Donald Trump

Trump Administration Speeds Up ‘Midnight Rule-Making,' Creating Hurdles for Biden

The administration's last-minute rules include contentious proposals that President-elect Joe Biden is likely to oppose

Al Drago | Getty Images

Since Election Day, the Trump administration has completed dozens of new regulations in a final flurry of rule-making, including restrictions on access to asylum, reduced wages for guest farmworkers and a rejection of stricter limits for soot emissions, despite a growing body of evidence that soot pollution is contributing to premature death, NBC News reports.

The White House has made a concerted push to finish new rules before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, despite President Donald Trump’s ongoing refusal to accept the election results. Once rules are finalized and take effect, undoing them is usually a time-consuming and labor-intensive process.

The recent bout of "midnight rule-making" — a practice common to administrations of both parties — includes contentious proposals that Biden is likely to oppose.

Since Election Day, the Trump administration has issued about three to four times as many new regulations as it did during other periods of Trump’s presidency — similar to the rush of midnight rule-making under previous presidents, according to an analysis by Daniel Perez, senior policy analyst at George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center. And there could be a final push in January to complete rules before Biden’s inauguration.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com.

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