Hamstringing the Incoming Administration

(Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Originally posted on December 13th, 2024.

Never Give Up

It’s easy to think of President Joe Biden as an afterthought, especially given the unprecedented long shadow Donald Trump is casting over the incumbent. Don’t forget four years of incompetence, corruption, and general dysfunction is no afterthought. Furthermore, don’t deceive yourself; a moribund Biden administration is alive, maybe not well, but still capable of managing mischief from the White House.

Trump-Proof the Federal Government 

Last evening, I received yet another unwelcome text warning: “We can’t risk being unprepared for the GOP’s attacks. We’re calling on Democrats everywhere to roll up their sleeves and get to work. … Join THOUSANDS of Democrats across the nation and RUSH $25 IMMEDIATELY to our rapid-response campaign to flip critical seats blue.” 

With just 40 days until Donald Trump’s inauguration, the current administration is racing to cement Biden’s legacy and “Trump-proof” the federal government.

Read It and Weep

In the WSJ, Kimberley Strassel focuses on what Team Biden is doing—or trying to do—in its final days to seed progressive policies and hamstring the change of direction Donald Trump is promising:

Obligate as Much Funding as Possible

• Spending: Immediately following Kamala Harris’s loss, Biden ordered departments to start shoveling money out the door, the better to deny Republicans the opportunity to claw it back for their own priorities.

In a Monday memo, Chief of Staff Jeff Zients bragged that some 98% of the money from Biden spending bills—including the 2021 infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—has already been allocated, flowing to clean-energy grants, high-speed internet, semiconductor plants and more.

Zients said Biden has directed his team “to keep up this pace and obligate as much funding as possible before the end of the term.” Biden is similarly rushing out billions of available military dollars to Ukraine.

• Federal judiciary: Chuck Schumer, majority leader, has ignored pressing Senate business for months in favor of confirming final Biden judges.

Democrats have only picked up the pace since Election Day, and as of this past weekend, Biden was just five judges behind Trump’s first-term record of 234 judicial confirmations—with more still in the hopper.

• Student Loans: Chief of Staff Jeff Zient’s memo says Biden is planning in January to announce another round of student-loan debt forgiveness for public service workers. His Education Department is also hurrying to finalize a rule that would allow the administration to cancel student loans for those who claim financial hardship.

• Healthcare: The administration is aiming a final kick at the privately run Medicare Advantage program with a proposal to tighten rules for insurers, and notification that it is considering another rate cut. The White House is also pushing Congress for a year-end healthcare package (see below).

• Energy: The administration this week announced a pathetically small lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an attempt to sabotage larger Trump exploration plans.

As Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy noted, the sale “limits exploration to the largest extent possible” and is “designed to fail.”

• Labor Unions: Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley inked a contract with the American Federation of Government Employees union, allowing tens of thousands of employees to continue working from home even in the Trump administration.

The administration is said to be working on other deals to insulate federal union workers from Elon Musk’s and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency.

• Monuments: Biden on Monday announced a new national monument in Carlisle, Pa., to highlight the history of Native American boarding schools, and Westerners remain fearful he will move to lock up large swathes of land with final Antiquities Act designations.

Activists are lobbying the administration, in particular, for new monuments in California and Nevada.

• Immigration: Progressives are also pushing Biden to shield certain migrants from Trump immigration policies, by more quickly processing renewal applications for Dreamers and by extending the timeframe that certain migrants are allowed to be present under the temporary protected status program.

• Pardons: No word yet on whether the president will follow Hunter’s sweeping pardon with a round of pre-emptive protections for political allies.

But Biden is said to be mulling pardons that encompass broad classes of offenders, as he did in 2022 and 2023 when he pardoned thousands of Americans convicted on various federal marijuana charges. Progressives are calling on him to go further, to use his power to “rectify unjust and unnecessary criminal laws passed by Congress and draconian sentences given by judges.”

Can Democrats Be Really Proud of This?

Donald Trump has eclipsed Joe Biden in many ways, warns Ms. Strassel, but Biden’s team is working harder than ever “to seed progressive policy through the system and hamstring the incoming administration’s plans to change direction.”