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 Greetings! For those not in the know, the US has a new President, this man:  He's taking over an executive branch decimated by 4 years of Trump's..."unique" brand of executive action. This is going to require a lot of Executive Orders to fix. What's an Executive Order? Glad you asked! The President is the head of the Executive branch and is responsible for implementing the laws Congress comes up with as well as serving as the commander-in-chief of the US armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and... *sigh* Space Force). This seems simple but we have a giant administrative state now and the world's largest military. Typically the President will appoint people to run things in their stead, things like Cabinet Secretaries, high-level political appointees, etc. However, sometimes there is a particular action they would like to take and rather than having it go down the chain they have the ability to issue an order directly. This is the Executive Order. Executive Orders can be pretty extensive, but the catch is they only remain in effect so long as the President wants. President doesn't like their predecessor's orders? They can simply cancel them. Now that we've got the idea of what an EO is out of the way, let's talk a bit about what's already been done (AS OF 2021-01-24) Biden's Orders So Far Biden took office on Wednesday, January 20th at just a little before noon. Since then he's signed a whopping 9 executive orders on just his first day in office. The pace at which Biden is signing Executive Order is unheard of. For context, Obama did 5 in his first week and Trump did 6 (source: https://www.al.com/news/2017/01/who_signed_more_executive_orde.html) Let's try and get a sense of what they all do. First off, you can always look up the orders in the Federal Register. This is an official repository of all executive branch actions: new regulatory rules, official decisions by departments, etc. It's a good place to look if you want to get into the details of policy analysis. Want to know how the EPA counts river pollution? You'll find the relevant rule in the Register. Want to know what is legally considered reserve capital by banks? Check the Register. They've helpfully made a single page for Biden's orders because he's already made a ton and I suspect they know a lot more are coming. There may be some delay in orders getting officially published here as they need to complete the process of uploading/transferring it into the database. Just because an EO is not listed here does not mean it's not in effect: only that the bureaucratic process hasn't gotten it in the official Hall of EOs yet. Wikipedia also maintains a list that is helpfully sorted by type of action (EO, Memorandum, Determination, Proclamation, etc.): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_executive_actions_by_Joe_Biden With that out of the way, let's try and group all his orders together by day so we can figure out what they're doing and why. Day One Orders These orders were (mostly) signed immediately after Biden took the Oath of Office. Let's dive into each of these and see what they did. D1-1. Create the position of COVID-19 response coordinator For those unaware, there's currently a horrible pandemic gripping the globe. 400,000+ Americans have died and the previous administration's plans to combat this were a combination of "figure it out yourself" and "gently caress you, got mine". Biden's attempting to reverse this by actually...putting someone in charge of the federal response. This EO outlines who that is and how the response will be organized. The coordinator will report directly to POTUS and largely be responsible for vaccine production/distribution as well as personal protective equipment (PPE) production. It also cites the Defense Production Act but does not fully employ it yet (for technical reasons that will become clear later in this post). source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...h-and-security/ D1-2. Revoke permit for Keystone XL pipeline, pause energy leasing in ANWR This includes a bit more than exactly what the title says and understanding it fully requires getting your hands a bit dirty with how federal regulations work. It also orders a full policy review of all environmental/climate change-related policy issued during Trump's term as POTUS. It specifically highlights regulations related to the following areas and provides a due date: -Methane emissions -Fuel economy standards -Appliance/Building energy efficiency standards -Air pollution It also of course does what it says on the tin and revokes the Keystone XL pipeline permit, halting all construction/operation of the pipeline and also pauses/cancels "all activities of the Federal government" related to the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program. The pipeline permit revocation language is interesting so I've included it here in its entirety, including the one spelling error it had!: quote:Sec. 6. Revoking the March 2019 Permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. (a) On March 29, 2019, the President granted to TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P. a Presidential permit (the “Permit”) to construct, connect, operate, and maintain pipeline facilities at the international border of the United States and Canada (the “Keystone XL pipeline”), subject to express conditions and potential revocation in the President’s sole discretion. The Permit is hereby revoked in accordance with Article 1(1) of the Permit. