WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden dared his Republican successor this week to remove his signature legislation bringing clean-energy manufacturing initiatives throughout the nation, together with GOP-leaning states and congressional districts.
“Will the following president cease a brand new electrical battery manufacturing facility in Liberty, North Carolina, that may create hundreds of jobs?” the lame-duck American chief mentioned in a speech Tuesday on the Brookings Institution, a center-left assume tank. “Will he shut down a brand new photo voltaic manufacturing facility being inbuilt Cartersville, Georgia? Are they going to try this?”
As he prepares to depart workplace, Biden is trying to cement a legacy of financial restoration from the COVID pandemic. And he’s difficult the very individuals who have opposed his agenda ‒ Republican lawmakers ‒ to assist protect the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a centerpiece of Biden’s financial agenda. The outgoing president is making an attempt the guard the legislation that unleashed billions in monetary incentives geared toward spurring the development of factories that produce clean-energy merchandise.
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It’s one among a number of far-reaching Biden-era legal guidelines and insurance policies that President-elect Donald Trump has promised to unravel in his second time period when Republicans acquire full management of Congress along with the White House. Biden is betting the initiatives and jobs are so fashionable among the many folks benefitting that even his Republican rivals will not kill it.
Yet behind the scenes, the Biden administration can also be working to tug what levers it has left to successfully “Trump-proof” Biden’s different main accomplishments ‒ and skirt across the Republican takeover to come back. It follows a convention in Washington during which an outgoing administration usually makes last-minute coverage strikes earlier than the opposing get together is available in.
President Joe Biden speaks about his “middle-out, bottom-up financial playbook” on the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, on December 10, 2024.
Biden has directed his administration to spend as a lot funding as potential from the 4 large spending packages he pushed by Congress: the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
The president plans to spotlight one other part of the Inflation Reduction Act subsequent month when a brand new $2,000 cap on sure Medicare beneficiaries goes into impact. And federal companies are finalizing a bunch of recent guidelines ‒ starting from capping overdraft charges charged by banks and stopping companies from hiding so-called “junk charges” from customers ‒ earlier than Biden leaves workplace.
Biden’s chief of employees Jeff Zients, in a Monday memo to White House employees, referred to as the ultimate six weeks a “dash to the end line” to “get as a lot accomplished as potential for the American folks.”
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The White House’s efforts, which additionally embody getting federal judges confirmed whereas Democrats nonetheless management the Senate, come as Biden has already began to lose affect globally, with Trump extensively being handled because the de facto president by world leaders.
Biden didn’t attend the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral final weekend in Paris. Instead Trump sat two seats from first woman Jill Biden on the ceremony and later met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron, whom Trump greeted earlier with a hearty handshake on the steps of the Elysee Presidential Palace.
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Trump has already introduced his visions for commerce coverage throughout his subsequent presidency and hosted conferences at Mar-a-Lago with world leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned Biden had a “scheduling battle” stopping his attendance in France and downplayed Trump’s engagements with world leaders. “It’s common when there’s a president-elect, for heads of states, international leaders to wish to have that dialog with the president-elect,” she mentioned.
Despite Biden’s lame-duck standing, Zients rejected any notion of inaction in his White House memo: “During a time when most would anticipate us to decelerate, you might be accelerating: Getting Investing in America awards out the door, celebrating historic milestones and delivering on the President’s promise to the American folks,” he wrote.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron (L) shakes fingers with US president-elect Donald Trump (R) as he welcomes him forward of a gathering on the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on December 7, 2024.
Racing to get cash out the door
The White House mentioned the administration has already awarded 98% of funding obtainable from Biden’s core financial legal guidelines ‒ which approved a historic $1 trillion infusion for infrastructure initiatives, $53 billion in subsidies for microchip firms, and about $400 billion for clean-energy initiatives, together with incentives to help the manufacturing of merchandise like electrical vehicles, photo voltaic panels and batteries.
