President Biden’s breathtakingly broad pardon of his son’s criminal behavior is just one step the administration is taking to block potential action from the future president — what analysts call an attempt to “Trump-proof” government.
Mr. Biden’s allies in various departments are rushing to push cash out the door and lock in policies they think President-elect Donald Trump will not favor.
In an undercover video by Project Veritas, one Environmental Protection Agency figure said the agency had been funneling billions of dollars to climate change organizations “as fast as possible.”
“It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge,” said the person, identified in the video as EPA special adviser Brant Efron.
A similar effort to shovel money out the door is underway at the Commerce Department. Politico, a news organization in Washington, said Secretary Gina Raimondo wants to “leave no cash for Trump” from a $50 billion microchip subsidy program.
“I’d like to have really almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave,” she told the publication. “That’s the goal, and I certainly want to have all the major announcements done as it relates to the big, leading-edge companies.”
At the Social Security Administration, officials confirmed they had locked in a generous telework agreement that allowed employees to work as little as two days per week in the office.
The agency said that is essentially what they allow now. It said employees have increased productivity this year and are clearing disability case initial reviews faster than in years.
At the EPA, officials said they are “on track to a timeline we set years ago.”
“All of EPA’s grant awards are implemented in accordance with robust, consistent, and rigorous processes — consistent with the high standards of Federal ethics rules and EPA’s Competition Policy — and we ensure the fair and impartial treatment for external partners,” the agency said.
Every administration does last-minute maneuvering.
Among the more notable examples from the first Trump term was a memo that acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli signed with several Republican-led states. The memo purported to give the states a veto over major immigration policy changes unless they got a 180-day consultation period. He signed a similar deal with the labor union for deportation officers.
Those agreements fared poorly in the courts when they were used to try to stop Mr. Biden’s early changes.
Michael McKenna, a senior official in the Trump White House, said most administrations try to prove things against their successors, but usually at a slower pace.
The Biden administration, however, has been slow-walking for years and is now rushing to finalize agenda items.
Mr. McKenna pointed to an Energy Department clean energy loan guarantee program that had issued just $12 billion in loans over the past few years. Since the election, the department has been rushing to finalize tens of billions of dollars in new loans.
Mr. McKenna, who also writes a column for The Washington Times, said a political reality is motivating the Biden zeal: Democrats fear they won’t retake the reins of executive power for some time.
“This is the last helicopter out of Saigon,” he said. “There is a string of thought on the left that they might be in the wilderness for 8 or 12 years.”
Mr. Biden’s pardon of his son was a major example of Trump-proofing. The president could have forgiven Hunter Biden’s tax and gun crime convictions, but the pardon covered anything else the Justice Department might bring against him.
Seeing the closing window, activist groups are begging Mr. Biden to do more to constrain Mr. Trump.
Immigration advocacy groups have called on Mr. Biden to shut down detention facilities to deny Mr. Trump deportation capacity. Some groups have even urged Mr. Biden to issue a blanket pardon to illegal immigrants.
Activists hope to secure last-minute legal wins before the Trump administration takes power.
Mr. Biden’s team is negotiating with immigration rights activists over changes to asylum rules that could bind Mr. Trump’s hands-on border policy.
He could end those settlement talks if no deal is struck when Mr. Trump takes office.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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