Biden’s team pushes to get money out the door in final weeks

It’s amazing, but Trump would block this spending from Biden’s programs even though it helps red states.

Late on the afternoon of Nov. 13, about a week after Vice President Kamala Harris’s devastating election loss, President Joe Biden got on a phone call with about 2,000 appointees across the federal government, hoping to ensure that the final weeks of his presidency did not go to waste.

“I know it’s a difficult time. I’m sure you’re all feeling a variety of emotions,” Biden said. “But I hope there’s one emotion you don’t lose sight of: pride in all we’ve accomplished together.”

The call, according to a Biden aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting, was in part aimed at motivating despondent employees who worried that their work would rapidly be undone. Biden and his aides have concluded that they have few ways to block President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to upend agencies and shatter norms, but there is one big thing they can do: focus their final weeks on getting billions of dollars out the door to finish implementing Biden’s signature pieces of legislation.

The president’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, told employees on the call that the final two months of Biden’s term would be focused on “execution, execution, execution,” in addition to the peaceful transfer of power.

Biden’s White House team recognizes that there is not enough time to pass new laws before he leaves office and that other actions, such as issuing a flurry of executive orders, could be immediately overturned by Trump after he takes office. But the most sweeping parts of Biden’s domestic agenda were enshrined by Congress, making them harder for Trump to stymie.

In the president’s first two years in office, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package; the Inflation Reduction Act, a sprawling bill to lower prescription drug costs and address global warming; the Chips and Science Act, which provides $52 billion to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry; and a $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve the nation’s roads, bridges and broadband.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to upend most of Biden’s policies, focusing for example on such climate provisions as tax credits for people who want to purchase electric vehicles and incentives for companies to build charging stations.

But White House officials say the administration has announced awardees for about 98 percent of the funding provided by the four bills through fiscal 2024, and they plan to use the time they have left to distribute what remains and finalize a series of contracts. The administration has about $46 billion worth of funds remaining that became available in fiscal 2025.

“We have already announced investments for 74,000 infrastructure and clean energy projects, catalyzed nearly $1 trillion in private sector investment, lowered prescription drug prices, and created 1.6 million construction and manufacturing jobs,” deputy White House chief of staff Natalie Quillian said in a statement. “Over the coming months, we will continue to run through the tape and ensure Americans benefit from President Biden’s agenda for years to come.”

Still, about $303 billion — the vast majority of it in the bipartisan infrastructure law — cannot be spent until fiscal 2025 or later, leaving it to Trump and his deputies to finish seeing it through.

Trump could urge his Republican allies in Congress to repeal big chunks of Biden’s legislative agenda. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said before the election that Republicans might rescind parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, for instance. But such goals could prove elusive, as Republicans will have only a razor-thin majority in the House and a modest 53-47 advantage in the Senate.

In addition, the White House cannot withhold funds already appropriated by Congress; only lawmakers themselves can rescind those funds.

President Joe Biden is also requesting nearly $100 billion in emergency disaster aid after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and other natural disasters, telling lawmakers that the money is “urgently needed.”

Biden said he has met firsthand with those harmed by the storms and he heard what residents and businesses needed from the federal government.

“Additional resources are critical to continue to support these communities,” Biden said.

Federal lawmakers from North Carolina repeatedly urged Biden to send Congress a request for more money for the victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, and U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards led a bipartisan group of members of Congress in sending a letter to Biden this week.

The group – made up of lawmakers from Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina – requested that the Office of Management and Budget immediately send a supplemental appropriation request to Congress to support the communities they represent, which were devastated after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

With many Republicans campaigning on reducing federal spending, there could be some debate about portions of Biden’s request. The federal government doesn’t help with every disaster. It generally gets involved only if the needs are above the ability of a community or state to handle.

U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said he opposes the aid package requested by the president because it’s not offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

“This is a spending spree,” Norman said.

