Now that President Donald Trump is on his way out, he’s attempting to push through bizarre regulations — including, according to ProPublica [1] — some that are quite troubling. Trump’s list is indeed, rather shocking and even includes regulations that could bring back [2] death by firing squad. The Daily Beast [3] reports the proposed rule cleared White House rule on November 6 according to ProPublica’s report and may be finalized any day. There’s a good chance that this may never happen because the five scheduled executions will likely be carried out via lethal injection, and President-elect Joe Biden is opposed to the death penalty.
That’s a fortunate thing, but this speaks volumes about just how hateful Trump really is and in his final days his administration rushing through a plethora of regulations that have wide-ranging effects. This includes everything from changes to long-standing administration priorities to “last-minute scrambles,” ProPublica notes. The measures range from things we consider creature comforts, like shower-heads and washing machines to critically important issues like federal executions and international refugees. The impacts will be felt by the powerful and the vulnerable alike — including Big Pharma, oil drillers, tech start-ups, and people on foodstamps, transgender in homeless shelters, migrant workers, and endangered species.
Pretty much every presidential administration implements last-minute rule-making in one way or another. These are typically known as “midnight regulations” especially if political parties change.
The regulations Trump is trying to introduce will make the situation more difficult for the incoming Biden administration, according to those who track rules developed by federal agencies.
“The bottom line is the Trump administration is trying to get things published in the Federal Register, leaving the next administration to sort out the mess,” said Matthew Kent, who track regulatory policy for the left-leaning watchdog group Public Citizen. “There are some real roadblocks to Biden being able to wave a magic wand on these.”
In some cases, the Trump administration is using shoddy and therefore risky practices to elevate these regulations, by doing things like taking a shorter amount of time to accept and review public feedback. It’s clear here that officials hope to finalize these rules to make the Biden administration jump through additional hoops, but this is a risky move that may mean rules are written in a slapdash error-laden manner that makes it easier for courts to slap them down.
Trump’s administration is currently attempting to finalize 36 major rules in the remaining three months. Among them:
- The aforementioned rule to reintroduce firing squads and electrocutions for federal executions. That gives the government more leeway in regards to administering capital punishment in case drugs used for lethal injections become unavailable. The White House cleared this on November 6, meaning it may soon be finalized.
Fortunately, this may never happen. While the Trump administration executed one inmate earlier this month, five more executions are scheduled before January 20, and all of them are scheduled to be conducted via lethal injection. And Biden has already said he won’t allow federal executions and wants to eliminate capital punishment for federal crimes.
- Speeding up production lines at chicken factories. The Agriculture Department hasn’t provided a timeline for this rule [4] and there hasn’t been public comment yet, but some are worried that while this has the support of high-level industry trade groups, like the National Chicken Council, this may lead to increased worker [5] injuries [6] and make chicken less safe to eat.
- Despite the fact that right now there’s little demand for oil and oil prices are lagging, the Trump administration is attempting to open up additional federal lands for oil and gas development. Complaints from environmental organizations that drilling would disrupt wildlife habits and national parks seem to be falling on deaf ears (are you really surprised?) Bids start as low as $2.00 per acre for more than 445,000 acres, which are being leased for sale to energy companies through the Bureau of Land Management, and there are worries these leases may drastically expand.
The BLM is finalizing plans to allow drilling for oil and gas on more than 6.8 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, which provides habitat for bears, birds, caribou, and musk oxen.
That latter news is truly sad, but if you really want a good idea of the damage the Trump administration is trying to do, I suggest you read ProPublica’s report. It’s disgusting that people would stoop to levels this low, but we are talking about Trump’s people here, and let’s be glad they will be leaving soon.