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...climate-crisis/ D1-3. Launch an initiative to advance racial equity, end "1776 Commission" The 1776 Commission was an ignoble attempt by the Trump admin to justify slavery and the oppression of black Americans as a good and necessary thing. Biden's order here effectively dissolves it (you can no longer find any federal government webpages with its information). It also calls on all federal agencies to conduct an equity assessment in its programs and policies to "assess whether underserved communities and their members face systemic barriers in accessing benefits and opportunities available pursuant to those policies and programs." source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...ral-government/ D1-4. Revoke order that aims to exclude undocumented immigrants from Census The Census is a Constitutionally-mandated decennial count of all people in the United States. This is used, most famously, for determining the number of Congressional seats each state gets, but the information is used in a number of other areas related to federal funding and government operations. The Trump administration had tried (and mostly failed) to exclude undocumented immigrants from the Census conducted in 2020. This order nullifies the last remaining vestiges of that attempt. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...cennial-census/ D1-5. Require masks/distancing on all federal property and by federal workers This one is fairly simple. As the President has authority on all federal property and can set policy for all federal workers, this order states that all persons in federal property and all federal workers must wear a mask and adhere to social distancing policies (remaining 6 feet apart, avoiding contact, etc). It does not extend this nationwide but does encourage it in all ares of the country. (A nationwide mandate is somewhat more complex to write correctly) source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...g-mask-wearing/ D1-6. Reverse travel ban targeting primarily Muslim countries One of Trump's first EOs was an order banning travel to/from predominantly Muslim countries. This EO was challenged as discriminatory and it was re-worked to avoid any specific mention of religion while still having the same effect. That particular order is somewhat complex, with certain groups excluded/not excluded and is worth additional reading that is outside the scope of this discussion. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13780 for an overview of the EO. This undoes that EO and removes restrictions placed on certain groups on travel to/from: -Iran -Libya -Somalia -Sudan -Syria -Yemen -North Korea -Venezuela -Eritrea -Kyrgyzstan -Myanmar -Nigeria -Tanzania source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...-united-states/ D1-7. Combat discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity Fairly simple. Bans discrimination in the federal government/federal agencies on the basis of one's sexual orientation or gender identity. It does specifically call out how the previous administration's refusal to prevent discrimination on this basis was a violation of Title VII. It also asks agency heads to work with the Attorney General if they need to draft additional rules/plans to carry this out. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...al-orientation/ D1-8. Require ethics pledge for executive-branch personnel This one bans: -Gifts from lobbyists -An incoming revolving door ban (ban on involvement with work related to former employer for at least 2 years and ban on any work related to anything one lobbied for if one was a registered lobbyist). It also effectively bans employment by lobbyists (unless more than 2 years has passed since their last lobbying action). -An outgoing revolving door ban (prohibition on working in related areas for 2 years after leaving federal service) -Golden parachute ban (appointees cannot receive payments from their former employer tied to coming to work for the government) Funny enough, these policies have always been in-place for the regular. career-level staff, this just applies it to appointees. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-ethic-commitments-by-executive-branch-personnel/ D1-9. End "harsh and extreme immigration enforcement" Revokes Executive Order #13768. This was an EO from the Trump admin that banned states/cities/localities from federal funding if they wouldn't work with ICE and also greatly expanded the list of people classified as "priorities for removal" from people with criminal offenses to "all aliens who have been charged with a crime, or believed could have been charged with a crime". It also changed the definition of crime to poo poo like "parking tickets". source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...and-priorities/ D1-10. Revoke certain executive orders concerning federal regulation This one is technical. It revokes: Executive Order 13771 of January 30, 2017 (Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs), Executive Order 13777 of February 24, 2017 (Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda), Executive Order 13875 of June 14, 2019 (Evaluating and Improving the Utility of Federal Advisory Committees), Executive Order 13891 of October 9, 2019 (Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency Guidance Documents), Executive Order 13892 of October 9, 2019 (Promoting the Rule of Law Through Transparency and Fairness in Civil Administrative Enforcement and Adjudication), and Executive Order 13893 of October 10, 2019 (Increasing Government Accountability for Administrative Actions by Reinvigorating Administrative PAYGO). These EOs were by and large used to make it difficult to actually implement regulatory actions. I would welcome more detailed discussion on this one, but it's a bit beyond just the intro here. