Celebrating America's 250th Birthday

This executive order creates a cross-agency White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday (Task Force 250) to plan, organize, and execute a nationwide celebration for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in 2026. Led by the President (as Chair) with the Vice President as Vice Chair, Task Force 250 is staffed by an Executive Director and includes a broad group of senior federal officials from many departments (State, Treasury, Defense, Interior, Agriculture, HUD, Education, etc.) plus key White House offices and cultural agencies. The order tasks Task Force 250 with coordinating interagency planning and communications with the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, and it places administrative support in the Department of Defense (subject to law and appropriations). It also directs the National Garden of American Heroes to be expanded to 250 historically significant Americans and reinstates strict protections for monuments. The order ends by clarifying that it does not create enforceable rights and is subject to applicable law and funding. In short, the order directs a government-wide effort to mount a major, officially coordinated celebration of America’s 250th birthday, while reinstating prior monument protection programs and expanding the National Garden of American Heroes.