How President Biden is trying to Trump-proof his legacy
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden dared his Republican successor this week to eliminate his signature law bringing clean-energy manufacturing projects across the country, including GOP-leaning states and congressional districts.
"Will the next president stop a new electric battery factory in Liberty, North Carolina, that will create thousands of jobs?" the lame-duck American leader said in a speech Tuesday at the Brookings Institution, a center-left think tank. "Will he shut down a new solar factory being built in Cartersville, Georgia? Are they going to do that?"
As he prepares to leave office, Biden is looking to cement a legacy of economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. And he is challenging the very people who have opposed his agenda ? Republican lawmakers ? to help preserve the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a centerpiece of Biden's economic agenda. The outgoing president is trying the guard the law that unleashed billions in financial incentives aimed at spurring the construction of factories that produce clean-energy products.
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It's one of several far-reaching Biden-era laws and policies that President-elect Donald Trump has promised to unravel in his second term when Republicans gain full control of Congress in addition to the White House. Biden is betting the projects and jobs are so popular among the people benefiting that even his Republican rivals won't kill it.
Yet behind the scenes, the Biden administration is also working to pull what levers it has left to effectively Trump-proof Biden's other major accomplishments ? and skirt around the Republican takeover to come. It follows a tradition in Washington in which an outgoing administration typically makes last-minute policy moves before the opposing party comes in.
Biden has directed his administration to spend as much funding as possible from the four massive spending packages he pushed through Congress: the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
The president plans to highlight another component of the Inflation Reduction Act next month when a new $2,000 cap on certain Medicare beneficiaries goes into effect. And federal agencies are finalizing a host of new rules ? ranging from capping overdraft fees charged by banks and stopping businesses from hiding "junk fees" from consumers ? before Biden leaves office.
Biden's chief of staff Jeff Zients, in a Monday memo to White House staff, called the final six weeks a "sprint to the finish line" to "get as much done as possible for the American people."
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The White House's efforts, which also include getting federal judges confirmed while Democrats still control the Senate, come as Biden has already started to lose influence globally, with Trump widely being treated as the de facto president by world leaders.
Biden did not attend the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral last weekend in Paris. Instead Trump sat two seats from first lady Jill Biden at the ceremony and later met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron.
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Trump has already announced his visions for trade policy during his next presidency and hosted meetings 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 said Biden had a "scheduling conflict" preventing his attendance in France and downplayed Trump's engagements with world leaders. "It's not unusual when there is a president-elect, for heads of states, foreign leaders to want to have that conversation with the president-elect," she said.
Despite Biden's lame-duck status, Zients rejected any notion of inaction in his White House memo: "During a time when most would expect us to slow down, you are accelerating: Getting Investing in America awards out the door, celebrating historic milestones and delivering on the President’s promise to the American people," he wrote.
Racing to get money out the door
The White House said the administration has already awarded 98% of funding available from Biden's core economic laws ? which authorized a historic $1 trillion infusion for infrastructure projects, $53 billion in subsidies for microchip companies, and about $400 billion for clean-energy projects, including incentives to support the manufacturing of products like electric cars, solar panels and batteries.
About 93% of funds have been awarded when excluding one of those laws, the American Rescue Plan, which was passed in March 2021 shortly after Biden took office and included programs aimed at recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, the Department of Commerce awarded $16 billion in incentives and tax credits last month alone to boost projects to support the creation of microchips, which the White House credits with spurring $180 billion in private investments in the semiconductor industry.
Since the November election, the Biden administration says clean-energy, semiconductor and other advanced manufacturing investments from the private sector have topped $1 trillion as a result of the Biden-backed laws.
A White House official told USA TODAY that a future administration cannot rescind or withdraw grants awarded to private companies from the CHIPS Act or other laws ? even if the funding hasn't gone out ? unless the recipient is found in breach of contract.
Biden has emphasized that Republican-leaning communities are the beneficiaries of many of the green-energy projects and jobs. In his Brookings speech, Biden said "keep your eye" on the Republican members of Congress who opposed his signature pieces of legislation on infrastructure, microchips and climate, only to celebrate the projects popping up in their states or districts.
"Show me the most conservative Republicans willing to take away the factories that are going to be built in their states," Biden said. "Going to be interesting. Going to be interesting."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he hopes Biden "gets out the door all of the funding we've provided for environmental, infrastructure and other causes where it can make a huge difference in the quality of life and healthcare, education, medical research ? to use the money before Trump tries to impound it."
But Blumenthal's Senate colleague from Connecticut acknowledged that Democrats might be handcuffed from doing much else. "I mean, I'm not sure there's much he can do to preserve the legislative agenda if Republicans want to eliminate,” Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., said.
Republicans by contrast have objected to Biden's 11th-hour spending push.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., accused the Biden administration of "a lame-duck attempt to constrain the newly elected Trump Admin." Hagerty, the Trump-appointed U.S. ambassador to Japan during the first term, was responding to comments Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo made to Politico on her desire to have nearly all chips funding out the door before Biden leaves office.
