As Donald Trump's administration prepares to take over, President Joe Biden's last-minute executive actions, including federal pay raises and strengthened workplace protections, are set to create significant challenges for the incoming team. These strategic moves reflect Biden's aim to solidify his legacy.
As President Trump prepares to take office next week, President Joe Biden has signed a number of executive measures that may be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.
According to sources within the administration, the outgoing president will reportedly keep busy right up until his last hours in office. This level of activity is nothing out of the ordinary, but according to the Washington Post, Biden's broad-ranging efforts reflect his belief that Trump poses a distinct danger to American traditions.
National monuments in California were designated by Biden, Cuba was removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a Japanese company's takeover of U.S. Steel was blocked, nearly one million immigrants were granted temporary protected status, the sentences of nearly everyone on federal death row were commuted, and a sweeping pardon was granted to his son Hunter, according to the Post.
Many of the recent actions have been the product of months of planning that started when Biden dropped out of the race, was shared with his Cabinet in September, and accelerated after the Nov. 5 election. Sources familiar with the discussions say that he is also considering action on advancing the Equal Rights Amendment and that his team has been discussing preemptive pardons for individuals who Trump might target for retribution.
"This Cabinet meeting comes at a time when we have four months left in the administration," the president told Cabinet members in September, urging them to do something to enhance his legacy. "We're going to keep running through the tape, because the vice president and I are determined to keep making sure that the democracy delivers what the American people are asking for and what we provided."
Republicans have the opportunity to disapprove of over 1,300 climate, education, healthcare, and labor regulations proposed by Biden through the Congressional Review Act. The current administration has prioritized spending funds already allocated by Congress and has proposed regulations to make it harder for the next administration to thwart these plans.
Another example that may go unnoticed is that on Tuesday, a new rule will become legally effective, providing a 12% salary increase to around 14,500 blue-collar employees who work at three Army depots and several VA facilities. This could come as an unpleasant surprise to the incoming Trump administration. The Office of Personnel Management authorized an increase in October, and it will appear as a final rule in the Federal Register on Jan. 21, costing the incoming Trump administration $150 million a year, Post said.
Trump, together with his associates Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has pledged to slash the federal budget by trillions of dollars and slash the workforce by a similar amount. However, they may discover that some of Biden's labor protections have become too established to repeal at this point, The Raw Story points out.
"It does strike me as reasonable to get your preference into place and make them as difficult as possible to overturn," commented Andrew Rudalevige, a professor at Bowdoin College who has researched presidential actions. "A lot of this unilateral action is fragile, so it makes it limited to what you can do."