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...ral-regulation/ Day Two D2-1. Fill supply shortfalls in fight vs. COVID-19 with Defense Production Act, other measures Remember how I mentioned earlier that we'd be coming to the Defense Production Act? Well here it is. Of course it still isn't a full invocation, it instead directs the COVID-19 Response Coordinator (remember them?) to submit recommendations on "(i) whether additional use of the Defense Production Act, by the President or agencies exercising delegated authority under the Act, would be helpful;" This also authorizes the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the heads of appropriate executive departments and agencies (agencies) to "(ii) take appropriate action using all available legal authorities, including the Defense Production Act, to fill those shortfalls as soon as practicable by acquiring additional stockpiles, improving distribution systems, building market capacity, or expanding the industrial base. The Defense Production Act is not something you just authorize, instead it provides a mechanism for the above people/agencies to effectively force companies to take contracts to provide supplies for national defense. Whether any of those contracts will get made is now the provision of Sec State/Def/HHS/DHS to figure out. This is the correct way to implement the Defense Production Act, the media's insistence on understanding it as "invoking the Defense Production Act" is too overly simplified. It also bans price gouging. No more toilet paper hoarding  source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-a-sustainable-public-health-supply-chain/ D2-2. Establish “COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board,” expand testing This is a fairly long order setting up the parameters for a COVID-19 testing board. This board is tasked with coordinating testing on a nationwide basis and distributing testing to the populations most in need (healthcare workers, areas without enough tests, under-served communities, etc.) This also authorizes the Treasury Dept and Dept of Health and Human Services to do whatever is needed to allow for all testing to be conducted free-of-charge to the person being tested. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...ogical-threats/ D2-3. Bolster access to COVID-19 treatments and clinical care Directs HHS to set up studies to search for and determine the efficacy of COVID-19 treatments. It also asks that this be broad enough in scope that it can be applied to any future pandemic (smart!). It also directs DOD, HHS and the VA to provide "surge" capacity to areas that need it. This is basically authorizing setting up temporary COVID clinics on a federal scale something that literally did not exist under Trump. Additionally the Secretary of HHS is directed to set up targets for vaccination and treatment and "prioritizing, including through grants for research and development, investments in therapeutics that can be readily administered and scaled". Finally, it also directs HHS to figure out ways to make sure COVID-19 treatment is affordable. No real specifics are given on a goal here just that they should: quote:(i) evaluate the COVID-19 Uninsured Program, operated by the Health Resources and Services Administration within HHS, and take any available steps to promote access to treatments and clinical care for those without adequate coverage, to support safety-net providers in delivering such treatments and clinical care, and to make the Program easy to use and accessible for patients and providers, with information about the Program widely disseminated; and source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...s-for-covid-19/ D2-4. Improve collection/analysis of COVID-related data This directs the heads of appropriate agencies to work together on collecting COVID-19 related data and specifically, putting the task of data collection/analysis on the COVID-19 Coordinator (defined earlier). It also notes that patient-confidential information should remain confidential (i.e. no publishing that Mr. Jones, Ms. Smith, etc. got COVID and died). It also calls on the relevant agencies to "(i) review the ability of agencies to hire personnel expeditiously into roles related to information technology and the collection, provision, analysis, or other use of data to address high-consequence public health threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic", i.e. work on hiring people who can help you get your arms around all this data. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...health-threats/ D2-5. Provide guidance on safely reopening schools Asks the Secretary of Education to provide a policy to all school districts on how to safely re-open. Previously there was literally no policy governing this which is why you aren't even seeing anything consistent from state-to-state. This would give a rubric, backed by medical evidence for when it is safe to re-open schools. It does not in and of itself define when it is safe to re-open schools, merely directs Education and HHS to work together on figuring out how to define that. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...tion-providers/ D2-6. OSHA guidance for keeping workers safe from COVID-19 Instructs OSHA to come up with guidelines/rules for COVID-19 safety in workplaces. Again, prior to this there was no regulation governing what is/is not safe for workers for COVID. It does set up a timeline; OSHA has 2 weeks to come up with the regulations and until March 15, 2021 to determine if any emergency temporary standards "like a mask mandate" are needed. I suspect this is the avenue that will get a nationwide mask mandate out. