By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2025-01-22 19:31:15 | Updated at 2025-01-22 23:23:16
4 hours ago
With a few strokes of his pen, President Trump wasted little time signing dozens of executive orders during his grand return to the Oval Office Monday that undid dozens of Biden administration-era policies, much to the delight of Republicans in Congress.
But now Republican lawmakers are eager to see many of those executive orders and actions get codified into law to ensure that a potential Democratic successor can’t quickly nullify his early accomplishments.
“What he’s doing is kickstarting what will ultimately be our legislative agenda,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) explained to The Post on Wednesday.
On Monday, Trump, 78, signed a record-breaking 26 executive orders on Inauguration Day, surpassing the 15 that former President Joe Biden signed on his first day in 2021 and the 14 Trump did on Day One in 2017.
Among the orders signed was a directive to rescind 78 Biden-era executive orders, actions to shore up border security, efforts to ramp up energy production, the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an end to birthright citizenship, a reclassification of government workers to make it easier to fire them and more.
Already, legal challenges have popped up, including 18 states that have challenged his order to end so-called birthright citizenship, which stipulates that under the 14th Amendment, the children of illegal immigrants automatically become citizens.
Trump’s orders creating DOGE and reclassifying government workers have also sparked legal challenges.
Republicans appear particularly keen on codifying Trump’s orders pertaining to revving up domestic energy production, bolstering border security and slashing regulations.
“If we don’t codify it [and] the next president, God forbid, is a Democrat, [they] will reverse everything he did,” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) told The Post. “I’d like to see a lot of deregulation — that’s a big point of making businesses hum.”
“We should come back and pass a law. For instance, we talked about the electric vehicle mandate and repealing that,” Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Col.) told The Post. “Neither of them had the authority to do that.”
In 2021, the Biden administration vowed to work towards ensuring that electric vehicles would constitute 50% of domestic new car sales by 2030. Technically, it wasn’t binding, despite critics dubbing it an “electric vehicle mandate.” Trump reversed it on his first day.
“We made it very clear that Biden had at his fingertips the opportunity to do everything that Trump did,” Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) said, referring to Trump’s actions on the border specifically.
Top of mind for Harris was Trump’s move to revive the so-called Remain in Mexico policy, which compels certain asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while waiting for the US to sort through their claims.
Biden completely scrapped it in 2022 following a legal fight.
“I think by doing that we give the President of Mexico cover,” Rep. Michael Rulli (R-Ohio) told The Post. “I think she’s really reluctant to go along with Trump. But if we start passing laws, not executive orders … I think it gives her cover to play along with us.”
Republicans have a threadbare majority in the House with 218 seats to the Democrats’ 215. Soon that will slip to 217 seats, which will mean they can’t have any defections to pass legislation. By April, Republicans are expected to get back three seats after special elections are held for vacancies left by members joining the Trump administration.
That complicates passage through the House of Representatives. But in the Senate, Republicans will have to reckon with the upper chamber’s cumbersome rules, particularly the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster.
Several reps have suggested packaging key executive orders from Trump into the marquee legislative package they are pursuing on tax reform, border security, energy policy and defense.
That agenda package will come via budget reconciliation, a process that overrides the filibuster.
Trump is expected to sign another onslaught of executive orders during his early time back in the White House. On the campaign trail, he spooked Democrats by joking that he wouldn’t be a dictator “other than day one.”
“No. I can’t imagine even being called that. I believe in the sanctity of the vote,” Trump said Monday when asked about whether he was actually being a dictator on day one.
