Project 2025 Implementation Tracker

A USDA food safety inspector spent 28 years training the lab techs who tested for salmonella. She knew which plants cut corners and which supervisors would listen. In February 2025, she received a deferred resignation offer. When she declined, a reduction-in-force notice gave her 30 days.

The same pattern repeated across every agency. The EPA lost inspectors with 30 years of tenure and replaced them with staff averaging 10.8 years of experience. The VA lost 40,000 workers, including 3,000 nurses. The IRS lost 25,000 employees in the middle of tax season. Every cut followed the same 900-page blueprint.

In April 2023, Heritage Foundation published that plan. A 900-page document called the Mandate for Leadership contained 532 specific policy proposals. By June 2026, 53% were completed or in progress, mostly through executive orders that bypass Congress entirely. The people who wrote the plan were placed in the agencies they had redesigned.

The areas with the fewest court challenges moved fastest. Environmental rollbacks faced less litigation because they used existing regulatory authority. Healthcare and civil rights required new rules that triggered judicial review — and courts blocked them.

The speed is the strategy. No agency had time to push back before the next cut arrived. Workers received deferred resignation offers while courts were still ruling on whether the previous round was legal.

Each phase built on the one before it. The executive orders created the legal authority. The firings removed the people who would have enforced the old rules. The reconciliation bill locked the budget cuts into law so courts couldn't reverse them. That sequencing is why 53% got through despite 264 court blocks — by the time judges ruled, the next phase was already underway.

Heritage Foundation placed its authors directly into the agencies those authors had redesigned. Russell Vought wrote the chapter on the Executive Office. He became OMB Director. Brendan Carr wrote the FCC chapter. He became FCC Chairman.

34 of the 66 hold Senate-confirmed positions. The rest serve as senior advisors, chiefs of staff, and acting officials who do not require Senate confirmation but make daily operational decisions. The pipeline from think tank to government mirrors the revolving door that lobbying creates between industry and regulators.

In the last 15 years, think tanks in three other democracies wrote policy blueprints, placed their authors in government, and implemented the agenda through executive power. Two of the three are no longer classified as full democracies.

Hungary captured the courts first. Orbán filled 11 of 15 Constitutional Court seats with his party's appointees by 2013. The court has not struck down a single government action since. A single foundation now controls 500 media outlets — roughly 80% of the market. Reporters Without Borders named Orbán a media "predator," the first EU leader on that list.

Poland captured the courts too. When voters removed PiS in 2023 with record turnout, the new government inherited a Constitutional Tribunal that strikes down every reform bill they pass. Two years later, judicial independence is still not restored because the institution that would approve the restoration is the one that was captured.

Israel's Supreme Court struck down the Kohelet-drafted overhaul 8-7 before it removed their authority to rule. Weekly protests drew 100,000+ people. The think tank's primary funder pulled out, and Kohelet cut half its staff. Courts acted while they still had the power to act.

U.S. federal courts have blocked 264 Project 2025 actions so far. Those wins depend on the judicial independence that Heritage's authors are working to weaken.

The same donors who funded the blueprint benefit from the policies it produced. Much of Heritage's funding flows through dark money conduits like DonorsTrust, which shields donor identities from public disclosure. The EPA rollbacks that Koch's manufacturing companies wanted came through the chapter Koch-affiliated authors wrote.

The blueprint identified which agencies to cut. The authors carried it out. The donors benefited. The people who depend on those agencies — veterans, taxpayers, disability recipients, travelers — absorbed the cost.

Every one of these agencies serves a public you can name. Veterans waiting for neurology appointments. Taxpayers waiting for refunds. Families on disability waiting for a determination. Travelers relying on air traffic controllers who are 3,000 short of the FAA minimum.

Headcount losses became service failures within months. The three agencies that serve the most Americans all saw the same pattern: experienced staff cut, wait times up, no alternative provider.

A veteran with a private doctor has options. A disability applicant waiting on SSA has exactly one agency that can process the claim, and it lost 13% of its workforce in 18 months.

At the EPA, departing staff had a median tenure of 30.3 years. The workers who stayed average 10.8 years of experience. That 20-year gap is the difference between an inspector who recognizes a failing pattern and one who follows a checklist. The institutional knowledge that kept water clean, food safe, and air breathable left with the senior staff.

Every cut above had one thing in common: someone filed a lawsuit over it. Federal courts and state attorneys general became the primary check on the agenda.

62% of the blocks came from one cause: the administration skipped the public notice, comment periods, and reasoned explanation that federal law requires before agencies change policy. The speed that made the agenda effective also made it legally vulnerable. Courts used judicial review to enforce those process requirements, even when judges agreed with the underlying policy goals.

A handful of rulings shaped the entire legal landscape. The grant freeze injunction restored funding to every federal grant recipient in the country. The four-agency ruling turned temporary blocks into permanent injunctions, meaning the administration cannot attempt those dismantlings again without a new legal basis.

Courts issued the rulings, but someone had to bring the cases. State attorneys general filed the majority of the lawsuits, often in multi-state coalitions that pooled legal resources across 10 to 23 states at a time. Six AGs and one nonprofit carried most of the legal weight.

When California won, the funding protections covered hospitals in every county in the state. When New York's injunction held, federal workers in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse kept their jobs. These cases set national precedent — but only because someone filed them.

In 25 states, nobody filed. The 2026 elections include AG races where voters decide whether that changes.

Whether your state fought back depends on who your attorney general is. 22 states joined multi-state coalitions. 25 states filed nothing. The VA cuts, IRS delays, and SSA backlogs hit all 50 states equally. The lawsuits that blocked them did not.

AG races appear on ballots in 2026. In states that filed nothing, that one election decides whether anyone challenges the next round of cuts on your behalf.

1. Write your representative using the letter and call script below. It asks Congress to investigate Heritage Foundation's personnel pipeline, hold oversight hearings on Project 2025 implementation, and restore hiring for safety-critical agencies. Text RESIST to 50409 to send it now.
2. Know your state AG's record. If your state is red on the map above, your AG chose not to challenge these policies. Contact your AG's office. In California, New York, Washington, and Massachusetts, your AG led the fight. Tell them to keep going.
3. Submit public comments on pending rules. The CMS payment cap rule, EPA enforcement rollbacks, and education funding regulations all have open comment windows where ordinary people can weigh in. Search open comments at Regulations.gov.
4. Vote in your state AG race. AGs filed the lawsuits that blocked 264 actions and won 82% of decided cases. The 2026 elections include AG races in multiple states. That one office is the most effective check on the blueprint.
5. Fund the organizations that filed the lawsuits. The ACLU filed 400+ legal actions and blocked or defeated 64% of the agenda. Democracy Forward leads multi-state litigation. Lambda Legal raised $285 million for the largest LGBTQ legal campaign in history. A monthly donation of $10-25 keeps the legal teams funded case by case.
6. Read the full Federal Workers hub for agency-specific context and the Rule of Law hub for court tracking.