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-protecting-worker-health-and-safety/ D2-7. Require face masks at airports, other modes of transportation Pretty simple. Requires masks on any form of transportation where the Dept. of Transportation has authority, notably: "(i) airports; (ii) commercial aircraft; (iii) trains; (iv) public maritime vessels, including ferries; (v) intercity bus services; and (vi) all forms of public transportation as defined in section 5302 of title 49, United States Code." source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...ational-travel/ D2-8. Establish a “COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force” Sets up a task force consisting of: the Secretary of HHS; an individual designated by the Secretary of HHS to Chair the Task Force (COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force Chair); the heads of such other executive departments, agencies, or offices (agencies) as the Chair may invite; and up to 20 members from sectors outside of the Federal Government appointed by the President with the goal of determining if there are areas not receiving equitable treatment when it comes to COVID-19 (i.e. are poor/rural/under-served areas getting shafted?). It also calls on the task force coming up with regulations to mitigate any inequitable situations. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...e-and-recovery/ Space Reserved for Future Actions Day Three EOs First Three Day Non-Order Actions Wow. That was a lot. So where do we go from here/what is this thread for? This is a place for high effort discussion of Biden Admin executive actions. It took me around 2 hours to compile all the sources and give my thoughts and I would like others in this thread to approach it with the same attention for detail and effort. As you can see, some of these actions are quite technical and "boring" but that is the way a lot of the government is set up to work. Please try and provide some level of effort for your posts. "This order sucks" is not very helpful and doesn't provide anywhere for a discussion to go as no one is going to dissuade each other from their opinions. "I don't like this order because of X/Y/Z" is much more helpful in generating a discussion because we can discuss X/Y/Z rather than engage with people's subjective opinions (which are not going to move). The OP only covers the EOs from the first 2 days of Biden's administration. I am still writing up the orders from Biden's 3rd day in office plus some other non-EOs. I'll include links to those when they're ready. I will add other particularly impactful/notable EOs to the OP myself but as there are already a lot I am not going to commit to adding every EO. However if someone else does a write-up of an EO I'd be happy to include it in the OP. axeil fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 23:13
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As promised, here's the rest of the EOs. Still working on the non-orders. Day Three D3-1. Economic relief related to the Covid-19 pandemic A fairly vague, but big one. This directs all federal agencies to identify any actions they can take to mitigate the economic crisis caused by COVID-19. It specifically calls them to "consider actions that facilitate better use of data and other means to improve access to, reduce unnecessary barriers to, and improve coordination among programs funded in whole or in part by the Federal Government." It also provides a "strong recommendation" that independent agencies (think SEC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, Fannie Mae, etc.) also do this voluntarily. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/22/executive-order-economic-relief-related-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/ D3-2. Protecting the federal workforce Abolishes Section F in federal employment. This would have moved federal employs tasked with writing implementation policy (a lot of them) into a type of federal employment where they could be fired at-will for any reason. This also undoes actions the Trump administration took to try and break/weaken the federal employment unions and informs all agency heads that they are expected to negotiate with unions and not try to break them. Additionally, it mandates the director of OMB to produce recommendations for promoting a $15/hr minimum wage in the federal government. It also includes a severability clause in case SCOTUS gets any funny ideas. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/22/executive-order-protecting-the-federal-workforce/ axeil fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 23:43
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axeil posted:D3-2. Protecting the federal workforce I want to highlight that this would almost instantly destroy nonpartisan regulatory governance. Not only would people writing these decisions become political appointees, people within the agency who once saw such positions as a terminal career track would no longer have a reason to pursue it as a goal-unless they toed the line. There were several similar "destroy all regulations" rules and EOs under trump, and they were definitely written by some outside group that had had them sitting ready for years and years. Not sure who, though. axeil posted:D1-10. Revoke certain executive orders concerning federal regulation I can dig into and explain these individual acts later this week.
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Jan 25, 2021 00:43
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_directive This is a good reference for understanding what the gently caress the difference is between an EO, Presidential Proclamation, Presidential Finding, Presidential Memorandum, Presidential Ultimate Weapon, Presidential Limit Break, etc. since there are about fifty different "president does a thing" mechanisms at this point.
