Donald Trump returns to the White House willing to immediately remodel the Government using the fastest tool it has: the executive order.
An incoming president signing a flurry of executive orders is a usual practice. Executive orders allow the president exercise his power without the intervention of Congress. But there is also boundaries to what orders can achieve.
Basically, they are signed statements about how the president wants the federal government to be run. They can be instructions to federal agencies or requests for reports.
Many orders may be unobjectionable, such as giving federal employees the day off after Christmas. They can also set far-reaching policies. For example, President Joe Biden signed an order to create a structure that establishes rules on artificial intelligence. But executive orders – and their political sisters, the proclamation and the political memorandum – are also used by presidents to carry out programs that cannot pass in Congress.
New presidents can – and often do – issue orders to cancel those of his predecessors.
As pointed out by the American Bar Associationthe orders do not require congressional approval and They cannot be overturned directly by legislators. Still, Congress can prevent an order from being carried out by withdrawing funds or creating other obstacles.
Throughout US history there have been several thousand executive orders, according to data collected by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. George Washington signed eight executive orders, while Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed 3,721. During his first term, the Republican Trump signed 220. Biden, a Democrat, had signed 160 until December 20.
Executive orders are often political messages. Trump predicted the signing of up to 100 executive orders on his first daypossibly covering the deportationsthe border between the US and Mexico, the energy domestic law, Schedule F rules for federal workers, gender policies in schools, and mandates vaccinesamong other first-day promises made during his campaign. He has also promised an executive order to give more time to the sale of TikTok.
Trump has asked the representative Jeff Van DrewRepublican of New Jersey, to draft an order to stop development of windmills offshore to generate electricity.
Many of Trump’s measures are likely to draw Democratic opposition. And in several important cases, the orders will be largely statements of intent based on campaign promises made by Trump.
Both Congress and the courts can potentially block executive orders.
For example, in 1992 Congress revoked an executive order by then-President George H.W. Bush that would establish a bank of human fetal tissues for scientific research by approving a measure that the order “will have no legal effect.” Congress can also deny funding to agencies and hinder compliance with an order.
There are also legal challenges based on the argument that a president exceeded his legal powers. When President Harry Truman tried to confiscate steel mills during the Korean War, the US Supreme Court said that lacked authority to take private property without authorization from Congress.
(With information from the Associated Press)