"It’s not only anti-democratic (and) bad government," Hagerty said in a social media post last month. He argued it could also violate the Antideficiency Act, a law which prevents federal agencies from spending more funding than appropriated by Congress.
A rush to fill judge vacancies ? and a Biden veto
Biden's push to Trump-proof his legacy extends to the federal courts, too.
Zients said the White House is "urging the Senate to confirm as many nominees as possible in the time we have left." The Democratic-controlled Senate has raced to confirm 16 federal judges since mid-November, bringing the total number of Biden-appointed judges with lifetime appointments to 229 over his four years in office ? five short of Trump's four-your total during his first term.
Fifteen Biden nominees remain pending, according to the American Constitution Society, a progressive-aligned legal organization that tracks the confirmation process.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration said it would veto bipartisan legislation, which cleared the House Thursday, that would create 66 new federal judicial seats over the next three presidential administrations ? a proposal supporters say is needed to addressed a large backload in cases in certain states. If it becomes law, Trump would be handed additional judicial vacancies to fill in his next term.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., one of Biden's closest Senate allies, co-sponsored the bill, which cleared the Senate earlier in the summer, long before the conclusion of the 2024 presidential election. Coons called Biden's looming veto a "regrettable outcome," telling reporters that Biden relayed that his only objection was timing, according to Politico.
"If we could change the date by four years, I know ? he told me ? if we could change the date, he’d sign it tomorrow,” Coons said.
Last-minute rulemaking draws Republican opposition
Biden's team is not just trying to protect its signature laws and confirming federal judges.
The administration's last-minute federal rules and regulations have been in the works for months to promote components of Biden's agenda ? such as combating climate change, reducing fees for consumers and lowering drug prices.
But The Washington Post reported 132 significant proposed regulations have not yet been implemented. Unfinished rules include a controversial ban on menthol cigarettes.
In addition, the Federal Trade Commission, led by chair Lina Khan, is preparing to ban business from hiding "junk fees" from the listed costs to consumer, the Post reported, citing two anonymous sources. An initial rule applied only to car dealers, hotels, ticket sellers and other large industries.
Igniting pushback from Republicans, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving forward on several rules including capping overdraft fees charged by banks to as low as $3 ? a measure opposed by the banking industry.
Another rule would prevent credit rating companies from applying unpaid medical bills to patients' credit reports. On Monday, the agency filed notice for another rule that seeks to expand identify-theft protection to shield survivors of domestic abuse.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a close Trump ally and the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, slammed CFPB Director Rohit Chopra at a committee hearing Wednesday, saying he "doesn't seem to accept the result of the November election" because of his agency's continued rulemaking.
"Despite voters' clear message on Election Day, Director Chopra has advanced his agenda at a breakneck speed," Scott said, accusing Chopra of pushing "partisan messaging on 'junk fees' and seeking a boogeyman around every corner for the failed economic policies of the Biden administration."
Chopra, in response to Scott, told the committee: "I don't think it makes sense for the CFPB to be a dead fish. People between Election Day and Inauguration Day are still getting scammed. They're still being subjected to questionable account closures. They still being the victims of so much wrongdoing."
Biden to hand Trump road map for emerging foreign alliances
On the foreign policy front, Biden has called for continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia and the stressed importance for the U.S. to maintain ties with its strongest allies including membership with NATO, which Trump has regularly criticized.
In September, Biden ordered the Defense Department to allocate the remaining security aid out of nearly $61 billion that Congress authorized for Ukraine in April by the end of his term. This week, the U.S. transferred to Ukraine $20 billion backed by frozen Russian assets ? an arrangement orchestrated by the Biden administration as a possible lasting mechanism for the U.S. to provide aid to Ukraine.
Biden is also still looking for a long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that will halt fighting in Gaza and lead to the release of Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity. Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, traveled to Israel this week in a final effort to secure a ceasefire before Trump enters.
At a time when many hard-line Republicans close to Trump are embracing isolationism from international conflicts, Biden is challenging his successor to maintain U.S. leadership.
"If we're not leading the world, who does?" Biden said in this week's speech in what seemed like a question posed to Trump. "Not a joke. I'm not being a wise guy. If we do not lead the world, what nation leads the world? Who pulls Europe together? Who tries to pull the Middle East together?"
The Biden administration issued a classified national security memo Wednesday that offers a road map for the incoming Trump administration to combat strengthening ties among Russia, Iran, North Korea and China. Citing cooperation among the countries, the document orders the arms within various national security agencies currently organized by region to realign by linking the four nations together.
While the Biden administration can try to Trump-proof some areas, this isn't one of them. It will be up to Trump and his team on whether to implement the policy suggestions.
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi, Savannah Kuchar and Reuters.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Biden is trying to Trump-proof his legacy