President-elect Donald Trump said during his campaign that he wanted to roll back a number of policies championed by his predecessor in the White House.

Ahead of the election, the Biden White House sought to “protect from Trump” some of its key priorities. Here’s a look at three of them.

Protection of public service

Trump has long railed against those within the civil service who oppose his plans, what he calls the “deep state.”

Trump released a statement in the final weeks of his first term. executive order creating a new federal working class known as Program F Individuals who would be exempt from the traditional U.S. merit-based civil service program. The Biden administration saw this as a blatant attempt to politicize and disperse the traditional, nonpartisan federal workforce.

President Biden rescinded this executive order during his first week in office. Office of Personnel Management (government human resources department) Issue A final rule in April to further solidify job protections and make it harder to overhaul the federal workforce for ideological reasons.

Then-OPM Director Kiran Ahuja said the new rule would help “people be hired and fired based on merit and that they can perform their duties based on their expertise and not political loyalty.”

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An OPM official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the November election, told NPR that they believe the current regulation is “extremely strong” and that any effort to repeal it would have to go through multiple steps.

Once a rule is on the books, it cannot simply be changed by executive order; so the new Trump administration will need to propose a new rule; This is a long and somewhat tedious editing process that can take months or even years.

“They would have to submit this to public comment and then issue a final rule that would survive judicial review because it would almost certainly be challenged,” said Howard Shelanski, director of the Federal Bureau of Information. and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration.

“I actually think a Trump administration would need some luck to strike down the rule and get it approved by the court within one presidential term,” Shelanski said. “But it’s definitely possible.”

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AFP

Climate measures in the Inflation Reduction Act

Trump threatened to destroy the country Inflation Reduction ActLandmark climate legislation passed by Democrats in 2022 that includes the largest federal clean energy investment in U.S. history.

The law contains more than one 300 billion dollars Making expenditures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage investments in clean energy. As part of this package, it offers tax breaks to consumers and subsidies for production.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has already mentioned I’m trying to cancel elements of the law.

Tax credits for those looking to buy electric vehicles and incentives to build electric charging infrastructure are particularly vulnerable.

“Trump has a weird obsession with these two policies,” said Josh Freed, senior vice president for climate and energy at the left-leaning think tank Third Way.

“And there will be a massive tax bill negotiated in 2025 that will give the Trump administration a way to do that,” Freed said in an interview.

However, the Biden administration believes that the Inflation Reduction Act encourages investments in manufacturing projects in many countries. Republican congressional districts – and influential private companies have already incorporated tax credits into their business plans. That could make returns politically popular, a senior administration official told NPR, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak candidly ahead of the election.

A group of House Republicans underlined these points letter To Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, a few months ago. “Premature repeal of energy tax credits, especially those used to justify already groundbreaking investments, would undermine private investment and halt development already underway.”

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Military and economic support to Ukraine

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the White House quickly came to Ukraine’s aid. Biden has repeatedly said that U.S. support for Ukraine will not waver.

Congress approved More than $112 billion that year he was supporting Ukraine. But when that money ran out, Biden had to struggle for months to get another one. 61 billion dollar package They crossed the finish line while Republicans held out.

Trump, who has long campaigned on the idea of ​​American isolationism, criticized the extent of this financial support. He did not explicitly say he would cut all aid, but he did call for an end to the war and suggested there would be some changes when he took office.

Knowing that the election would create uncertainty about support for Ukraine, the Biden White House has taken a number of steps over the past few months.

This summer, NATO took a larger role in coordinating military support and training for Ukraine; this had previously been a largely US-led effort. Later in September, Biden announced He said all remaining funds for Ukraine would be allocated through the end of his term, leaving no money at the discretion of the next president. And a month later G7 announced A new plan to provide additional support to Ukraine – $50 billion debt. The United States plans to provide $20 billion of that total and will get the money out the door starting in December, before Inauguration Day.

The loan will be repaid along with interest earned on frozen Russian state assets. “In other words, Ukraine can get the help it needs now without being a burden to taxpayers,” Biden said in a statement.

The situation on the battlefield could look different by the time Trump takes the oath of office, said Elizabeth Hoffman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“I have a big question in my mind: Will the Biden administration allow a deeper attack on Russia before leaving? That could really make a difference,” Hoffman said. he said.

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