WaPo: Biden's team pushes to get money out the door in final weeks

[Dennis Donovan]

WaPo - (archived: https://archive.ph/tMQRs ) Biden’s team pushes to get money out the door in final weeks

Officials are optimistic that Trump will have difficulty blocking spending from Biden’s programs, and may not want to. But they’re preparing just in case.

By Yasmeen Abutaleb
Updated November 22, 2024 at 9:14 a.m. EST
Published November 22, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EST

Late on the afternoon of Nov. 13, about a week after Vice President Kamala Harris’s devastating election loss, President Joe Biden got on a phone call with about 2,000 appointees across the federal government, hoping to ensure that the final weeks of his presidency did not go to waste.

“I know it’s a difficult time. I’m sure you’re all feeling a variety of emotions,” Biden said. “But I hope there’s one emotion you don’t lose sight of: pride in all we’ve accomplished together.”
The call, according to a Biden aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting, was in part aimed at motivating despondent employees who worried that their work would rapidly be undone. Biden and his aides have concluded that they have few ways to block President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to upend agencies and shatter norms, but there is one big thing they can do: focus their final weeks on getting billions of dollars out the door to finish implementing Biden’s signature pieces of legislation.

The president’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, told employees on the call that the final two months of Biden’s term would be focused on “execution, execution, execution,” in addition to the peaceful transfer of power.

Biden’s White House team recognizes that there is not enough time to pass new laws before he leaves office and that other actions, such as issuing a flurry of executive orders, could be immediately overturned by Trump after he takes office. But the most sweeping parts of Biden’s domestic agenda were enshrined by Congress, making them harder for Trump to stymie.

In the president’s first two years in office, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package; the Inflation Reduction Act, a sprawling bill to lower prescription drug costs and address global warming; the Chips and Science Act, which provides $52 billion to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry; and a $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve the nation’s roads, bridges and broadband.

/snip

[MrWowWow]

1. What About the $7B for the Hydrogen Hubs?

Is tramp gonna claw that back?

[bronxiteforever]

2. America, you don't know what you got

until it’s gone. Competence isn’t fun though and you want entertainment. Why think when rich men will do the thinking for you?

You chose a clown with a flamethrower.

[Rebl2]

3. Hope

they get that money distributed for infrastructure because our red state is counting on it for bridge and highway projects.

[global1]

4. Unfortunately - Look For Trump To Take Credit For All....

these projects being completed during Tr**p's term.

All Dems should be on notice to make sure when any of this money is being spent and projects are started or completed - that the American People be reminded that credit needs to go to Biden.