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"Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

whitehouse.gov

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Re: "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

#951

Post by ModernMech »

potato3732842 wrote: post #946
arunabha wrote: post #503

In general, people are going to interpret this EO with their own lens. Unsurprisingly, reasonable people may disagree on the merits of the EO as a whole. However this part of the EO is pretty concerning > 'The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch' and later > 'No employee of the executive bra…

>This can potentially enable an end run around congress and the courts in that the President can easily choose to interpret laws in a manner inconsistent with the intent of congress and courts Good. I hope they do so. Because if trump and friends do it it'll get struck down and precedent will be established. It will likely be too late to stop them, but it will stop the next guy. And the next guy may very well be some…

Why would the next guy abide if the current guy won’t?

Re: "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

#952

Post by fach »

wyldfire wrote: post #864
fach wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nuance here, based on the EO, is rank file and employees of these agencies must now rely on the sole interpretation of the law by either the president or the AG instead of themselves. These _were_ independent agencies who handled their own interpretation of the law. If you combine this EO with the Supreme Court immunity decision, there may very well be a situation where a rank and file employee acts illegally bas…

Seems like an enormous organizational challenge to even get through the queue of other US gov agency attorneys wanting to know the presidents opinion on just how many ppm of this particulate is allowed per the statute. Such that the new status quo will be no enforcement at all. And maybe that's just fine w this administration.

> Such that the new status quo will be no enforcement at all.

Or conditional enforcement, say for those who don't buy enough Trump meme coin.

Re: "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

#953

Post by nullc »

tptacek wrote: post #853
DannyBee wrote: post #843

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lawyer here. So i think this is all insane, and a power grab, to start out. But not because of these parts of this EO I think people are trying to assume this says "the president gets to ignore the courts and congress", but it, uh, doesn't actually say that anywhere. I would very conservatively guesstimate at least 50% of people assume trump will go that route, and so they assume this is the method by which he will d…

Did you see Walter Olson's Cato bit? I had the same take you have (I have associates that worked at FTC until recently, were familiar with the process, and pointed out basically the same thing --- that the independent agencies have so many DOJ touchpoints that the administration already has effective control). But Olson says the prospect of all the independent agencies needing to run their rulemaking processes throug…

I agree that part is the more substantive change, but OTOH it seems reasonable to me: Why would the president have less oversight over the regulatory acts the bodies he nominally (and constitutionally) supervises than he has over the laws passed by congress, by virtue of them passing his desk on the way to becoming law?

It might not be a wise change for him or his party, given that all changes to the practice and structure of government ought to be viewed through the lens of your worst opponent wielding them...

Re: "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

#954

Post by butler14 »

spacechild1 wrote: post #621
procaryote wrote: post #574

In many other countries people would take to the streets and protest until they get a new government if something like this happened. Perhaps you should try it?

Yes! Where are the mass protests? Take some inspiration from Serbia: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/01/student-led-pr... . I have been asking myself: what needs to happen until US citizens wake up and finally take it to the streets? In countries like Iran or Syria people have been protesting despite the danger of being tortured and/or killed. People in the US do not need to fear any of that, so what's hol…

10 years of indoctrination via social media and Fox News is holding them back, unfortunately

Re: "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

#955

Post by NotYourLawyer »

kelnos wrote: post #927
NotYourLawyer wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. Seems fine that the bureaucrats to whom executive power is delegated should be answerable to the executive.

They already are, via cabinet members and their deputies/undersecretaries. Those people are appointed by the president, but need to be confirmed by the Senate as a check on the president's power. Trump is doing another end run around the confirmation process with his "liaisons".

Well, some of them are, indirectly. But there are also those allegedly independent agencies (which, although maybe not a bad idea, is probably unconstitutional—we don’t have a fourth branch).

Re: "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

#956

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

ike2792 wrote: post #230
steveBK123 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the problem with people being OK with executive overreach when "their team" is in power. Eventually, and in fact about 50% of the time - the OTHER team is in power.. and may just push the overreach further. We should desire that the legislative side actually legislates and each branch of the government holds the other two in check, regardless of partisan control. Further having our judicial branch become open…

This is the crux of the issue. Executive power has been gradually expanded since at least the end of WWII, but things have accelerated since the early 00's. Think GWB's "signing statements" or Obama's "phone and pen." Trump I, Biden, and now Trump II have continued to push the limits, in part because of a desire for more power but also because Congress hasn't functioned as an institution in decades. Congress has pass…

I was reading a rocking history book (Dark Continent), and it argued that Germany had already lost democracy before Hitler, as basically all rules were done by the executive. Sent a shiver down my spine when I applied it to recent US presidents. (The book was written in 1998 fwiw, so not contaminated by current events).

Re: "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

#957

Post by insane_dreamer »

energy123 wrote: post #881
insane_dreamer wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally, this is still how it works in China today.

It's the Leninist model of governance which was the reason China was able to defy Western expectations that economic freedom would eventually lead to political freedom. But there is one difference which is that the Leninist model also involves party loyalists being appointed to corporations. The US isn't there yet.

Not yet, but now we have major corporate leaders very publicly aligning themselves with the party and in the case of Musk actively directing party policies.

Re: "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

#958

Post by stickfigure »

nostrebored wrote: post #859
stickfigure wrote: post #743

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My prediction was that Trump would abandon the Ukrainians and suck up to Putin, and as of today that's right on target. This calibration exercise is not reassuring at all.

Huge swathes of the country do not want to be involved in Ukraine. Positioning this as “sucking up to Putin” seems intentionally inflammatory.

Huge swaths of the country didn't want to be involved in WW1 and WW2 either. Look how well that worked out.
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