We have a nominee, folks. With Senator Bernie Sanders’ departure from the race yesterday, Biden’s victory became official. And with that, corporate America and progressives begin the fight to shape his potential presidency.
2020 (and Potentially 2021)
Basic math suggests that Biden will need the votes of some young people to clinch the presidency this fall. That might require making some concessions on issues that matter most to voters under the age of 45, a demographic with which he struggled in the primaries. Some youth-led progressive groups are already suggesting their price. Mere hours after Sanders’ announcement yesterday, a coalition of organizations - including Justice Democrats, March for Our Lives Action Fund, Sunrise Movement and others - issued a set of demands for the newly coronated nominee. Crucially, they included substantive asks on personnel. The groups requested that Biden commit to:
Appointing politicians who had endorsed Senator Sanders or Senator Warren to be co-chairs of his transition team (i.e., the group that begins identifying personnel and early executive branch priorities for a potential administration); and
“bring[ing] on advisers from the policy teams of Gov. Jay Inslee, Sanders, Warren, union leaders Bonnie Castillo, Mary Kay Henry, and Sara Nelson, as well as leading criminal justice reformers.”
The groups also asked that Biden “pledge to appoint zero current or former Wall Street executives or corporate lobbyists, or people affiliated with the fossil fuel, health insurance or private prison corporations, to [his] transition team, advisor roles, or cabinet.”
The letter (which you can read in full here) reflects a sophisticated understanding of executive power that is sadly all too rare among political actors.
Concerns that Biden might appoint conflicted individuals are well-founded. From his corporately-connected advisers to his donors and bundlers, Biden has maintained close ties to many industries that are in need of much heavier-handed regulation. And K Street has celebrated his rise. As we laid out in a blog post last week, there is also ample reason to worry that Biden’s administration of bailout programs could further enrich a select few at the broader public’s expense. Biden ought to be clear that none of his donors from the hotel, casino, and airline industry will have a place in his administration.
Congressional Oversight
Despite our frequent, nay incessant, pleas, House Democratic leadership never really abandoned its oversight skepticism. Now, we are seeing the consequences of that refusal. As we waxed poetic about oversight’s many benefits throughout 2019, we often mentioned, but did not emphasize, its importance in the legislative process. After all, it seemed unlikely that much major legislating would occur any time before January of 2021.
But then, coronavirus happened. Suddenly, bills are passing at a dizzying rate, and House Democrats have found themselves ill-prepared to legislate around this lawless administration. The stimulus laws thus far have reflected little understanding of the government officials or the agencies that stand between lofty ideals and real-life execution. The accountability mechanisms are laughable while the tasks before beleaguered organizations like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) are nearly insurmountable under current conditions.
It is hard to imagine a party which had performed meaningful oversight, and thus one that was fully cognizant of the challenges and threats facing the executive branch, would have supported such legislation. Rather than merely accepting the Senate package, House Democrats could have meaningfully advanced a House bill with accountability mechanisms that circumvented Trump’s discretionary powers. Even if they didn’t get everything they wanted, given their position of leverage, they surely could have extracted some more meaningful concessions.
But they didn’t and there’s no changing that now. House Democrats can, however, commit to aggressive oversight moving forward. We’ve started a running Twitter thread of worthy targets for that oversight. Last week, Nancy Pelosi provided some reason for hope when she announced the formation of a special House committee for bailout oversight. Unfortunately, soon afterwards, the committee’s chair, Jim Clyburn undercut our optimism when he announced that the committee would be “forward looking” and not concern itself with the administration’s missteps up to this point. How can you fix the CDC, FDA, OMB, NSC, and the rest of the alphabet soup of Trump’s failures going forward without looking… backward?
Independent Agencies
We will say it until we’re blue in the face: independent agencies do not get enough attention relative to their importance to our collective safety and well-being. Last week, our Andrea Beaty published a piece in the American Prospect about a tragic illustration of that animating principle.
Federal officials foresaw the possibility of severe ventilator shortages years ago and took steps to prepare. In 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services contracted with a small company to produce a stockpile of ventilators cheaply. Before the company could deliver its first batch, however, a larger company bought it up and cancelled the contract. Most disturbingly, officials at the FTC concluded that this merger didn’t even require a second review. Beaty carefully examines the figures involved in the decision, charting their path through the revolving door and illustrating its frightening implications.
In addition to examining past personnel, we are also closely monitoring independent agency leadership in real time with the Agency Spotlight and our monthly updates on topline statistics. This month, although Trump nominated more independent agency officials than normal, he disproportionately advanced candidates for Republican seats. As a result, the partisan imbalance in pending nominations has grown more severe. Currently, there are 16 pending nominations for 28 vacant or expired Republican seats versus 7 for 29 Democratic ones.
Across the board, vacancies persist. 41 seats (out of the 174 we track) are vacant. 28 seats are expired, meaning that 69 seats in total are in need of nominations. Of those, only 28 have pending nominations.
Want more? Check out some of the pieces that we have published or contributed research or thoughts to in the last couple of weeks:
Congress Must Have Skipped the First Three Seasons of Trump Reality Show
The Men and Women Who Shrank the U.S. Ventilator Supply
What Will Feds Do About Corporate Bailout Bill Corruption? Look To Walmart's Opioid Case
Jared Kushner is the point man for private profiteering on the coronavirus response
Which Bailed Out Industries Have a Shortcut to Biden World?
March 2020 Update on the State of Independent Federal Agencies
Yes, Trump Hotels Do Appear to Qualify for Coronavirus Bailout Benefits
BigLaw Jobs Are The Most Popular Next Step For Ex-FTC Antitrust Lawyers
Biden's rise in primary calms nerves on K Street
Treasury Department works to fix glitches in small business loan program