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President-elect Joe Biden will issue a memo on the first day of his term to “stop or delay” the Trump administration’s last-minute actions, Biden’s transition team said Thursday.
The Biden-Harris White House plans to issue a regulatory freeze note on the afternoon of January 20 that will stop or delay the so-called “midnight regulations” put in place by the Trump administration that will only take effect after opening day, said new White House press secretary Jen psaki during the last transition team briefing before the new year. Such last-minute actions are typical of lame presidents, she said.
What are the midnight rules?
According to the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University, “the final months of an outgoing presidential administration typically generate significant regulatory activity.”
“The midnight period is generally defined as the period between the presidential election in November and the inauguration day on January 20 of the following year,” writes the center, and has been “documented from the passage of the Carter administration to Reagan, and has accompanied every presidential transition since, regardless of political party. “
The Biden administration will deal with changes made during this period expeditiously, as have other administrations, Psaki said. The freeze will apply to both regulations and guidance documents, which agencies issue to explain or clarify rules and policies.
Psaki cited as an example a rule proposed by the Trump administration’s Department of Labor regarding the power of companies to classify workers as independent contractors, rather than employees, under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Independent contractors give up most of the benefits that employees enjoy, such as overtime or minimum wage, paid sick leave, family leave, and the right to form or join a union.
“The Ministry of Labor is expected to issue a final rule by January 20 that would make it easier for companies to call their workers independent contractors to avoid minimum wages and overtime protection.” If it comes into effect, the rule will make it easier to misclassify employees. as independent contractors, which costs workers nearly $ 3.7 billion a year, ”she said. Biden’s note “could potentially freeze this rule and not allow him to implement it,” Psaki said.
Asked what the Biden administration will face in the face of potential upcoming executive actions and orders that the freeze memo cannot stop – such as reports that the Trump administration will designate Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism – Psaki acknowledged that ‘there were “additional actions that the Trump administration and team members can take in the coming weeks that are detrimental and destructive to our policies, whether national security policies or national policies . “
She and Yohannes Abraham, executive director of the Biden-Harris transition, said delays and obstructions in the transition process made it difficult to assess some issues. She said Biden’s team had hoped for “greater cooperation” from the hub agencies. “including the Ministry of Defense. ”
The transition coincided with significant delays in vaccine distribution. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data Tracker, more than 2 million people have been vaccinated across the United States – a far cry from the 20 million officials in the Trump administration promised by the end of the year.
“The pace is not what it needs to be,” Psaki said, adding that the incoming administration will push for more funding for vaccine distribution in the new year. “The bill currently under discussion will not be enough.”
Biden will also rescind some of Trump’s “harmful” executive orders, Psaki said, and some of the incoming administration’s priorities will include “restoring the protection of dreamers, returning to the Paris Climate Agreement, the overturned environmental setbacks from President Trump’s Affordable Care Act. “
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