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Jan 25, 2021 00:44
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Executive Non-Orders In addition to Executive Orders, the President can also issue directives/requests/etc. that don't quite carry the weight of EOs but will effectively act like one. These are a bit more easy to explain (and there's far less of them), so I'll just list them out rather than trying to group: O-1. End withdraw process from the WHO This stops the process started by Trump to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). As it was not completed no further action needs to be taken. O-2. Rejoin Paris Climate Accords This rejoins the Paris Climate Accords. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/paris-climate-agreement/ O-3. Request housing-related agencies (HUD, FHA, etc.) to extend the moratorium on eviction and foreclosure actions This is a request and I cannot find additional details beyond what the request is, however I expect it to be implemented by the agency heads in short order. O-4. Request the Department of Education to extend student loan forbearance period to September 2021 This is a request and I cannot find additional details beyond what the request is, however I expect it to be implemented by the Sec of Ed in short order. O-5. Preserve the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) policy with respect to immigration enforcement This resumes the immunity DACA recipients have to deportation. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...-arrivals-daca/ O-6. Halt all border wall construction Stops all construction on the southern border wall and stops disbursement of funds to build said wall. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...l-construction/ O-7. Modernize regulatory review Asks the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to: quote:(i) identify ways to modernize and improve the regulatory review process, including through revisions to OMB’s Circular A-4, Regulatory Analysis, 68 Fed. Reg. 58,366 (Oct. 9, 2003), to ensure that the review process promotes policies that reflect new developments in scientific and economic understanding, fully accounts for regulatory benefits that are difficult or impossible to quantify, and does not have harmful anti-regulatory or deregulatory effects; Exciting! https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/modernizing-regulatory-review/ O-8. Extend deportation protections for Liberians in the US Another highly technical one that has to deal with the timing around protections and work authorizations that were put in place for Liberians residing in the US. I'll let the proclamation explain itself: quote:Since 1991, the United States has provided safe haven for Liberians who were forced to flee their country as a result of armed conflict and widespread civil strife, in part through the grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The armed conflict ended in 2003, and TPS for affected Liberian nationals ended effective October 1, 2007. President Bush then deferred the enforced departure of those Liberians originally granted TPS. President Obama, in successive memoranda, extended that grant of Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) to March 31, 2018. President Trump then determined that conditions in Liberia did not warrant a further extension of DED, but that the foreign policy interests of the United States warranted affording an orderly transition period for Liberian DED beneficiaries. President Trump later extended that DED transition period through March 30, 2020. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/reinstating-deferred-enforced-departure-for-liberians/ O-9. Freeze any new or pending regulations Possibly the most complex one of all. The President has the right to review all regulations their predecessor passed within 60 legislative days prior to their assumption of office. The Trump admin had published a wide series of regulations intended to sabotage the functioning of the federal government. This order calls for all those regulations to be reviewed by OMB prior to implementation. This unfortunately does freeze some good rules (notably related to the price of insulin), however this blanket way of doing it was the only legal available way to halt the destructive regulations. Following the withdrawn/cancelled rules is quite complex. You can find them here: https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoReviewSearch if you search for "withdrawn". The language on these can sometimes be extremely confusing and the titles will very frequently have nothing to do with the withdrawn rule. For example, if you look right now you'll see that "Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption" is withdrawn. Seems bad! But if you look at the actual text you'll see what was withdrawn was an amendment to that rule dealing with agricultural water. You also might be able to find these listed in the Public Inspection System (https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/current), but when a rule is withdrawn it will ultimately be removed from the Federal Register. For example, that rule I talked about above relating to agricultural water has this note now attached to it: quote:Editorial Note: The Agricultural Marketing Service withdrew this document while it was on public inspection. It will remain on public inspection until the close of business on January 22, 2021. A copy of the withdrawal request is available at the Office of the Federal Register. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/regulatory-freeze-pending-review/ O-10. Increase FEMA reimbursement to states for PPE and the National Guard This effectively grants FEMA authority to reimburse states and the National Guard for 100% of the costs associated with fighting the pandemic, providing some budget relief. source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...ided-to-states/
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Jan 25, 2021 01:13
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What's the tl'dr? Biden...good? (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 25, 2021 01:52
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Xelkelvos posted:What's the tl'dr? Biden...good? This is not the thread for not reading.
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Jan 25, 2021 02:56
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Xelkelvos posted:What's the tl'dr? Biden...good? It's difficult to accurately summarize much of anything in a single sentence, much less multiple dozen EOs, but I will try and make a multi-paragraph summary. I would highly recommend at least reading the summaries posted. In making this thread (and the two updates so far), I read every single EO I linked. They're not very long and give more context and nuance than I can do here in this venue. Keep in mind I am speaking in very broad terms here and trying to give an overview. By and large most of the EOs fall into 3 categories: 1. Good Government This is stuff like the ethics pledge, regulatory review, etc. This also includes some of the more boring ones simply because they are set up properly rather than just screaming about doing something (and then having that thing not be done as it was done improperly). Thankfully a lot of Trump's policy failures happened because he did not know how to structure things to get the government to do what he wanted. That Biden is doing things properly, albeit boringly, means there's a far lower chance a court somewhere decides the order is invalid. 2. COVID-19 These go along with the 200 page (whoa) document the Administration put out on Thursday covering their COVID-19 plan. Some of these are a marked departure from Trump's "policy". This includes things like the setup for the Defense Production Act or the work towards actually setting up guidelines for school re-opening. Others are thins that should've been done from the start that were not (data analysis centralization, reimbursement of cost through FEMA). There are likely a lot more things that need to be done here, and if the Biden Admin rests on its laurels here I'll be quite peeved. 3. Revocation of Dumb Trump Stuff This covers the Muslim Ban, the "time bomb" regulations, WHO, Paris Climate Accords, 1776 commission and loving with the Census among others. These are effectively just nullifying the stupidest/easiest to reverse of what Trump did. There are still a lot more Trump policies that need to be reversed or corrected but by and large the ones that were put down on paper last week fall into the group of either: a) being trivially easy to change (WHO, Paris Accords, end 1776 Commission, Muslim Ban) b) needing to be done fast to prevent bad effects from snowballing (time bomb regulations, Census fuckery, Keystone XL) Additionally, these revocations are generally are just about pausing/cancelling actions already under way. It's fairly easy to say "Stop doing X" in a competent and rapid way but harder to affirmatively say "Start doing Y" in the same timeframe. Its why most of the EOs are just about stopping certain actions with only the subset related to COVID really getting into proactively doing things. axeil fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 25, 2021 03:01
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Exceptionally good thread, thank you.
