Further Exclusions From the Federal Labor- Management Relations Program

The order amends Executive Order 12171 (1979) to add several federal agencies and units to the list of entities excluded from Chapter 71 of Title 5 — the federal statute governing union recognition and collective bargaining for federal employees. New exclusions include Bureau of Reclamation units primarily responsible for hydropower operations; the International Trade Administration, certain Patent and Trademark Office units, and two NOAA subdivisions (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service and National Weather Service) within the Department of Commerce; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The legal basis for each exclusion is a presidential determination that the agency's primary function involves intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work, and that applying Chapter 71 is incompatible with national security requirements.

The order also extends — by 15 days from its signing date — the deadline for the Secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs to publish exclusion orders under Executive Order 14251 of March 2025. A standard severability clause protects the remainder of the order if any provision is struck down.

Federal employees at the newly excluded agencies and units — including NASA, U.S. Agency for Global Media, National Weather Service, National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, the International Trade Administration, certain Patent and Trademark Office units, and Bureau of Reclamation hydropower operations — who previously held or were eligible for collective bargaining rights under federal labor law.

Employees at the listed agencies lose access to federal collective bargaining protections under Chapter 71 of Title 5, meaning they can no longer organize, bargain collectively, or rely on federal labor-management dispute processes. The practical effect varies by agency depending on whether active bargaining units exist.

The mechanism is an amendment to EO 12171, which serves as the master list of national-security exclusions from federal labor law. Once an agency appears on that list, Chapter 71 of Title 5 simply does not apply to it. No additional rulemaking is required for the exclusions themselves to take effect. The 15-day deadline extension for Defense and VA operates as a one-time override of a deadline in EO 14251, giving those departments slightly more time to publish their own exclusion orders before the window closes.