About 93% of funds have been awarded when excluding a type of legal guidelines, the American Rescue Plan, which was handed in March 2021 shortly after Biden took workplace and included packages geared toward restoration throughout the COVID pandemic.
For instance, the Department of Commerce awarded $16 billion in incentives and tax credit final month alone to spice up initiatives to help the creation of microchips, which the White House credit with spurring $180 billion in non-public investments within the semiconductor trade.
Since the November election, the Biden administration says clean-energy, semiconductor and different superior manufacturing investments from the non-public sector have topped $1 trillion because of the Biden-backed legal guidelines.
A White House official instructed USA TODAY {that a} future administration can not rescind or withdraw grants awarded to personal firms from the CHIPS Act or different legal guidelines ‒ even when the funding hasn’t gone out ‒ except the recipient is present in breach of contract.
Biden has emphasised that Republican-leaning communities are the beneficiaries of most of the green-energy initiatives and jobs. In his Brookings speech, Biden mentioned “maintain your eye” on the Republican members of Congress who opposed his signature items of laws on infrastructure, microchips and local weather, solely to have fun the initiatives popping up of their states or districts.
“Show me essentially the most conservative Republicans keen to remove the factories which are going to be constructed of their states,” Biden mentioned. “Going to be fascinating. Going to be fascinating.”
President Joe Biden speaks about his “middle-out, bottom-up financial playbook” on the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, on December 10, 2024.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., mentioned he hopes Biden “will get out the door the entire funding we have offered for environmental, infrastructure and different causes the place it may make an enormous distinction within the high quality of life and healthcare, training, medical analysis ‒ to make use of the cash earlier than Trump tries to impound it.”
But Blumenthal’s Senate colleague from Connecticut acknowledged that Democrats is perhaps handcuffed from doing a lot else. “I imply, I’m unsure there’s a lot he can do to protect the legislative agenda if Republicans wish to remove,” Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., mentioned.
Republicans in contrast have objected to Biden’s Eleventh-hour spending push.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., accused the Biden administration of “a lame-duck try and constrain the newly elected Trump Admin.” Hagerty, the Trump-appointed U.S. ambassador to Japan throughout the first time period, was responding to feedback Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo made to Politico on her need to have almost all chips funding out the door earlier than Biden leaves workplace.
“It’s not solely anti-democratic (and) dangerous authorities,” Hagerty mentioned in a social media publish final month. He argued it may additionally violate the Antideficiency Act, a legislation which prevents federal companies from spending extra funding than appropriated by Congress.
A rush to fill choose vacancies ‒ and a Biden veto
Biden’s push to Trump-proof his legacy extends to the federal courts, too.
Zients mentioned the White House is “urging the Senate to verify as many nominees as potential within the time we’ve got left.” The Democratic-controlled Senate has raced to verify 16 federal judges since mid-November, bringing the entire variety of Biden-appointed judges with lifetime appointments to 229 over his 4 years in workplace ‒ 5 in need of Trump’s four-your whole throughout his fist time period.
Fifteen Biden nominees stay pending, based on the American Constitution Society, a progressive-aligned authorized group that tracks the affirmation course of.
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients speaks throughout a White House employees transition occasion within the East Room in Washington, DC on February 1, 2023.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration mentioned it could veto bipartisan laws, which cleared the House Thursday, that might create 66 new federal judicial seats over the following three presidential administrations ‒ a proposal supporters say is required to addressed a big backload in circumstances in sure states. If it turns into legislation, Trump could be handed extra judicial vacancies to fill in his subsequent time period.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. one among Biden’s closest Senate allies, co-sponsored the invoice, which cleared the Senate earlier in the summertime, lengthy earlier than the conclusion of the 2024 presidential election. Coons referred to as Biden’s looming veto a “regrettable consequence,” telling reporters that Biden relayed that his solely objection was timing, based on Politico.
“If we may change the date by 4 years, I do know ‒ he instructed me ‒ if we may change the date, he’d signal it tomorrow,” Coons mentioned.