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Jan 25, 2021 03:54
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Reminder that there is now a new thread thread that you can advertise in if you'd like. Thanks for the excellent OP and informative breakdowns.
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Jan 25, 2021 05:32
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fool of sound posted:Reminder that there is now a new thread thread that you can advertise in if you'd like. Thanks for the excellent OP and informative breakdowns. Thanks for that FOS. I posted a little summary/advertisement there. I suspect we're going to have more EOs signed tomorrow/this upcoming week so hopefully we'll have some more content soon.
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Jan 25, 2021 06:46
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This is A Good Thread. There should be more threads like this. That is my hot take and very controversial opinion.
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Jan 25, 2021 14:32
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axeil posted:Thanks for that FOS. I posted a little summary/advertisement there. Thank you for this. I am better informed and have a useful tool to continue to inform myself. Regarding D1-10, here's a decent intro from Holland and Knights blog: https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2021/01/president-bidens-first-day-brings-changes-for-contractors quote:Regulatory Changes It's especially important that the government can again use guidance as a basis for enforcement actions- otherwise you're left with only the text of laws that were explicitly intended to be interpreted for enforcement and are therefore not specific enough to base enforcement on.
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Jan 25, 2021 16:55
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axeil posted:By and large most of the EOs fall into 3 categories: This is a good article about why the EO's fall into this sort of grouping. Basically, Trump was profoundly lazy, and did everything by executive order - because it was easier, but also because it made him feel powerful to do things without Congress. But there's a problem with that approach: executive orders are trivial to reverse. As a result, Biden is undoing Trump's "legacy" at an incredibly rapid pace: most of it was done by executive order, which has been countermanded already. As one Republican was quoted, Biden can't reverse it all overnight - it will take almost ten days! So all of that poo poo is right out the door. But Biden doesn't want to fall into the same trap, so for now his EO's are largely limited to undoing Trump's (easy win) and COVID-related stuff (where what you need are results, not lasting change - if it's a problem those get reversed in 4 years then Biden's failed pretty badly). Repealing regulations takes time to do right (the Trump admin was notoriously bad at this) and agencies will need to spend months/years going through all the hoops. But Biden is avoiding trying to implement his positive agenda through executive orders because if you don't get it into law, the first Republican who takes office just undoes it immediately. Obviously, doing stuff by EO beats not doing it at all, but Biden is going to want to try to get as much done legislatively (for at least the two years that's theoretically possible) as he can. evilweasel fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 25, 2021 17:18
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Transgender military ban overturned.
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Jan 25, 2021 18:10
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New made in america EO today. The EO is federal purchasing contract focused and unrelated, to the best of my knowledge, to the FTC regs on "made in america" claims.
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Jan 25, 2021 20:33
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Biden is also restricting entry from Europe/UK/Ireland/Brazil for coronavirus reasons: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...avirus-disease/ with a bunch of exceptions i don't properly understand because i don't need to
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Jan 25, 2021 21:40
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Discendo Vox posted:New made in america EO today. The EO is federal purchasing contract focused and unrelated, to the best of my knowledge, to the FTC regs on "made in america" claims. Did a bit of a deep dive. First this EO rescinds several other Trump EOs. It's hard to tell if those Trump EOs did anything since there is already a bunch of 'made in america' law already existing and mostly they seem to make noise about 'strongly supporting' and I don't see a lot of specific actions to be taken. The Biden EO, in comparison, at least has some actual actions. The most significant of which is to create: quote:The Made in America Office shall be headed by a Director of the Made in America Office (Made in America Director), who shall be appointed by the Director of OMB And then this office handles the waiver applications and determinations of what applies/doesn't apply for purposes of the existing laws. Another significant action is directing the Made In America Director to find suitable US companies to fulfill purchases where appropriate and using an existing scouting program, which sounds pretty good. I personally, have run into 'made in america' laws (FARs/DFARs), and they mostly seem to apply to sourcing raw materials like steel and aluminum for manufacturing which seems pretty consistent with some of the text here.
