{"id":5912,"date":"2017-01-26T21:43:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T03:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=5912"},"modified":"2017-01-26T21:43:58","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T03:43:58","slug":"week-1-far-executive-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/01\/week-1-far-executive-orders.html","title":{"rendered":"Week 1 (so far): The Executive Orders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So now it\u2019s the turn of the Democrats to say, \u201cif you didn\u2019t like Obama\u2019s executive orders, you ought to be outraged at Trump, because he\u2019s doing the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is he? \u00a0Obama\u2019s most notorious executive order was DACA, which was a matter of taking the executive power to determine not to deport certain individuals, and applying this to the better part of a million people. \u00a0OK, that\u2019s not true \u2014 is most notorious was DAPA, which would have covered 5 million people had the court not blocked it.<\/p>\n

Are Trump\u2019s orders exceeding his authority and effectively going so far as to be legislating? \u00a0Let\u2019s see . . .<\/p>\n

There are multiple lists of his executive orders so far, from CNN, for example<\/a>. \u00a0And the White House website even includes links to the text<\/a>. \u00a0Let\u2019s look at them:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0\u201cMinimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal.\u201d \u00a0According to CNN,<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The directive called on the secretary of health and human services, in addition to other agencies, to interpret regulations as loosely as possible to minimize the financial burden on individuals, insurers, health care providers and others.<\/p>\n

    What does this mean? \u00a0One possible implication I could envision is that the determination of when an individual has a hardship that exempts him or her from the mandate is apparently somewhat cryptic, so this could be loosened. \u00a0But other than that, I don\u2019t really know of regulations that can be interpreted, at this point in time anyway. \u00a0Is this intended to \u201cbypass Congress\u201d? \u00a0I don\u2019t really see the point of it when it\u2019s a given (to my understanding) that Congress has the power to implement a repeal by making use of certain loopholes This is so vague as to largely be symbolic, as far as I can tell.<\/p>\n

    2. \u00a0\u201cExpediting environmental reviews and approvals for high profile infrastructure projects.\u201d \u00a0This order calls on the departments charged with\u00a0environmental review to deliver their reviews more quickly. \u00a0Are there any concrete actions to be taken as a result of this order? \u00a0Probably not, so far as I can tell, except to set a general tone.<\/p>\n

    3. \u00a0\u201cBorder security and immigration enforcement improvements.\u201d \u00a0This order increases border patrol by 5,000 agents, and directs the building of the wall. \u00a0Now, I\u2019ve read that Congress has already passed legislation authorizing the building of the wall, but that was never completed (see Wikipedia<\/a>, though it\u2019s not clear on the outcome); the issue seems to be that Trump couldn\u2019t start building without the appropriate appropriation. And, in fact, the order itself includes as one component, making the necessary appropriation requests from Congress.<\/p>\n

    4. \u00a0\u201cEnhancing public safety in the Interior of the United States.\u201d \u00a0This aims at tripling the number of agents tasked with interior immigration enforcement, adding 10,000 new agents. \u00a0This also cuts funding from sanctuary cities, though there are disputes about what types of funding Trump may unilaterally cut \u2014 and, indeed, the statement is that funds will be cut to the extent permitted by law.<\/p>\n

    Now, these are the only Executive Orders in CNN\u2019s list because the remaining actions are \u201cexecutive memoranda\u201d \u2014 and these are:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u201cMemorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies\u201d: \u00a0this halts any new regulations until the administration can review them, and is, CNN reports, standard for a president coming into office.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      2. \u00a0\u201cRegarding the Mexico City Policy\u201d \u2014 this re-implements the Mexico City Policy that says that organizations that perform or promote abortions are ineligible for federal funding in family planning programs abroad. \u00a0The abortion-rights crowd, every time a Republican president takes office, says that the sky is falling. \u00a0Honestly, corporations have spin offs\u00a0and divestitures all the time \u2014 is it really so out of the question to spin off the abortion-providing arm of an international family-planning organization?<\/p>\n

      3. \u00a0\u201cRegarding Withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement.\u201d \u00a0Not a big surprise that Trump would withdraw from the TPP, which had not been ratified by Congress, nor even submitted for ratification.<\/p>\n

      4. \u00a0\u201cRegarding the Hiring Freeze\u201d: \u00a0a foolish policy, it seems to me, but I can\u2019t say whether it exceeds his authority. \u00a0I suppose if this were to stay in place for the long term, it would be a sort of legislating, if it pares away the workforce so much that laws passed by Congress are simply not able to be administered.<\/p>\n

      5. \u00a0\u201cConstruction of American Pipelines\u201d: \u00a0All pipelines shall consist, to the extent permitted by law, of American materials. \u00a0I don\u2019t get this: \u00a0pipelines are built by private entities, and not under contract to the American government but for their own business purposes, right? \u00a0Is Trump claiming the authority to mandate this? \u00a0Are the weasel words of \u201cas permitted by law\u201d the indicator that this is another one of his efforts to, shall we say, strongly encourage businesses do abide by his wishes?<\/p>\n

      6. \u00a0\u201cRegarding Construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline\u201d: \u00a0Invites the pipeline company to resubmit its application, and calls for an expedited 60 day approval process, but doesn\u2019t guarantee approval.<\/p>\n

      7. \u00a0\u201cRegarding Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline\u201d: \u00a0restarts the approval process for the DAPL.<\/p>\n

      8. \u00a0\u201cStreamlining Permitting and Reducing Regulatory Burdens for Domestic Manufacturing\u201d: \u00a0which seems to generically say that approvals for manufacturers should be expedited.<\/p>\n

      So I\u2019m not really seeing anything that\u2019s a shocking overreach, but, on the other hand, I\u2019m not sure what to make of many of these.<\/p>\n

      The only ones that appear to be concrete actions are the Mexico City Policy, the hiring freeze, and the TPP withdrawal; the others seem to be more statements of policy.<\/p>\n

      And the moratorium on refugees<\/a>, and visas from certain Middle-Eastern countries? \u00a0This is still in draft form, not signed or officially released yet.<\/p>\n

      So I\u2019m simply not sure what to make of anything yet. \u00a0When will Trump propose actual\u00a0legislation, or will he wait for Congress to do the same, or will he find that that\u2019s much harder work than a photo-opportunity signing of an Order or Memorandum prepared by his staff?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      So now it\u2019s the turn of the Democrats to say, \u201cif you didn\u2019t like Obama\u2019s executive orders, you ought to be outraged at Trump, because he\u2019s doing the same thing.\u201d Is he? \u00a0Obama\u2019s most notorious executive order was DACA, which was a matter of taking the executive power to determine not to deport certain individuals, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[537,325,538],"class_list":["post-5912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-executive-orders","tag-trump","tag-trumps-first-100-days"],"yoast_head":"\nWeek 1 (so far): The Executive Orders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So now it's the turn of the Democrats to say, "if you didn't like Obama's executive orders, you ought to be outraged at Trump, because 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