Last-minute rulemaking attracts Republican opposition
Biden’s staff isn’t just making an attempt to guard its signature legal guidelines and confirming federal judges.
The administration’s last-minute federal guidelines and laws have been within the works for months to advertise elements of Biden’s agenda ‒ equivalent to combatting local weather change, lowering charges for customers and decreasing drug costs.
But the Washington Post reported 132 important proposed laws haven’t but been applied. Unfinished guidelines embody a controversial ban on menthol cigarettes.
In addition, the Federal Trade Commission, led by chair Lina Khan, is making ready to ban enterprise from hiding so-called “junk charges” from the listed prices to client, the Post reported, citing two nameless sources. An preliminary rule utilized solely to automobile sellers, lodges, ticket sellers and different giant industries.
Igniting pushback from Republicans, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is transferring ahead on a number of guidelines together with capping overdraft charges charged by banks to as little as $3 ‒ a measure opposed by the banking trade.
Another rule would stop credit-rating firms from making use of unpaid medical payments to sufferers’ credit score stories. On Monday, the company filed discover for an additional rule that seeks to develop identify-theft safety to defend survivors of home abuse.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) speaks earlier than Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Rohit Chopra testifies throughout a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee listening to on Capitol Hill on December 11, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., an in depth Trump ally and rating member of the Senate Banking Committee, slammed CFPB director Rohit Chopra at a committee listening to Wednesday, saying he “would not appear to just accept the results of the November election” due to his company’s continued rulemaking.
“Despite voters’ clear message on Election Day, Director Chopra has superior his agenda at a breakneck pace,” Scott mentioned, accusing Chopra of pushing “partisan messaging on ‘junk charges’ and in search of a boogeyman round each nook for the failed financial insurance policies of the Biden administration.”
Chopra, in response to Scott, instructed the committee: “I do not assume it is smart for the CFPB to be a lifeless fish. People between Election Day and Inauguration Day are nonetheless getting scammed. They’re nonetheless being subjected to questionable account closures. They nonetheless being the victims of a lot wrongdoing.”
Biden at hand Trump roadmap for rising international alliances
On the international coverage entrance, Biden has referred to as for continued help for Ukraine in its conflict in opposition to Russia and the burdened significance for the U.S. to take care of ties with its strongest allies together with membership with NATO, which Trump has repeatedly criticized.
In September, Biden ordered the Defense Department to allocate the remaining safety support out of almost $61 billion that Congress approved for Ukraine in April by the top of his time period. This week, the U.S. transferred to Ukraine $20 billion backed by frozen Russian property ‒ an association orchestrated by the Biden administration as a potential lasting mechanism for the U.S. to offer support to Ukraine.
Biden can also be nonetheless on the lookout for a long-awaited cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that may halt preventing in Gaza and result in the discharge of Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s nationwide safety adviser, traveled to Israel this week in a closing effort to safe a cease-fire earlier than Trump enters.
President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy take part within the launching of the Ukraine Compact on the 2024 NATO Summit on July 11, 2024 in Washington, DC.
At a time when many hardline Republicans near Trump are embracing isolationism from worldwide conflicts, Biden is difficult his successor to take care of U.S. management.
“If we’re not main the world, who does?” Biden mentioned on this week’s speech in what appeared like a query posed to Trump. “Not a joke. I’m not being a smart man. If we don’t lead the world, what nation leads the world? Who pulls Europe collectively? Who tries to tug the Middle East collectively?”
The Biden administration issued a labeled nationwide safety memo Wednesday that gives a roadmap for the incoming Trump administration to fight strengthening ties amongst Russia, Iran, North Korea and China. Citing cooperation among the many nations, the doc orders the arms inside numerous nationwide safety companies at present organized by area to realign by linking the 4 nations collectively.
While the Biden administration can attempt to “Trump-proof” some areas, this is not one among them. It might be as much as Trump and his staff on whether or not to implement the coverage recommendations.
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi, Savannah Kuchar and Reuters.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article initially appeared on USA TODAY: How Biden is making an attempt to Trump-proof his legacy
