WASHINGTON — When President Joe Biden relinquishes power in January, some parts of his legacy will be secure, while others may be undone by President-elect Donald Trump and a new Republican-controlled Congress.
The pieces of Biden’s legacy go into four buckets. Trump can easily undo executive actions on matters like immigration and transgender rights, while a Republican Congress can unravel spending programs passed by Democrats on a partisan basis. But it will be difficult for Trump to undo bipartisan legislation, such as measures about infrastructure and preventing gun violence, and the judges Biden appointed can’t be unseated.
Republican lawmakers told NBC News they expect Trump to quickly undo many of Biden’s executive actions and the GOP-controlled Congress to use the budget process to roll back some of his spending measures, including parts of one of the signature achievements of his administration, the Inflation Reduction Act.
Executive actions (most at risk)
In his almost four years in office, Biden has taken executive action on border security and keeping migrant families together to abortion access, birth control and protecting LGBTQ rights. His programs forgiving billions of dollars in federal student loan debt face an uncertain future after Trump ran against them.
Biden’s immigration orders are ripe for Trump to target after he ran on a platform of mass deportations and clamping down on border security. In June, Biden signed an executive action to temporarily shut down asylum requests once the average number of daily encounters tops 2,500 between official ports of entry, which Trump may seek to supersede with one of his own. The same month, a second Biden order allowed undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for legal status without leaving the country if they’ve lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more.
Biden also took executive action to ensure women have access to reproductive health care when they travel across state lines for medical care, including abortions, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And his administration proposed a rule just last month that would provide women with private insurance access to over-the-counter birth control at no cost.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he expects Trump to move “very fast” to undo Biden’s executive orders on issues like immigration and transgender rights, which Biden instructed his administration to protect in a 2022 executive order.
“The border legacy is an unmitigated disaster,” Cramer said. “Those are all issues that cost Kamala Harris the election. That’s the disconnect with their party, with real people.”
Spending and tax policies (in real danger)
Republicans are preparing to move quickly to craft a party-line bill that would extend Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and undo some of Biden’s achievements, most notably provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The consumer benefits in the IRA include a $7,500 credit to buy certain electric vehicles, credits for home energy efficiency and Obamacare subsidies that capped insurance premiums for many middle-class people.
“Everything in the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan is potentially on the table,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the Finance Committee. “Having said that, I do believe that there are policies there that we should look at the merits, once they’ve been passed. But there are billions and billions of dollars that were misspent in both of those bills, and I’m going to support repurposing them to support the TCJA 2025.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who’s in line to chair the Environment and Public Works Committee, said she has the IRA’s climate change provisions in her sights.
“The IRA is certainly something we’re going to be taking a look at. And so other than that, I think committee chairs are starting to meet together to start to discuss this.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Republicans may not extend the Obamacare subsidies, which expire next year.
“I don’t know about that one,” he said.
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., said there will be no sacred cows when House Republicans look to slash spending.
“We will try and find savings wherever we can,” he said.
Bipartisan Biden-era bills (largely safe)
The parts of Biden’s legacy that will be relatively safe are the bipartisan laws he passed, which are subject to filibusters and therefore give Democrats the power to protect them. GOP senators, including the newly elected majority leader, John Thune, of South Dakota, insist they will preserve the legislative filibuster while they’re in charge.
Those achievements include the CHIPS and Science Act and the infrastructure law, which have created jobs in domestic industry and construction projects; the Safer Communities Act to modestly tighten gun laws; the Respect for Marriage Act to codify legal same-sex marriage; a Postal Service reform law; and an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act to prevent a future presidential candidate from trying to use Congress to overturn an election.
“I’m sure they’ll come after the IRA. CHIPS And Science, I think, is probably OK because it was bipartisan,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats.
Republicans will have 52 or 53 votes in the Senate, depending on the outcome of a race in Pennsylvania that is heading to a recount. It’s not clear they’ll have an appetite to repeal the recent bipartisan laws, which some in their party shaped and supported. But even if they try, those measures are subject to the 60-vote threshold, which Democrats are certain to use to protect their achievements.
“That’s what I hope,” King said.
Biden-appointed judges (very safe)
The safest part of Biden’s legacy is arguably the most significant: the federal judges he has appointed across district courts and appeals courts and his Supreme Court pick, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Biden and the Democratic-controlled Senate have so far confirmed 215 judges, a unique slate with historic diversity in personal and professional backgrounds, with high shares of former public defenders and civil rights lawyers. Democrats are using the lame duck session, between now and Jan. 3, to grow that number.
The judges are all serving lifetime appointments, meaning Trump and Republicans won’t have the power to unseat them.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
