Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos
Signed: March 20, 2025
Published: March 25, 2025
Document Number: 2025-05214
đSummary
This executive order directs federal agencies to break down âinformation silosâ by giving designated federal officials full and prompt access to unclassified agency records, data, and IT systems so the government can better find and stop waste, fraud, and improper payments. It affects federal agencies (not the Executive Office of the President), their employees and systems, and also state-run programs that receive federal funding because the federal government is to have broad access to their program data, including data held in third-party databases. Within 30 days, agencies must rescind or change internal guidance that blocks sharing of unclassified information, and they must report to the Office of Management and Budget on regulations that limit access and recommend what to change or remove; within 45 days they must also review and report on classification policies that may be over-classifying information. It specifically requires the Department of Labor to have broad access to unemployment data and payment records, and it overrides prior executive orders or presidentially controlled rules to the extent they prevent the unclassified data sharing described here, while still requiring compliance with existing law and available funding.
đźBusiness Impact
This order will most affect businesses that receive federal or state-administered federal funds (government contractors, healthcare providers billing Medicare/Medicaid, unemployment/paid-leave and workforce vendors, education and human-services grantees, and fintech/payment processors supporting benefit programs) because agencies will rapidly share unclassified records to detect overpayments and fraud across programs. Expect more coordinated audits, data-matching, and faster payment holds/recoupments, plus new contract and reporting clauses requiring easier government access to program dataâincluding data housed in thirdâparty systemsâcreating opportunities for compliance, identity verification, data-integration, and fraud-analytics vendors. Immediate actions: stress-test your documentation and eligibility controls (especially around claims, time/attendance, beneficiary eligibility, and subcontractor billing), review contracts and data-retention/privacy practices to ensure you can produce records quickly, and map where federally funded program data sits (including vendors) so you can respond to cross-agency inquiries without delays or inconsistencies. If you operate in unemployment or workforce programs specifically, prepare for heightened Department of Labor scrutiny by reconciling payment records now and tightening change-management and access logs for any systems touching benefit determinations or payments.
Full Text
Executive Order 14243 of March 20, 2025
Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1 . Purpose. Purpose. Removing unnecessary barriers to Federal employees accessing Government data and promoting inter-agency data sharing are important steps toward eliminating bureaucratic duplication and inefficiency while enhancing the Government's ability to detect overpayments and fraud.
Sec. 2 . Definitions. (a) “Agency” has the meaning given to it in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code, except that such term does not include the Executive Office of the President or any components thereof.
(b) “Agency Head” means the highest-ranking official of an agency, such as the Secretary, Administrator, or Director. With respect to multimember agencies, “Agency Head” means the Chairman or equivalent official.
Sec. 3 . Eliminating Information Silos. (a) Agency Heads shall take all necessary steps, to the maximum extent consistent with law, to ensure Federal officials designated by the President or Agency Heads (or their designees) have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems—or their equivalents if providing access to an equivalent dataset does not delay access—for purposes of pursuing Administration priorities related to the identification and elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse. This includes authorizing and facilitating both the intra- and inter-agency sharing and consolidation of unclassified agency records.
(b) Within 30 days of the date of this order, Agency Heads shall, to the maximum extent consistent with law, rescind or modify all agency guidance that serves as a barrier to the inter- or intra-agency sharing of unclassified information specified in subsection (a) of this section. Agency Heads shall also review agency regulations governing unclassified data access, including system of records notices, and, within 30 days of the date of this order, submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget cataloging those regulations and recommending whether any should be eliminated or modified to achieve the goals set forth in this order. Regulatory modifications pursuant to this order are exempt from Executive Order 14192.
(c) Immediately upon execution of this order, Agency Heads shall take all necessary steps, to the maximum extent consistent with law, to ensure the Federal Government has unfettered access to comprehensive data from all State programs that receive Federal funding, including, as appropriate, data generated by those programs but maintained in third-party databases.
(d) Immediately upon execution of this order and without limiting the above directives, the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary's designees shall receive, to the maximum extent consistent with law, unfettered access to all unemployment data and related payment records, including all such data and records currently available to the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General.
(e) This order supersedes any prior Executive Orders and rules or regulations subject to direct Presidential rulemaking authority to the extent they ( printed page 13682) serve as a barrier to the inter- or intra-agency sharing of unclassified information as specified in this order.
(f) Agency Heads shall conduct a review of classified information policies to determine whether they result in the classification of materials beyond what is necessary to protect critical national security interests and, within 45 days of the date of this order, submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget cataloguing those classified information policies and recommending whether any should be eliminated or modified to achieve the goals set forth in this order.
Sec. 4 . General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, March 20, 2025.