Among the do-nothing puffery from the White House this week is Donald Trump’s executive order telling Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to review education policies and get rid of anything that doesn’t comply with federal law.
Hmm… groundbreaking, or simply restating the status quo?
In an executive order, Trump granted DeVos authority to get rid of K-12 education regulations that don’t comport with federal law. A top U.S. Education Department official admitted, however, that DeVos already has this authority.
…[DeVos advisor Rob] Goad said Wednesday’s executive order “puts an end to this overreach,” giving DeVos the power “to modify anything that is inconsistent with federal law,” though he admitted that she is already empowered to do that [Greg Toppo, “Trump Orders DeVos to Get Rid of ‘Overreaching Mandates’ in Schools,” USA Today, 2017.04.26].
Trump’s order that the Department of Education follow federal law suggests another Trumpian governing philosophy: the rule of law is subordinate to the rule of man, so Trump’s people should follow the law only when Trump tells them to.
Georgia has open carry laws, but our coward in chief forbids guns at the NRA event. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/27/politics/secret-service-trump-nra-guns/ If you love the guns, allow them at your hotels and where you are speaking, What kind of messaging is this? Next thing you know he will blame Obama or Hillary or the women in general.
She can’t wave her witch wand to get rid of regulations that she thinks don’t comport with federal law. She has to go through certain administrative procedures, including public notice, public hearings, and public comment. The Federal Register is where you can find out about changes to federal rules in all the federal departments and agencies. The Federal Register is on line. I use it a lot to keep track of a lot of issues. Most important is knowing what is up for public comment. I submit comments. Federal agencies are required to respond to every comment at the draft regulatory stage.
What are the chances they abide by the constitution and stop giving federal bucks to charter, religious and other schools not provided for in the constitution?
Mr. Pay is correct. This Trump behavior is pure theater, a lot like professional wrestling with its fake villains (unlawful regulations) and fake heroes (Trump and sidekick Betsy).
More than half of the 29 EO’s signed by Don the Con, are nothing more than “reviews”. This is what we have to live with in the era of a reality TV show President. Dog and pony shows. Tic marks on a page.
This kind of schtick probably works on The Apprentice, Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor (and so many other reality TV shows) but it is no way to run a country. It is ridiculous.
Good article here, that includes the DeVos/Dept of Education EO that you’ve noted, Cory:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-executive-orders-are-signed-with-fanfare–but-they-deliver-little-punch/2017/04/27/cff5a638-2a9d-11e7-be51-b3fc6ff7faee_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.9e4dd628f093
bcb, your professional wrestling analogy is spot on. Here may be the reason for your observation https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/12/07/linda-mcmahon-wife-of-wwe-billionaire-vincent-mcmahon-is-trumps-pick-to-head-his-small-business-administration/#6926496f1750 Ol Linda is just another in the long line of 565 billionaires that paid big money to trump to ruin the United States in the name of “helping” the wretched poor to follow the laws. Devos and here evil family tossed in millions to conquer, Ol Linda tossed in 6 million. The government is for sale to all that has the bucks or rubles.
I don’t know if this is the situation or not but I’ll give you a Governor Mickelson example.
As you know, state government (and the federal government) operate under the Constitution (stable), legislative law (can change regularly), administrative law (usually adopted upon a change in legislative authority and then relatively stable mostly by inertia).
One of the first thing Mickelson asked every agency to do is prepare a long-term strategic plan (included an assessment of programs/divisions that could be expanded and others to be shrunk by the the changing needs of the citizenry). Part of that was an evaluation of legislation and administrative rules that needed to be changed. What was discovered that over the years tweaks/changes in legislation had made many administrative rules out of step either directly or indirectly or cumbersome against the legislation.
In many if not most cases, the agencies knew the administrative rules in conflict should be ignored but they were never taken off the books and sometimes the public didn’t understand certain rules no longer were in force (confusion). In a the rarest cases, the agency didn’t understand a particular law impacted the administrative rule so it was still followed.
So, Mickelson ordered each agency to “scrub” their administrative laws. While our agency was new and had few rules, it didn’t affect us. But there was much bar talk about what was discovered, some that went back to the Depression. Rules were still listed as in force but their legislative authority was gone. Rules which were being inadvertently used in violation of legislation (mostly because the increments added up over decades). And, there was some legislation which had insufficient administrative rules. Nothing was significant but it was like a good house-cleaning (something which might never have been done before so there was dust and must).
I wouldn’t overreact to this on either side. I don’t think it political against prior administrations or significant to any Trump Agenda. I think it just the boss saying “focus on cleaning out the attic.”
Troy, that’s a good example of how nefarious the government can be, and how careful people need to watch.
Sure, the code needed updating. Part of the “scrubbing” of outdated laws were these massive and unconstitutional (not one subject) annual bills meant to shed “obsolete” provisions of the code. These were essentially 100-page Christmas tree bills. Probably 95 percent of the text was to repeal outdated laws. The other 5 percent of these bills, tucked in amongst the antiquated language, were significant policy changes.
The first two years people just took Governor Mickelson’s word for it. They didn’t want to read that monstrosity. I was one of them who just glanced at it, skimmed a few sections and filed it away.
Tucked into that bill was the total repeal of the 1984 Nuclear Waste Vote Initiative. It wasn’t outdated at that point, three years after passage. In fact, it could have been slightly amended to fit current controversies on nuclear waste in South Dakota.
@DonPay … Thanks for the 411 on the Federal Register.
@DonPay … double thanks, sir. What a highly impressive website. Has anyone heard the gov’t can’t do anything right? WRONG!! I subscribed to receive e-mails from a gov’t dept. I’m interested in and whenever a change is submitted for public approval it’ll come to me, also. Outstanding. I’ll bet Democrats built this site. We’ve all observed how Republicans, in D.C. and in SoDak struggle mightily with the task of drafting even simple legislation. Dem’s are builders. Repub’s can only sit in their outhouses and complain about the price of progress.
Of course Dems built it. Wingnuts just give stuff away. Wingnuts are like termites in a new house. Wingnuts are like party time termites in a new house.
Good one , Mike. Party time termites. 🐛
Glad to be of assistance, Porter. The Federal Register has been in existence for many decades. I first started using it in the 1970s when it was just a paper copy that came as reference material to many libraries. Now it’s online, and user friendly. If you want to follow an agency or how an agency is handling an issue, The Federal Register is invaluable.
You’re welcome. The things you post on FreePress are highly relevant, interesting and always appropriate.
I second Porter’s comment.
Donald,
First, I’m sure what you are referring to and what I am came out of the same process. That said, I’m referring to Admin Rules changes which have always been within the authority of the Executive Branch to change. I think what you are referring to was the code cleanup (which had to go through the legislature).
Second, I don’t know the specifics to which you refer (you do as this is an area in which you have expertise) but one person’s “outdated” and another’s “slightly amended” can be honest disagreements without anything nefarious. It was alot of work and with anything I’m sure mistakes were made. But the idea it was done in secret or something like that is not true. It was a two year process whereby anyone (including you) could have reviewed stuff before they happened, including the code changes submitted to the legislature (remember back then, the Democrats were much more prevalent in the Legislature.).
Third, as you know Mickelson though was a driver (liked to say let’s move at “ramming speed”) so I will concede with no specific knowledge somethings happened which weren’t intended and others didn’t which were intended because there was pressure to get it done. Mickelson wasn’t one to ever let the pursuit of perfection stop “good enough” from happening. At the same time, there were literally hundreds of people around state government from all levels and political persuasions involved. It is impossible to pull off a conspiracy with so many people.