Biden administration officials are working against the clock, doling out billions in grants and taking other steps to try to preserve at least some of the president’s legacy in office ahead of the president-elect. Donald Trump takes office in January.

“Let’s Make Every Day Count,” President Joe Biden said in an address to the nation last week after the vice president Kamala Harris conceded defeat Trump in the presidential race.

Trump pledged to cancel unspent funds in Biden’s flagship climate and health bill and stop the development of clean energy projects.

“There is only one administration at a time,” the Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters at a news conference Thursday. “It is true now and it will be after January 20. Our responsibility is to make good use of the funds that Congress has authorized for us and that we have been responsible for appropriating and disbursing for the past three years.”

But Trump will control more than the purse strings come January. His administration may also propose new regulations to undo some of what the Biden administration did through the rulemaking process.

Here are some of the moves the Biden administration is making now:

Out door infrastructure spending

Biden administration officials hope that projects funded under the $1 trillion infrastructure law and the $375 billion climate law will last beyond Biden’s term and are working to make sure money from the landmark measures continues to flow.

On Friday, Buttigieg announced more than $3.4 billion in grants for projects to improve passenger rail service, help U.S. ports, reduce highway deaths and support domestic production of sustainable transportation materials.

“We’re investing in better transportation systems that reach every corner of the country and the workers who will manufacture materials and build projects,” he said. “Communities will see safer commutes, cleaner air and stronger supply chains that we all rely on.”

Acceleration of environmental objectives

Announcements of major environmental grants and project approvals have accelerated in recent months in what White House officials describe as a “sprint to the end” of Biden’s four-year term.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently established a nationwide lead pipe removal deadline and announced nearly $3 billion to help local water systems comply. The agency also announced that oil and gas companies will, for the first time, have to pay a federal tax if they emit dangerous methane above certain levels.

Meanwhile, the Department of Energy announced a $544 million loan to a Michigan company to expand production of high-quality silicon carbide wafers for electric vehicles. The loan is one of 28 deals totaling $37 billion under a clean energy loan program that was revived and expanded under Biden.

“There is a new urgency to get everything done. We see explosions of money going out the door,” he said Melinda Piercelegislative director of the Sierra Club. Biden and his allies “really want to finish the job they started.”

Aid to Ukraine

Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh He told reporters this week that Biden wants to “spend the authority that Congress appropriated and authorized before he left office. So we’re going to work really hard to make sure that happens.”

The Biden administration should rush $7.1 billion in weapons — $4.3 billion of the 2024 addition and $2.8 billion that is still being accounted for in savings due to the Pentagon’s recalculation of the value of the systems being sent — from Pentagon stockpiles to spend all those obligated funds before Trump takes the oath of office.

Another $2.2 billion is still available to put weapons systems on long-term contracts. However, recent aid packages have been much smaller in size, around $200 million to $300 million each.

the secretary of defense Lloyd Austin said the funds are already obligated, which should make it harder to take because the next administration would have to reverse that.

Pressure to quickly confirm judicial elections

Another priority for the White House is getting Senate confirmation of as many federal judges as possible before Trump’s January 20 inauguration.

The Senate voted 51-44 this week to confirm the former prosecutor April Perry as a judge for the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois. More than a dozen pending judicial nominees they left the Senate Judiciary Committee; eight judicial nominations await committee votes and six await committee hearings.

Trump urged Republicans to oppose efforts to confirm judicial nominees. “No judge should be approved during this time period as Democrats seek to line up their judges while Republicans vie for leadership,” he wrote on social media site X on Nov. 10, before for congressional Republicans to choose their new leaders.

Student Loan Forgiveness

The Department of Education rushed to finalize a new federal rule that would cancel student loans for people experiencing financial hardship. The proposal — one of Biden’s only student loan plans that hasn’t been stopped by federal courts — is in a public comment period scheduled to end Dec. 2.

After that, the Department would have a narrow window to finalize the rule and begin enforcing it, a process that typically takes months. Like Biden’s other efforts, it would almost certainly face a legal challenge.

In addition, the Biden administration has room to speed up student loan cancellations for people who were already promised aid because they were defrauded by their colleges, he said Aaron Amentan Education Department official for the Obama administration and president of the National Student Legal Defense Network.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona could decide that case and others rather than hand them over to the Trump administration, which is expected to be much friendlier to for-profit colleges. “It’s a no-brainer,” Ament said. “There are a good number of cases that have been sitting on Cardona’s desk. It is hard to imagine that they would simply be left untouched.”

Trump hasn’t said yet what would they do with student loan forgiveness. However, he and Republicans criticized Biden’s efforts.

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Reprinted with permission of The Associated Press.

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