgetown University

Law Center, a JD from Ohio Northern University’s College of Law, and a BA from

Florida State University.

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Contributors

he contributors listed below generously volunteered their time and effort

to assist the authors in the development and writing of this volume’s 30 chapters. The policy views and reform proposals herein are not an all-inclu-

sive catalogue of conservative ideas for the next President, nor is there unanimity among the contributors or the organizations with which they are affiliated with

regard to the recommendations.

Mark Albrecht

Chris Anderson, Office of Senator Steve Daines Jeff Anderson, The American Main Street Initiative Michael Anton, Hillsdale College

EJ Antoni, The Heritage Foundation

Andrew “Art” Arthur, Center for Immigration Studies Paul Atkins, Patomak Global Partners

Julie Axelrod, Center for Immigration Studies James Bacon

James Baehr

Stewart Baker, Steptoe and Johnson LLP

Erik Baptist, Alliance Defending Freedom

Brent Bennett, Texas Public Policy Foundation John Berlau, Competitive Enterprise Institute Russell Berman, Hoover Institution

Sanjai Bhagat, University of Colorado Boulder Stephen Billy, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Brad Bishop, American Cornerstone Institute Willis Bixby, WWBX, LLC

Josh Blackman, South Texas College of Law

Jim Blew, Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies Robert Bortins, Classical Conversations

Rachel Bovard, Conservative Partnership Institute Robert Bowes

Matt Bowman, Alliance Defending Freedom Steven G. Bradbury, The Heritage Foundation Preston Brashers, The Heritage Foundation Jonathan Bronitsky, ATHOS

Kyle Brosnan, The Heritage Foundation

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Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

Patrick T. Brown, Ethics and Public Policy Center Robert Burkett, ACLJ Action

Michael Burley, American Cornerstone Institute David R. Burton, The Heritage Foundation Jonathan Butcher, The Heritage Foundation

Mark Buzby, Buzby Maritime Associates, LLC Margaret Byfield, American Stewards of Liberty David Byrd, Korn Ferry

Anthony Campau, Center for Renewing America James Jay Carafano, The Heritage Foundation Frank Carroll, Professional Forest Management Oren Cass, American Compass

Brian J. Cavanaugh, American Global Strategies Spencer Chretien, The Heritage Foundation

Claire Christensen, American Cornerstone Institute Victoria Coates, The Heritage Foundation

Ellie Cohanim, Independent Women’s Forum

Ezra Cohen

Elbridge Colby, Marathon Initiative

Earl Comstock, White & Case LLP

Lisa Correnti, Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) Monica Crowley, The Nixon Seminar

Laura Cunliffe, Independent Women’s Forum

Tom Dans, Amberwave Partners

Sohan Dasgupta, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP Sergio de la Pena

Chris De Ruyter, National Center for Urban Operations Corey DeAngelis, American Federation for Children Caroline DeBerry, Paragon Health Institute Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council

Irv Dennis, American Cornerstone Institute

David Deptula, Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Donald Devine, The Fund for American Studies Chuck DeVore, Texas Public Policy Foundation

C. Wallace DeWitt, Allen & Overy LLP

James Di Pane, The Heritage Foundation

Matthew Dickerson, The Heritage Foundation Michael Ding, America First Legal Foundation David Ditch, The Heritage Foundation

Natalie Dodson, Ethics and Public Policy Center Dave Dorey, The Fairness Center

Max Eden, American Enterprise Institute

— xxvi —

2025 Presidential Transition Project

Troy Edgar, IBM Consulting

Joseph Edlow, The Heritage Foundation

Jen Ehlinger, Booz Allen Hamilton

John Ehrett, Office of Senator Josh Hawley Kristen Eichamer, The Heritage Foundation Robert S. Eitel, Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies Will Estrada, Parents Rights Foundation

Jon Feere, Center for Immigration Studies Baruch Feigenbaum, Reason Foundation

Travis Fisher, The Heritage Foundation

George Fishman, Center for Immigration Studies Leslie Ford, The Heritage Foundation

Aharon Friedman, Federal Policy Group

Bruce Frohnen, Ohio Northern University College of Law Joel Frushone, Ernst & Young

Finch Fulton

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, The Heritage Foundation Caleigh Gabel, American Cornerstone Institute Christopher Gacek, Family Research Council Alexandra Gaiser, River Financial Inc.

Mario Garza

Patty-Jane Geller, The Heritage Foundation Andrew Gillen, Texas Public Policy Foundation James S. Gilmore III, Gilmore Global Group LLC Vance Ginn, Economic Consulting, LLC

Alma Golden, The Institute for Women’s Health Mike Gonzalez, The Heritage Foundation Chadwick R. Gore, Defense Forum Foundation David Gortler, Ethics and Public Policy Center Brian Gottstein, The Heritage Foundation

Dan Greenberg, Competitive Enterprise Institute Rob Greenway, Hudson Institute

Rachel Greszler, The Heritage Foundation

DJ Gribbin, Madrus Consulting

Garrison Grisedale, American Cornerstone Institute Joseph Grogan, USC Schaeffer School for Health Policy and Economics Andrew Guernsey

Jeffrey Gunter, Republican Jewish Coalition

Joe Guy, Club for Growth

Joseph Guzman

Amalia Halikias, The Heritage Foundation

Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Foundation

— xxvii —

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

Richard Hanania, Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology Simon Hankinson, The Heritage Foundation David Harlow

Derek Harvey, Office of Congressman Devin Nunes Jason Hayes, Mackinac Center for Public Policy Jennifer Hazelton

Lou Heinzer

Edie Heipel

Troup Hemenway, Personnel Policy Operations Nathan Hitchen, Equal Rights Institute

