WASHINGTON (AP) — Biden administration officials are working against time by distributing billions in grants and taking other steps to preserve at least some of the outgoing president’s legacy before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
“Let’s make every day count,” President Joe Biden said in an address to the nation last week after Vice President Kamala Harris conceded defeat to Trump in the presidential race.
Trump has promised to eliminate unspent money in Biden’s landmark climate and health care legislation and halt tidy energy development projects.
“There is only one government at a time,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters at a news conference Thursday. “This applies now and will continue to apply after January 20th. Our responsibility is to make good use of the resources that Congress has authorized for us and that we are responsible for the allocation and disbursement over the past three years.”
But Trump will control more than just the purse strings in January. His administration may also propose modern regulations to undo some of what the Biden administration did through the rulemaking process.
Here are some of the steps the Biden administration is currently taking:
Putting infrastructure spending into action
Biden administration officials hope that projects funded under the $1 trillion infrastructure bill and the $375 billion climate bill will last beyond Biden’s term and are working to ensure that money continues to flow out the groundbreaking measures.
On Friday, Buttigieg announced more than $3.4 billion in grants for projects aimed at improving passenger rail service, helping U.S. ports reduce deaths on highways and supporting domestic manufacturing of sustainable transportation materials.
“We are investing in better transportation systems that reach every corner of the country and in the workers who produce materials and build projects,” he said. “Communities will experience safer commutes, cleaner air and stronger supply chains that we all count on.”
Acceleration of environmental goals
Announcements of major environmental grants and project approvals have increased in recent months, in what White House officials are calling a “sprint to the end” of Biden’s four-year term.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently set a nationwide deadline for lead pipe removal and announced nearly $3 billion to assist local water systems meet it. The agency also announced that for the first time oil and gas companies will have to pay a federal fee if they emit threatening methane above certain levels.
The Energy Department, meanwhile, announced a $544 million loan to a Michigan company to expand production of high-quality silicon carbide wafers for electric vehicles. The loan is one of 28 deals totaling $37 billion made under a tidy energy lending program that was revived and expanded under Biden.
“There is a new urgency to get everything done. “We’re seeing explosions of money flowing out the door,” said Melinda Pierce, legislative director of the Sierra Club. Biden and his allies “really want to finish the work they started.”
Help for Ukraine
Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters this week that Biden wants to “exhaust the powers allocated and authorized by Congress before he leaves office. That’s why we’re going to work very hard to make sure that happens.”
The Biden administration would need to purchase $7.1 billion worth of weapons – $4.3 billion from the 2024 supplement and $2.8 billion due to the Pentagon’s recalculation of the value of the systems shipped still on the books – rushing from Pentagon stockpiles to spend it all These funds are needed before Trump is sworn in.
In addition, an additional $2.2 billion is available to provide long-term contracts for weapons systems. However, the most recent aid packages have been much smaller, around $200 million to $300 million each.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the funds were already committed, which would make them hard to withdraw since the modern administration would have to reverse it.
Pressure to confirm court decisions quickly
Another priority for the White House is to confirm as many federal judges as possible by the Senate before Trump’s inauguration on January 20th.
The Senate voted 51-44 this week to confirm former prosecutor April Perry as a judge on the U.S. District Court in northern Illinois. More than a dozen outstanding judicial nominees have resigned from the Senate Judiciary Committee; Eight judicial nominations are awaiting committee votes and six are awaiting committee hearings.
Trump has urged Republicans to resist efforts to confirm judicial nominees. “No judges should be allowed during this period because Democrats are trying to impose their judges while Republicans fight for leadership,” he wrote on the social media site Leaders elected.
Student loan forgiveness
The Education Department has rushed to finalize a modern federal rule that would cancel student loans for people in financial difficulty. The proposal — one of Biden’s only student loan plans that hasn’t been stopped by federal courts — is in the public comment period, which ends Dec. 2.
After that, the department would have a narrow window of time to finalize the rule and begin implementation, a process that typically takes months. Like Biden’s other efforts, it would almost certainly face a legal challenge.
In addition, the Biden administration has room to expedite student loan cancellations for people who have already been promised relief because they were defrauded by their colleges, said Aaron Ament, an Obama administration Education Department official and president of National Student Legal Defense Network.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona could decide this and other cases rather than leaving them to the Trump administration, which is expected to be far friendlier to for-profit colleges. “It’s a given,” Ament said. “There are a number of cases that are on Cardona’s desk. It’s tough to imagine that these would simply remain untouched.
Trump hasn’t said what he would do about student loan forgiveness. However, he and Republicans have criticized Biden’s efforts.
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Associated Press writers Tara Copp and Dan Merica contributed to this report.
