in effect
This is a presidential Executive Order (Executive Order 14174, signed January 21, 2025, published in the Federal Register on January 31, 2025). Its sole action is to cancel two earlier Executive Orders. It also includes standard boilerplate stating it doesn’t override existing law or create any new legal rights.
It revokes two Executive Orders, both dated September 9, 2021: Executive Order 14042, which required federal contractors to follow COVID-19 safety protocols, and Executive Order 14043, which required COVID-19 vaccination for federal employees. With this revocation, those two prior orders are no longer in effect. The order sets no new requirements, deadlines, or programs of its own — it only removes the earlier ones. It states that it must be carried out consistent with applicable law and depends on available funding.
The most direct effects fall on federal executive-branch employees and on companies that hold contracts with the federal government, who are no longer bound by the COVID-19 vaccination and safety-protocol requirements the revoked orders imposed. The federal agencies that had been enforcing those requirements are also affected, as they no longer administer them. The order explicitly does not create any rights that individuals or organizations could enforce in court.