Pete Hoekstra

Gabriella Hoffman, Independent Women’s Forum Tom Homan, The Heritage Foundation

Chris Horner

Mike Howell, The Heritage Foundation

Valerie Huber, The Institute for Women’s Health Andrew Hughes, American Cornerstone Institute Joseph Humire, Center for a Secure Free Society Christopher Iacovella, American Securities Association Melanie Israel, The Heritage Foundation

Ken Ivory, Utah House of Representatives

Roman Jankowski, The Heritage Foundation Abby Jones

Emilie Kao, Alliance Defending Freedom

Jared M. Kelson, Boyden Gray & Associates Aaron Kheriaty, Ethics and Public Policy Center Ali Kilmartin, Alliance Defending Freedom

Julie Kirchner, Federation for American Immigration Reform Dan Kish, Institute for Energy Research

Kenneth A. Klukowski

Adam Korzeniewski, American Principles Project Kathy Nuebel Kovarik, Sagitta Solutions, LLC Bethany Kozma, Keystone Policy

Matthew Kozma

Julius Krein, American Affairs

Stanley Kurtz, Ethics and Public Policy Center David LaCerte, Baker Botts, LLP

Paul J. Larkin, The Heritage Foundation

Kent Lassman, Competitive Enterprise Institute James R. Lawrence III, Envisage Law

Paul Lawrence, Lawrence Consulting

Nathan Leamer, Targeted Victory

— xxviii —

2025 Presidential Transition Project

David Legates, University of Delaware (Ret.) Marlo Lewis, Competitive Enterprise Institute Ben Lieberman, Competitive Enterprise Institute John Ligon

Evelyn Lim, American Cornerstone Institute Mario Loyola, Competitive Enterprise Institute John G. Malcolm, The Heritage Foundation Joseph Masterman, Cooper & Kirk, PLLC

Earl Matthews, The Vandenberg Coalition

Dan Mauler, Heritage Action for America

Drew McCall, American Cornerstone Institute Trent McCotter, Boyden Gray & Associates Micah Meadowcroft, The American Conservative Edwin Meese III, The Heritage Foundation Jessica Melugin, Competitive Enterprise Institute Frank Mermoud, Orpheus International

Mark Miller, Office of Governor Kristi Noem Cleta Mitchell, Conservative Partnership Institute Kevin E. Moley

Caitlin Moon, American Center for Law & Justice David Moore, Brigham Young University Law School Clare Morell, Ethics and Public Policy Center Mark Morgan, The Heritage Foundation

Hunter Morgen, American Cornerstone Institute Rachel Morrison, Ethics and Public Policy Center Jonathan Moy, The Heritage Foundation

Iain Murray, Competitive Enterprise Institute Ryan Nabil, National Taxpayers Union

Michael Nasi, Jackson Walker LLP

Lucien Niemeyer, The Niemeyer Group, LLC Nazak Nikakhtar, Wiley Rein LLP

Milan “Mitch” Nikolich

Matt O’Brien, Immigration Reform Law Institute Caleb Orr, Boyden Gray & Associates

Michael Pack

Leah Pedersen

Michael Pillsbury, The Heritage Foundation Patrick Pizzella, Leadership Institute

Robert Poole, Reason Foundation

Kevin Preskenis, Allymar Health Solutions

Pam Pryor, National Committee for Religious Freedom Thomas Pyle, Institute for Energy Research

— Xxix —

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

John Ratcliffe, American Global Strategies

Paul Ray, The Heritage Foundation

Joseph Reddan, Flexilis Forestry, LLC

Jay W. Richards, The Heritage Foundation

Jordan Richardson, Heise Suarez Melville, P.A.

Jason Richwine, Center for Immigration Studies Shaun Rieley, The American Conservative

Lora Ries, The Heritage Foundation

Leo Rios

Mark Robeck, Energy Evolution Consulting LLC James Rockas, ACLJ Action

Mark Royce, NOVA-Annandale College

Reed Rubinstein, America First Legal Foundation William Ruger, American Institute for Economic Research Austin Ruse, Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) Brent D. Sadler, The Heritage Foundation

Alexander William Salter, Texas Tech University

Jon Sanders, John Locke Foundation

Carla Sands, America First Policy Institute

Robby Stephany Saunders, Coalition for a Prosperous America David Sauve

Brett D. Schaefer, The Heritage Foundation

Nina Owcharenko Schaefer, The Heritage Foundation Matt Schuck, American Cornerstone Institute

Justin Schwab, CGCN Law

Jon Schweppe, American Principles Project

Marc Scribner, Reason Foundation

Darin Selnick, Selnick Consulting

Josh Sewell, Taxpayers for Common Sense

Kathleen Sgamma, Western Energy Alliance

Matt Sharp, Alliance Defending Freedom

Judy Shelton, Independent Institute

Nathan Simington

Loren Smith, Skyline Policy Risk Group

Zack Smith, The Heritage Foundation

Jack Spencer, The Heritage Foundation

Adrienne Spero, U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Thomas W. Spoehr, The Heritage Foundation

Peter St Onge, The Heritage Foundation

Chris Stanley, Functional Government Initiative Paula M. Stannard

Parker Stathatos, Texas Public Policy Foundation

— XXX —

2025 Presidential Transition Project

William Steiger, Independent Consultant

Kenny Stein, Institute for Energy Research

Corey Stewart, Stewart PLLC

Mari Stull

Katharine T. Sullivan, 1792 Exchange

Brett Swearingen, Miller Johnson

Michael Sweeney

Robert Swope

Aaron Szabo, CGCN Group

Katy Talento, AllBetter Health

Tony Tata, Tata Leadership Group, LLC

Farnaz Farkish Thompson

Todd Thurman, American Cornerstone Institute Brett Tolman, Tolman Group

Kayla M. Tonnessen, Recovery for America Now Foundation Joe Tro