Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Business

Biden’s Business Order Shows How He’s Using Executive Power to Shape Economy

Biden’s Business Order Shows How He’s Using Executive Power to Shape Economy

President Biden’s sweeping order Friday seeking to spur competition and curb the power of big business highlights his willingness to use the presidential pen to rewrite economic policy, sidestepping a divided Congress unlikely to enact his most ambitious proposals.

In his first six months in office, Mr. Biden has been more aggressive than recent predecessors in turning to executive orders and actions as he seeks to overhaul Washington’s approach to everything from climate change to racial equity.

The Friday action was unusually broad, even by recent standards, in directing at one time more than a dozen agencies to explore 72 actions touching an array of issues, including expanding labor rights, lowering prescription drug prices, restricting airline fees, and giving bank customers more flexibility to change accounts.

The order is the culmination of a steady trend over the past two decades of presidents from both parties turning to executive authority as gridlock on Capitol Hill has blocked them from legislating core parts of their agenda.

“We’ve seen during the last four presidencies, going back to the second Bush administration, an uptick in the number of executive orders, especially in the early parts of the administrations,” said Dan Bosch, director of regulatory policy for American Action Forum, a right-leaning Washington think tank. “It’s a recognition by presidents that they need to act on their own to get things moving in the direction they want.”

You May Also Like

World

France, which has opened its borders to Canadian tourists, is eager to see Canada reopen to the French. The Canadian border remains closed...

Health

Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario is experiencing a “deepening state of emergency” as a result of surging COVID-19 cases in the community...

World

The virus that causes COVID-19 could have started spreading in China as early as October 2019, two months before the first case was identified in the central city of Wuhan, a new study...

World

April Ross and Alix Klineman won the first Olympic gold medal for the United States in women’s beach volleyball since 2012 on Friday,...