Reorganizing Government Act of 2025
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The bill would revive and extend through 2026 an expired fast-track process letting the President submit executive branch reorganization plans that Congress must consider on an expedited timeline, while removing current bans on those plans creating, abolishing, or merging entire departments.
It would also let such plans target reducing the federal workforce and eliminating regulations or agency functions deemed unnecessary, while adding a new limit barring any plan from causing a net increase in federal employees or spending.
What this bill would do
What it would do
The bill would amend chapter 9 of title 5, United States Code, to reauthorize through December 31, 2026 an expedited congressional review procedure for presidential executive-branch reorganization plans, which lapsed in 1984. It would expand the allowable purposes of such plans to include reducing the number of federal employees, easing or eliminating burdensome regulations, and eliminating government operations found not to serve the public interest.
The bill would also strike current prohibitions barring reorganization plans from creating or renaming executive departments, abolishing or transferring departments or independent regulatory agencies, or consolidating them, and would remove a protection against abolishing enforcement functions or statutory programs. In their place, it would add a new prohibition barring any plan from causing a net increase in the number of federal workers or in federal expenditures. It would not itself reorganize any agency; it only restores and reshapes the process by which a President could propose such plans for expedited approval.
Key provisions
- 1Would reauthorize the expedited congressional consideration procedure for presidential executive reorganization plans through December 31, 2026
- 2Would expand allowable purposes of reorganization plans to include reducing federal employees, easing or eliminating burdensome rules, and eliminating operations not serving the public interest
- 3Would remove prohibitions on plans creating or renaming executive departments or abolishing, transferring, or consolidating departments and independent regulatory agencies
- 4Would eliminate the existing protection barring abolition of enforcement functions or statutory programs through a reorganization plan
- 5Would add a new prohibition barring any reorganization plan from causing a net increase in the number of federal workers or in federal expenditures
- 6Would broaden the definition of "executive department" to include any executive department, agency, independent establishment, government-owned corporation, or executive branch office or officer, while excluding the Government Accountability Office and Comptroller General
Who would be affected
Federal executive departments, agencies, independent establishments, and government corporations that could be reorganized, abolished, merged, or transferred under a presidential plan; federal employees whose positions could be eliminated; and Congress, which would review such plans under the restored expedited procedures instead of ordinary legislative process.
Why it matters
If enacted, a President could again submit reorganization plans for guaranteed up-or-down congressional votes on a fast track, now with broader authority to abolish or merge whole departments and eliminate jobs or regulations, while a new cap would prevent plans from expanding the workforce or spending, changing how sweeping executive restructuring could be pursued.
What would change
Changes to existing law
Amends 5 U.S.C. chapter 9 (Reorganization Act authority), Sec. 901 (Sec. 2)
Adds new permissible purposes for reorganization plans: reducing federal employees, easing/eliminating burdensome rules, eliminating operations not in the public interest
Amends 5 U.S.C. § 902 (Sec. 2)
Redefines 'executive department' to broadly cover agencies, establishments, corporations, and executive offices, excluding GAO and the Comptroller General
Amends 5 U.S.C. § 903 (Sec. 2)
Removes the exception protecting enforcement functions and statutory programs from being abolished by a reorganization plan
Amends 5 U.S.C. § 905 (Sec. 2)
Removes bans on creating, abolishing, transferring, or consolidating departments and adds a new ban on net increases in federal workers or expenditures
Reauthorizes 5 U.S.C. §§ 905, 908 (reorganization authority expiration date) (Sec. 2)
Extends the expedited reorganization authority's expiration from December 31, 1984 to December 31, 2026
Effective dates
- Expedited reorganization plan authority under chapter 9 would expire
Funding and costs
Congressional Budget Office estimate
CBO estimates that H.R. 1295, the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025, would have no significant effect on the federal budget over the 2025–2035 period.
CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 1295 would result in zero change to direct spending, revenues, or the deficit in any scoring window — 2025, 2025–2030, or 2025–2035. The bill would reauthorize and expand (through December 2026) the President's authority to develop and submit a government reorganization plan under an expedited legislative process, but any actual reorganization would require future legislation whose costs would be scored separately. Because the bill itself does not change the duties or responsibilities of executive agencies, CBO found no budgetary effect attributable to it. CBO also determined that the bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates.
How implementation would work
Once reauthorized, a President could submit a reorganization plan to Congress, which would be referred to committee and guaranteed floor consideration under expedited rules that limit debate and bar amendments, leading to an up-or-down vote within a set period. Plans would have to fit the newly expanded list of allowable purposes, avoid the newly listed prohibited effects (including any net increase in federal workers or spending), and use the broadened definition of "executive department." The authority would lapse after December 31, 2026 unless further extended.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 397.
Official CRS summary
Show the CRS summaryHide the CRS summary
Reorganizing Government Act of 2025
This bill revives expedited congressional consideration of certain Presidential plans to reorganize the executive branch, expands permissible plan purposes, and changes the prohibitions on plan content.
The bill reauthorizes through 2026 a currently expired authority that requires expedited congressional consideration of certain executive branch reorganization plans submitted by the President.
The bill also expands the purposes for which such reorganization plans may be undertaken, to include
- reducing the number of federal employees;
- eliminating unnecessary and burdensome rules, regulations, and other requirements; and
- eliminating government operations that do not serve the public interest.
The bill removes the following prohibitions on the contents of such plans:
- creating new executive departments or renaming existing executive departments;
- abolishing or transferring executive departments or independent regulatory agencies or all of their functions; and
- consolidating executive departments or independent regulatory agencies or all of their functions.
The bill also adds a new prohibition on content, specifying that any such plan may not create a net increase in federal workers or expenditures.
Legislative subjects
Administrative law and regulatory procedures; Executive agency funding and structure; Government Operations and Politics; Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Committee report
H. Rept. 119-464