Government Actions Biden May Take

It’s grim—and official: Donald Trump is returning to the White Home. Little doubt the time between now and January 20 can be a time of reckoning and recriminations about how the Democratic Celebration didn’t fend off a profoundly flawed authoritarian—for the second time.

However all of the whereas, the White Home will stay occupied by Joe Biden. And now the primary one-term Democratic chief government since Jimmy Carter has a couple of weeks to make a last-ditch effort to salvage his legacy—and shore up the governmental guardrails that Trump imperils.

There’s way more good that the Biden administration might do in its waning days than can probably be named right here. (The record of worthy pardons alone could be staggering.) However specifically, President Biden has clear alternatives in the case of reforming prison justice, brokering world peace, defending immigrants, taking local weather motion, and heading off authoritarianism.

First, he can carry to fruition a reform he’s already begun to discover: legalizing marijuana. Again in Could, Biden initiated a evaluation of hashish’s standing as a Schedule I drug, a pivot away from his long-standing opposition. It’s debatable precisely how a lot authority the president has to vary marijuana’s authorized standing. However Biden might actually conclude his administration’s needlessly prolonged evaluation course of—how lengthy does it take to say, “It’s not a gateway drug”?—and formally suggest de-scheduling to federal companies. He might additionally pardon anybody at present languishing in federal jail for nonviolent drug offenses. Since these potential pardon recipients are disproportionately Black, the transfer would advance not simply prison but in addition racial justice. And crucially, making such strikes would deny Trump the straightforward victory of constructing any of them himself.

In one other commonsense change that may undo many years of mindless coverage, the president might additionally lastly normalize relations with Cuba. That may imply the restoration of official diplomatic ties, elimination of the island from the State Sponsors of Terrorism Checklist, and honoring the 22 bilateral agreements signed in the course of the Obama administration earlier than being torn up by Trump. It might additionally imply lifting sanctions which have fueled Cuba’s ongoing financial disaster, and offering sturdy help to folks beset by extreme gasoline shortages and meals rationing. Closing Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and returning it to Cuba as a hospital would disassemble the starkest image of American domineering on the island. And although Trump will nearly actually search to reverse any government actions on Cuba, Biden might make that politically sophisticated by opening up private-sector funding there.

That’s not the one unfinished diplomacy at stake. The backdoor conversations between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu—and ”backdoor” right here means “overtly mentioned”—have been dispiritingly evocative of the alleged Republican efforts in 1980 to delay the discharge of American hostages in Iran till after Reagan defeated Carter and took workplace. Now, whether or not the horrors escalate or a ceasefire is brokered that Trump will get undeserved credit score for, this battle is about to go down as Biden’s signature international coverage failure. However he nonetheless has time, within the twilight of his presidency, to say some ethical authority by implementing the Leahy Legislation—which prevents the US from offering navy help to a rustic that has violated human rights—and halting, even briefly, arms shipments to Israel.

As he makes his last efforts to curb humanitarian crises in Gaza and Cuba, Biden may additionally attempt to avert a future one alongside the US’ southern border. Trump has threatened to double down on the merciless immigration insurance policies of his first time period by way of “the huge arsenal of federal powers.” That might embrace the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants, in addition to a resumption of his household separation coverage on the border. President Biden can attempt to stymie this sadism by fast-tracking citizenship functions, reversing an government order limiting asylum, and increasing work permits for undocumented immigrants. These compassionate reforms might profoundly change the outlook for many individuals who may in any other case be underneath risk in January and past.

In the meantime, with not less than 3 million Individuals already pressured by excessive climate to turn into local weather refugees, Biden has greater than sufficient purpose to declare a local weather emergency. He claims to have “virtually” carried out so, however really doing so would allow him to avoid a cussed Congress to allot further local weather funding. Then, he can implement a raft of overdue government orders, from extra area of interest however nonetheless consequential reforms like decarbonizing the maritime trade, to sweeping (and promised) modifications like banning offshore drilling. Such motion would cement Biden’s legacy as arguably the greenest president in fashionable historical past—and pressure Trump to make unfavorable headlines if he needs to undo that progress.

Lastly, Biden should take concrete steps to fend off the specter of authoritarianism that Trump’s second time period poses. American democracy might now be in its most weak place because the Civil Battle. That’s why filling all 46 judicial vacancies with judges who will uphold the rule of regulation is nonnegotiable. He may also attain throughout the aisle to deal with considerations about election integrity—earlier than Trump takes that matter into his personal paws—by changing antiquated voting machines, conducting audits, and defending ballot staff and election officers.

Above all, a productive, placid lame-duck interval would do a lot to display for the primary time in eight years what a peaceable switch of energy seems to be like—at the same time as Biden palms it again to the individual chargeable for that lapse.

Weeks after he had carried out a distinct type of switch of energy, on the primary evening of this 12 months’s Democratic Nationwide Conference, Biden summed up his hopes for his legacy: “Let me know in my coronary heart…that I gave my greatest to you.” Between now and January, he can do his greatest to align that self-evaluation with historical past’s judgment.