Keith asks, “What is Project 2025 and how does it affect me?”
Project 2025 is a playbook created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington D.C., that outlines the policy of the next incoming Republican president and establishes a legal framework to put that policy in place.
The 922-page document outlines a policy for just about everything, from the White House to the Census Bureau. Let’s talk about the main ones that can affect the average person.
Labor
The document outlines changes it wants to make to OSHA and overtime. The document outlines changes to overtime rules to lower the threshold for employers to exempt salaried employees in some parts of the county.
President Biden expanded that overtime threshold to employees making $43,888 beginning July 1, and will expand to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025.
Lowering this threshold could decrease the number of people eligible for overtime. The document also outlines places where employees should be able to choose to either earn overtime or accrue vacation days, but labor law experts worry employers could exploit those choices.
Healthcare
The document also outlines plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and it with insurance plans that lack some of the same protections such as; coverage for essential health benefits, prohibit exclusion based on preexisting conditions and reducing prescription drug costs.
It also calls for scaling back laws that prohibit discrimination based on sex, putting in place a federal ban on care related to gender identity and prioritizing religion-based objections to treating patients.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA is made up of several different agencies including the National Weather Service, which provides weather, water and climate data, forecasts and warnings to the public for free. The document calls NOAA “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry” and calls for the NWS to focus on fully commercializing its forecasting operations.
NOAA experts have said it’s unclear if the document intends for the NWS to charge for forecasts or abandon forecasting entirely.
While former President Trump disavowed Project 2025, the document was drafted with the help of loyalists and former officials of Trump who are likely to be candidates in a second Trump administration.