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Jan 26, 2021 20:50
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axeil posted:D1-8. Require ethics pledge for executive-branch personnel I wonder what the chances are of getting this passed as law? It seems like a good thing that a future Trump 2.0 would need to explicitly sign an "enabling corruption" EO to rescind this, but would that actually gain traction in the press and public discourse? I'm also curious about the extent to which political appointees complied with this in the past out of decorum. I know Trump was pretty blatant about appointing industry lobbyists to run the agencies supposed to regulate their industries, but how much did the revolving door happen with Dubya, Obama or Clinton? Edit: from that article evilweasel linked: John Podesta posted:“I don’t think it’s fair to say that most of what Trump did can be undone in an afternoon. It’s going to take at least ten days” Lead out in cuffs fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Jan 26, 2021 |
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Jan 26, 2021 21:26
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This is a good and useful and informative thread, thank you.
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Jan 26, 2021 23:08
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https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1354181101963550720?s=21
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Jan 26, 2021 23:08
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Lead out in cuffs posted:I wonder what the chances are of getting this passed as law? It seems like a good thing that a future Trump 2.0 would need to explicitly sign an "enabling corruption" EO to rescind this, but would that actually gain traction in the press and public discourse? There was an article about just this in the Guardian recently. Here's the most relevant bit: quote:Yes, it’s commendable that the incoming Democratic administration pledges to behave responsibly, but it’s far from guaranteed that future Republican administrations will do the same. In fact, as things currently stand, it’s practically guaranteed that they won’t. The Bush administration was very lobbyist-friendly, so the Obama administration tried not to be. Trump was even more lobbyist-friendly than Bush, and now Biden is promising to be even more unfriendly than Obama was. As long as it's just executive orders and executive branch rules, there's no reason for this not to be an area where presidents from the two parties just apply their own standard when they enter office without anyone noticing or caring. It would be much better to pass this into legislation so it can't be easily undone, but that's obviously something that takes longer than an EO on day five.
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Jan 27, 2021 04:42
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axeil posted:
The new general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget is a genuinely good and cool dude: quote:Samuel Bagenstos, the Frank G. Millard Professor of Law, specializes in constitutional and civil rights litigation. He currently is serving as general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget and is on leave from the University. From 2009 to 2011, he was a political appointee in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as the principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, the No. 2 official in the Civil Rights Division. His accomplishments included the promulgation of the 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act regulations—the first comprehensive update of those regulations since they were first promulgated in 1991—and the reinvigoration of the Civil Rights Division's enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which guarantees people with disabilities the right to live and receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate. He led the negotiations of significant Olmstead settlements with the states of Delaware and Georgia, which guarantee appropriate, community-based services to thousands of people with disabilities. He also personally argued major cases in federal district courts and courts of appeals https://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=sambagen
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Jan 27, 2021 13:04
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Very happy about the the EOs but most happy about COVID EOs  thanks for the writeup OP
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Jan 27, 2021 16:51
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Biden just signed a new EO: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/ It does a bunch of stuff, but among others, requires that agencies consider climate change when determining the impact of domestic and foreign risks, commits to international financing of non-carbon energy generation, establishes a Office of Domestic Climate Policy and Climate Task Force, and puts a pause on new oil and gas leases on public land.
