With the 2024 election season heating up and former President Donald Trump showing impressive strength in the polls, the Biden administration appears to be taking steps to make it difficult for its preferred regulations to be unwound in the event of a Democrat loss.
To that end, the Biden White House is working overtime to implement a host of new rules ahead of November in hopes of thwarting Trump-directed policy reversals, particularly with regard to what Republicans refer to as the administrative “deep state,” as Breitbart reports.
As the outlet explains, the “administrative” or “deep state” are terms often used to describe the concept of an unelected -- and thus unaccountable -- body of bureaucrats installed in federal agencies that is able to promulgate its own rules.
Critics suggest that this allows political appointees to use rule-making authority to skirt the separation of powers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
The scenario, it is argued, facilitates an entrenchment of ideologically driven government employees who do not have to answer to the citizenry.
A surge in recent actions by administrative agencies under the Biden administration has been seen by some as signaling some potential concern about a Trump win in November.
According to Breitbart, citing a report from the Regulatory Studies Center, federal agencies under the president's purview put into place upwards of 66 noteworthy rules during the month of April alone, a pace not seen since the Reagan administration.
Axios further noted that Biden-directed agencies have come forward with 111 more regulations than those that had emerged at a similar point during the Trump administration.
Many of the rules have been focused on liberal priorities such as tailpipe emissions and other carbon dioxide emissions restrictions.
Though rules put in place during a so-called “lookback period” can ultimately be reversed by a subsequent administration via the Congressional Review Act, the Biden administration has reportedly implemented a truncated timeline in what appears to be an attempt to thwart such actions.
As Axios further noted, the Biden administration recently issued a rule designed to safeguard federal employees from what Democrats fear could be a “deep state” purge should Trump return to the White House.
The move comes as a response to a prior Trump executive order known as “Schedule F,” which purported to reclassify large numbers of federal employees into a category subject to easy dismissal and replacement with hand-selected candidates.
Though Biden rescinded the order upon taking office, the administration's new rule has erected additional barriers meant to block -- or at least significantly delay and complicate -- attempts by a potential second Trump administration to reinstate the program.
Though the presidential contest still has a long way to go, it appears that progressives in the federal government harbor serious concerns about which way the political winds appear to be blowing and are doing everything they can to cling to power regardless of the result.
