WASHINGTON — Feb. 27, 2026 — A new agreement between Scouting America, War Dept Agreement add new pressure for National FFA. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is explicitly grounding the Pentagon’s renewed relationship with Scouting America in President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order 14173, using the directive as the standard by which the youth organization’s policies will be judged—and as the rationale for continued federal support.
Hegseth Says Scouting America Support to Continue Upon Org’s Commitment to Drop DEI
In the War Department’s official announcement, Hegseth said he considered cutting ties with Scouting America over what he described as violations of Executive Order 14173, and that the new memorandum of understanding requires the organization to ensure “full adherence” to the order’s principles. The executive order itself directs federal agencies to terminate “discriminatory and illegal preferences” and related policies and programs—language the administration has used broadly in its push against DEI initiatives.
Scouts will be “making programmatic updates to comply with Executive Order 14173.”
Scouting America, in its own statement, acknowledged the executive order’s central role, saying it spent “several months” in dialogue with the department to deepen service to military families “while making programmatic updates to comply with Executive Order 14173.” The organization highlighted three near-term steps: waiving registration fees for military families, launching a merit badge focused on military service and veterans, and reinforcing themes including leadership, character, duty to God, duty to country and service.
Hegseth Invokes Executive Order 14173 to Condition Scouting America Support—A Template That Could Put FFA Under Sharper Federal Leverage
The War Department’s account of the agreement frames the changes more directly as compliance measures: a review to replace what it calls “politicized, divisive and discriminatory language,” a “No more DEI” commitment, and the discontinuation of Scouting’s “citizenship in society” merit badge. The department also described sex-based policy language for applications and “intimate spaces,” including toilets, showers, and tents.
While Scouting America emphasized it retained its “Scouting America” name and will continue serving “more than 200,000 girls,” the Pentagon is making clear its support is conditional and tied to progress under the memorandum’s EO-aligned reforms.
New Pressure for National FFA
The episode is also renewing questions about whether other national youth organizations could face similar federal pressure—especially the National FFA Organization. Unlike Scouting America’s military partnership, FFA’s footprint is embedded in public-school agricultural education, and federal influence can run through education funding streams rather than facility access or event support.
FFA notes that local chapters are organized at the school level and that agriculture educators serve as advisors, with state associations often intertwined with state departments of education. FFA also states that the national organization “receives no federal funding.” But at the local level, FFA itself says that “in many states” federal Perkins dollars can be used to pay program affiliation fees—when tied to needs identified in a Local Comprehensive Needs Assessment and aligned with Perkins Act requirements (including special-population impacts and workforce-delivery objectives).
As we have previously noted , that matters because Perkins V is a major federal pipeline into local career and technical education programs: the U.S. Department of Education says Congress appropriates roughly $1.3 billion annually for Perkins Title I Basic State Grants, with states required to distribute at least 85% to local recipients that offer CTE programs. OCTAE’s Perkins allocations materials similarly describe annual appropriations of about $1.4 billion for Title I Basic State Grants.
Taken together, Scouting America’s deal shows how Executive Order 14173 is being used as a compliance yardstick to condition federal partnership support. And because Perkins funding flows to the state-and-local education systems where many FFA chapters operate—and because Perkins funds may be used for FFA affiliation fees in many states—FFA could face more direct exposure to federal funding-related leverage than a nonprofit whose primary federal tie is a discretionary partnership arrangement.