As Democrats look toward the midterm elections in November, a growing number of top lawmakers are calling for President Joe Biden to enact parts of the party’s agenda via executive action after facing roadblocks in passing key priorities legislatively.
The razor-thin majorities in both chambers have presented a series of challenges in the Democrats’ quest to send massive, sometimes controversial bills to the president’s desk. Some argue he should unilaterally tackle major topics ranging from immigration to voting rights and criminal justice reform.
Numerous members voiced support for an uptick in executive orders ahead of November during the House Democrats’ conference in Philadelphia last week.
Executive orders can, of course, be reversed by subsequent presidents. So lawmakers tend to prefer legislation, which can only be altered in the legislative process.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, however, said the caucus plans to release a list of items it would like to see Biden tackle shortly, noting that the members “always prefer to have legislation.”
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“Certainly, there are a lot of areas where a) if we don’t get legislation, the administration could take action and b) the administration can take action to help move us more quickly towards the goals that we’re working on,” she told reporters.
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Raul Ruiz said that the group has “developed a strategy on executive orders” pertaining to immigration — a policy area Congress had struggled to come to a consensus on. The group plans to begin negotiating with the administration in the coming weeks, said Ruiz, a California Democrat. And House Majority Whip James Clyburn pointed to President Abraham Lincoln using the power of the pen to free slaves while making the case for certain executive actions.
“I did have a very extensive discussion on the extent to which the president may intercede on with executive orders,” said Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat. “I tend to remind people all the time, that before the 13th Amendment was passed, it was in summer 1865, slaves were freed in 1863 by executive order.”
While frustrations with the gridlock in Congress have led to an uptick in support within the party for executive orders, Democrats were at times critical of former President Donald Trump’s use of them. That included his decision to take executive action to provide coronavirus relief in 2020 without congressional approval. And Republicans are likely to launch similar accusations if Biden opts to take similar action, with GOP lawmakers blasting Biden’s executive orders related to the energy sector, arguing they are the reason behind rising gas prices.
“Through executive action after executive action, President Biden has taken NIMBYism to a global level. Oil from Iran and Venezuela is on the table, but not our own abundant domestic supply. #BidenPriceHike,” tweeted Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican.
Left-leaning outside groups have also ramped up pressure on the president to take executive action to cancel student debt, enact certain climate initiatives, and codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Indivisible, a progressive advocacy organization, recently launched a campaign calling for him to act.
“We’ve made it even easier for you to ask @POTUS to take bold executive action! Visit http://letsgojoe.indivisible.org and help make a difference *right now* with just a few clicks. President Biden can take action on critical issues with just his signature,” the group recently tweeted.
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Jim Manley, a former senior aide to late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said he believes pursuing parts of the party’s agenda could be beneficial via executive action, but he cautioned it needs to be done strategically.
“Such a strategy makes sense, both on policy and political grounds. I think it’s crucial for Democrats to continue to demonstrate their ability to get things done given that the legislative process is broken, and given the need to demonstrate the ability to get things done, I think that they need to really focus on this type of activity,” he told the Washington Examiner. “The problem, of course, is that the outside groups may push them a little too hard and they’re not going to get everything they want.”
