Executive Branch

A 38-car train wreck. Toxic chemicals seeping into water and soil, and a black plume rising in the sky. Sick people, sick pets. As the Prospect’s Jarod Facundo wrote last week, the national spotlight remains fixed on the ecological consequences of the February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.

In the context of this ecological disaster, arguing for a reduced budget for federal investigators, air and water quality testing, and programs that hold polluting corporations accountable for proper cleanup and restitution is sheer madness. But that’s exactly what the current right-wing push for massive government spending cuts in the name of deficit reduction would entail.

For two years, Secretary Buttigieg elected not to block airlines from charging extra for parents and guardians to sit with their kids. This month the White House stepped in.

There’s no reason for Maloney to wield power or influence over federal politics for the foreseeable future, and certainly no reason to promote him to Labor Secretary.

In all, these look like the moves of a White House trying to endear itself to big business, now that the Democratic trifecta is gone.

In a Judiciary Committee hearing last Thursday, Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) seemed to assert that Casey T. Arrowood, President Biden’s initial pick for US Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, would not be renominated in the new session of Congress.

President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address is next Tuesday. Amid an uprising sparked by yet another horrific video of police violence, deep uncertainty about U.S. fiscal and monetary policy, and continuing wars and threats around the world, the nation — or at least, the politics junkies in the nation — will gather to hear the President lay out his agenda to a Congress absolutely no one reasonably expects will deliver on it, or likely even take it all that seriously.

It’s only natural to infer that Sylvia Burwell would bring Rubin’s values and vision back to the NEC, if given the job.

Zients owes his entire public-policy career to his corporate worldview and connections, which have remained strikingly consistent for over a decade—exactly in keeping with his pre-government history.

Watered-down White House tenant protection measures are a victory for big real estate and private equity lobbyists.

It was a slow fall for independent agency nominations as Senators left chambers for their campaigns and the Biden administration stood paralyzed in anticipation of the midterm Red Wave That Wasn’t. 

As a businessman, Jeffrey Zients embodied much of the corporate misconduct the executive branch ought to be cracking down on.

Pete Buttigieg’s personnel choices were certainly a factor.