Biden noted that Congress had provided more than $90 billion in aid after Hurricane Katrina nearly two decades ago, and more than $50 billion after Hurricane Sandy in 2013. He urged Congress to take “immediate action.”

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump has promised to unravel much of Biden’s foreign policy, and the incoming president, along with Vice President-elect JD Vance and a growing number of other Republicans, oppose providing more aid to Kyiv. Instead, they have made clear that they favor a negotiated settlement, with Ukraine probably having to give up territory.

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters, said Ukraine could be in a difficult position in a few months when the current funding and weapons run out. The country does not have enough manpower on the battlefield, the official said, and Kyiv has so far been unwilling to enact laws that would require some men to be drafted to the military.

Concern about Ukraine’s prospects — and the presence of North Korean troops inside Russia — prompted Biden to reverse himself in recent days and allow Ukraine to fire American long-range weapons deeper into Russia and to authorize the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Kyiv.

For now, “their ammunition supplies are fine,” the official said of Ukraine. “But if they run out in four or five months, or get more scarce because the surge of aid we’re doing starts to peter out, it’ll be a pretty tough position. Then you’ll have manpower and ammunition problems.”

The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed with only Democratic votes and includes roughly $370 billion to curb harmful emissions and promote green technology, also could be a top target of the new Trump administration.

Most of the IRA’s funding and contracts have been awarded, and Trump officials would need to engage in extensive, complex maneuvers to undo any that have not been finalized, said a senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing process.

Still, Trump’s advisers have been exploring nontraditional ways to cut spending without having to go through Congress. Among other things, they are weighing whether to challenge a 1974 budget law by asserting that the president can make a broader range of unilateral spending decisions.

Trump could also target the IRA’s climate provisions by urging congressional Republicans to rescind some of the tax breaks that the legislation provided for businesses and consumers who adopt green technology.

More broadly, much of Biden’s agenda has at least some Republican support, and many of its programs benefit red states as much as blue states, if not more. Democrats hope that reality will protect Biden’s accomplishments, as Trump may want to let the money roll out and take credit for projects that come online during his presidency.

The Chips Act and the infrastructure law in particular have attracted significant bipartisan support.

The Chips Act devotes billions of dollars to boosting domestic manufacturing, an avowed priority of Trump’s. The Biden administration has announced preliminary agreements with about two dozen companies to receive the funding and is planning to finalize many of them before the end of Biden’s term, the White House official said.

Reneging on such agreements, even if Trump wanted to, could be politically costly; many of the investments are set to go to Republican-leaning states such as Arizona, Texas and Ohio. Beyond that, a signed agreement can be canceled only if the recipient is found in breach of contract.

As for the infrastructure bill, most of the roughly $288 billion that has yet to be spent has already been incorporated into states’ budgets for items such as roads, bridges and clean water, making it politically and logistically difficult to reverse. Already, even some Republicans who opposed the infrastructure law have been touting its investments in their communities.

But just in case, many agencies are moving to ensure all of the available money is out the door before the new administration takes over.

On Tuesday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration approved Texas’s plan to spend $3.3 billion to improve its internet networks. Texas was the last of the 56 U.S. states and territories waiting for a green light from the agency, and Alan Davidson, the NTIA’s top official, said it is on track to ensure that all $42.5 billion provided by the infrastructure law for expanding internet access will be committed by year’s end.

Davidson also said the agency is on track to accept applications for the $800 million set aside for digital equity programs, which help people in disadvantaged communities afford computers and learn to use the internet. The NTIA is likely to announce more decisions about internet funding for tribal lands before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

“We’re approaching this with the same sense of urgency we’ve had throughout the duration of all these programs,” Davidson said. “We’re laser-focused on the work of getting everybody in the country connected.”

Davidson says he is “optimistic” that the Trump administration will continue to prioritize broadband connectivity, although Republicans have criticized NTIA for being too slow and bureaucratic in its deployment of the funds.