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Jan 28, 2021 01:01
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bump
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Feb 14, 2021 15:28
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Not particularly huge, but a new executive order aims to reestablish partnerships between faith-based and secular organizations, particularly with COVID relief. Melissa Rogers, who led similar efforts under Obama has been tapped for the effort. Her only real public appearance I'm familiar with was a speaking role at church services after the 2015 Charleston shootings. Nothing too unexpected of Biden, but it still feels weird to see the government engage with religious organizations without a presidential flag loving and endorsement of Christian Dominionism. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-covid-19-pandemic-coronavirus-pandemic-george-w-bush-e2674a18d3335927e21b76476387e218
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Feb 14, 2021 20:37
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Pursuant to an earlier EO, a pretty good example of the sort of thing that an active, engaged executive can do. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/stakeholder-info/administrator-letters-to-stakeholders/covid-vaccination-deployment APHIS Deploys Employees to Support President Biden’s Priority to Vaccinate Against COVID-19 Dear Stakeholders: President Biden recently announced his goal of distributing 100 million COVID-19 vaccines to Americans in the first 100 days of his Administration. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is leading the vaccination effort, and APHIS has deployed 119 employees to assist in several states. We are fortunate to have many highly skilled veterinary medical officers and animal health technicians who have the proper training, experience, and certifications to help accomplish this life-saving task, and we expect more deployments in the coming days. The majority of APHIS’ deployed employees are assigned to Nevada and Oklahoma where they are helping to vaccinate people at a variety of rapid points of distribution including mobile teams and pop-up clinics. In addition, 8 employees have deployed to Texas to provide resource management support for a vaccination site; 6 employees have virtually deployed to assist Washington State in planning vaccination efforts; 4 employees have virtually deployed to assist Oregon; and 9 employees have virtually deployed to support FEMA. APHIS is a proven emergency-response Agency, and every employee who joins our ranks knows they may one day be called upon to support our mission. We are honored that we can contribute to this most vital of missions that will benefit every facet of American life, including agriculture. At this time, the majority of employees are deploying from our Animal Care and Veterinary Services programs, but we also have some employees deploying from our Biotechnology Regulatory Services, Emergency, Regulatory and Compliance Services, International Services, Marketing and Regulatory Programs Business Services, and Plant Protection and Quarantine programs. Please know we will make every effort to minimize service disruptions, and we ask for your patience when delays occur. We want to be upfront about this likelihood and make you aware we are taking steps to prioritize activities customers depend on, including endorsing health certificates, issuing permits and conducting inspections for new license applications. Most deployments are lasting 30 days, but we expect several rounds of deployments may be needed to help achieve the President’s goal. We will also be reaching out to USDA’s accredited veterinarians to seek additional volunteers who have the skills to help with this nationwide effort. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have committed to meeting the needs of our customers while navigating the challenges of the pandemic and ensuring the safety of our employees. Nearly one year later, this continues to be our goal, and we hope that our efforts to vaccinate the public will help us all return to business as usual that much sooner.
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Feb 17, 2021 18:36
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Biden has just issued EO 14016, which reverses and removes Trump Admin EO 13801. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/17/executive-order-on-the-revocation-of-executive-order-13801/ EO 13801 directed federal funding to "industry-led" apprenticeship programs, in an effort to deregulate apprenticeships (think no unions, management-controlled, no pay), and to bypass labor department apprenticeship funding programs that prioritized unionized sectors.
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Feb 22, 2021 18:00
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Discendo Vox posted:Biden has just issued EO 14016, which reverses and removes Trump Admin EO 13801. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/17/executive-order-on-the-revocation-of-executive-order-13801/ Was there any evidence this was having a corrosive effect yet or have we nipped it in the bud? The thing about the USDA inspectors (vets?) being used to vaccinate people is interesting too
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Feb 23, 2021 06:51
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axeil posted:Was there any evidence this was having a corrosive effect yet or have we nipped it in the bud? I'm not literate in the subject, just noticed it in passing. It appears it got at least as far as a new executive domain: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20180615 Biden's already taken it over :heart: https://www.apprenticeship.gov/
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Feb 23, 2021 06:57
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For the record, the stream of OMB reviews and withdrawals of Trump admin executive actions has all but stopped. I don't think this means the reversal process has ended, but I think we've timed out of the review period for the late-breaking EOs from the previous admin.
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Feb 24, 2021 03:43
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Discendo Vox posted:For the record, the stream of OMB reviews and withdrawals of Trump admin executive actions has all but stopped. I don't think this means the reversal process has ended, but I think we've timed out of the review period for the late-breaking EOs from the previous admin. Does this mean they've caught/halted all the bad stuff? Or rather that the normal comment period is closed for those?
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Feb 24, 2021 15:18
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axeil posted:Does this mean they've caught/halted all the bad stuff? Or rather that the normal comment period is closed for those? I've not had time to dig into the procedures, but I think it means that specific method of review/withdrawal from OMB has captured all or almost all it can. That or staff have just been redirected to something else.
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Feb 24, 2021 16:30
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